Low Impact Landscaping in a Maryland HOA, part 2

In part 1 of this post, I listed four common turf maintenance actions that greatly impact the environment. The stats I found blew my mind. I spent the next week angry every time I heard a lawnmower. I’ve calmed down, and I’m now ready to discuss alternative, environmentally-friendly lawn maintenance.

Problem one: Gas-powered lawn equipment releases more pollutants than cars do.

The mitigation strategy here is simple: don’t use gas-powered lawn equipment. Unfortunately, electric mowers and leaf blowers are a luxury at their current cost.

Our front lawn is small enough that we use manual tools most of the time—a reel mower, Japanese sickles, and a machete. It’s a good workout and rather cathartic. But if my health takes a dip, impossible to do. (Note that we’ve only had to trim our lawn five times this year due to our other maintenance actions, or lack thereof.)

The real solution is to decrease high-maintenance turf areas to only what is necessary. Turf grass is still the best solution for things like athletic fields and park areas with a lot of foot traffic, but it’s really not necessary in a cosmetic lawn. That space could be planted with ornamental plants, a ground cover, or, at minimum, just allowed to grow longer (not a great option if you’re fighting invasive plants, but not as bad as most people picture.)

Problem Two: Overuse of fertilizer, and carbon-costly manufacture of synthetic fertilizer, pollute our air and drinking water (which is generally not treated for it.)

For any plant to grow, it must have nutrients. In a typical ecosystem, the plants swell and die back as their cycle has evolved to do. Grass takes up nutrients through its roots, sending it through the blade to grow and fulfill its purpose of survival and reproduction. As growth conditions wane, the blade falls back and decays—returning its nutrients to the soil.

Common turf management cuts the growth period, literally. Grass is forced to regenerate its blade again and again, then raked away without nutrients returning to the soil. Rather than develop deeper roots that encourage long-term survival, all its energy is used on Sisyphean blade regrowth. Therefore, turf maintenance requires constant fertilization and soil amendments (also because it’s very unlikely that the grass species is native to the continent it’s grown in and requires specific soil changes.)

This problem has one of the simplest solutions: don’t use fertilizer unless absolutely necessary, and use organic fertilizer when you do. The rest of the time, keep your grass at a minimum of 4 inches (this also helps shade out weeds), never cut more than a quarter of the blade off, and leave the cut ends to decay back into the soil. That’s what we do, and our lawn is still deep green in this heat wave while neighbors with traditional lawns have dead areas.

Problem Three: Treated drinking water is used to keep grass, instead of humans, alive.

I’m still boggling at the amount of water Americans use on their lawns. I think people are beginning to wake up to the problem of a water shortage. I hope. Unfortunately, this is going to fatally cost impoverished communities long before more comfortable communities care to change.

Solution: ban turf lawns At a minimum, keep turf grass at least 4 inches tall and mow less often so grass can developer deeper roots. Ideally, replace turf with local ecotype native plants when possible. Plants that evolved to live in your region are used to its weather patterns and rainfall, and require less watering. Of course, climate change is causing issues with changing weather patterns, but a local ecotype will still be better equipped to adapt. When you do need to water, use rainwater harvested from your roof runoff.

Problem Four: Pesticides (including herbicides) are used unnecessarily and cause cascading damage long after their application.

Pesticide application in cosmetic lawns is very rarely necessary. Unwanted plants should be removed manually first, with targeted herbicide as a last and measured resort. Bugs can be managed with a variety of integrated management techniques, sometimes as simply as allowing natural predators to feed on them.

A growing body of evidence in scientific literature shows that pesticide exposure can adversely affect neurological, respiratory, immune, and endocrine systems in humans, even at low levels. Children are especially sensitive to pesticide exposure because they (1) take up more pesticides (relative to their body weight) than do adults, and (2) have developing organ systems that are more vulnerable to pesticide impacts and less able to detoxify harmful chemicals. Fortunately, there are proven safe, effective, and affordable ways to maintain attractive lawns and playing fields without the use of toxic pesticides.

Read more at Beyond Pesticides.

I hope this gives you ideas for cutting back on the impact your turf lawn may be having on your environment. My environment, too! We’re all in this together.

If you feel you must have a turf lawn, please consider reducing the size as much as possible. Keep it a tiny bit higher, mow it less often, and use natural solutions to address issues. None of these low-impact landscaping actions should violate existing HOA regulations.

This post’s hero image created by ChatGPT, powered by Azure OpenAI Service. This image was generated using Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure, which is designed with a commitment to environmental sustainability. Microsoft aims to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency in their data centers, contributing to a greener planet. Additionally, Microsoft Azure’s AI data centers employ innovative waterless cooling technology to further minimize environmental impact and conserve water resources. Read more about Microsoft’s sustainability goals and progress.