GreenYour.com

While a lush green lawn typifies the suburban ideal, the time and money—not to mention the ecological cost—of maintaining a lawn has led many homeowners to replace at least part of their lawn with other forms of landscaping, which can be just as beautiful.

How to reduce the size of your lawn

While you may be decreasing the size of your lawn, in this case less is more—more colors and textures, more areas for recreation and entertaining, and more wildlife habitat.

• Plant a hedge. The least-used parts of your lawn are most likely on the edge of your property. Create privacy and visual interest by planting a "tapestry hedge" with mixed shrubs.[1]
• Build a pond, patio, or island bed in the center of your lawn. Create a visual focal point, a place for entertaining, or a habitat for attracting wildlife.[2]
• Create a tree island. If you have one or more trees in the middle of your yard, chances are the grass that grows underneath isn't that healthy. Why not plant ground cover, perennials, or woodland plants under your tree instead?[3]
• Devote part of your yard to wildflowers, drought-tolerant grasses, and other native plantings. Practice xeriscaping using plants to replace part of your water-hungry lawn.[4]
• Plant a ground cover to replace some of your lawn. Ground covers are great on slopes, in shaded areas under trees, and in the front yard where a lawn is less apt to be used for recreational purposes.

Find it! Lawn alternatives

Reducing the size of your lawn helps you go green because…

• It saves precious water.
• It avoids monoculture, lessening the need for harmful chemical pesticides.
• It reduces the amount of time spent mowing, which cuts down on air pollution.

Maintaining a lawn takes time and money—about $700 per acre annually—leading many homeowners to try alternatives such as replacing at least part of their lawn with ground cover or other types of landscaping. A smaller lawn also cuts down on lawnmower emissions.[5]

There are about 31.6 million acres of turf—almost 50,000 square miles—in the US. Lawns (residential and commercial, as well as golf courses) could be considered the single largest irrigated crop in America in terms of surface area, occupying three times more land than is devoted to irrigated corn. About 200 gallons of fresh water per person per day would be required to provide adequate water for the nation’s lawn surface area.[6]

A lawnmower used for one hour creates as much air pollution as a car driven for 20 miles. Each year in the US, $5.2 billion is spent on fossil fuel-based lawn fertilizers; 67,000,000 pounds of synthetic lawn pesticides are applied; and 580 million gallons of gasoline are used in lawnmowers. Depending on the city, 30 to 60 percent of fresh water in urban areas is used to water lawns.[7]

Glossary

• monoculture: The growth of a single crop on the same piece of land.
• xeriscape: A landscaping method originally developed for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation).

External links

• LessLawn.com Choose from all sorts of lawn alternatives to shrink the size of your lawn.
• The Master Gardeners - Alternative to Traditional Lawns Learn how to gradually reduce the size of your lawn—with minimal effort—from a Maryland Master Gardener.
• The Master Gardeners - Honey, I'm not going to cut the lawn this year Read one man's story about his wife's decision to stop mowing the lawn and let it go "wild."