If you've got a lawn or a neighbor with a lawn, a lawn mower is probably your weekend soundtrack. A small price to pay, along with the $45 billion a year Americans spend on landscaping, to keep their lawn trim and sparkling, Kentucky blue-grass green.
But not everyone loves the lawn anymore. Critics say it comes with huge costs and consequences for our environment, and maybe our health.
Listen to On Point discussion about the American lawn and whether it's great or a green monster.
Are you a lawn lover, or something else? Can you picture American neighborhoods carpeted any other way?
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Comments: 8
Up here I don’t need to water the lawn much, as the heat is less and waiting for a storm is fine.
Also the City of St Cloud says to mow your lawn up high and to keep it high to conserve water, which is also what I do.
A little more than half of my yard has enough light for grass to grow, the rest is native plants.
I use one of those old style rotary mowers, I noticed that these are now the best sellers on-line. A grass whip is another absolute necessity if you don't use a regular mower.
We have a lot of lavender and Russian sage which attracts bees, which is good for the veges.
This fall the rest of the lawn is going to be ripped up. More herbs, flowers and vegetables beds.
Some of the neighbors are giving us strange looks some love it.
Lawns are a waist of water and they do nothing but promote pests such as lawn grubs and Japanese beetles.
Flowers promote bees which in turn pollinate our food.
Less lawns and more raised beds!
Cover it with cardboard in the fall just before the first frost.
Then put a layer of manure or compost on it say two or more inches.
leave it till late spring. Rent a rototiller and you will have some rich soil
to plant what ever you want.
The cardboard kills the grass which then is compost in the spring.
If you do this in the spring which is better, you can plant potatoes in the compost.
After the fall turn the soil.