An Excerpt from:
How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass: A North American Guide to Turning Off the Water Tap and Going Native (2002)

by Carole Rubin

Carole Rubin has spent 20 years lobbying for reform of pesticide laws and promoting organic alternatives to harmful chemicals for home and industrial use, and is the author of the bestselling How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass.  She lives on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.

CHAPTER ONEFACT:

Water, Water, Everywhere

Five Facts And A Truth:

THE FACTS FIRST:

NOW THE TRUTH: LAWNS SUCK WATER!

Conventional turf-grass lawns and ornamental exotic gardens (gardens that are planted with species that are planted with species that originated in different climates) are responsible for consuming 60% of daily domestic drinking water used in North America.  Sixty percent of the one half of 1% of the plant’s available, clean drinking water.

Just let that sink in.

An 8- by 12-metre (25- by 40-foot) lawn needs about 38,000 litres (10, 000 gallons) of water a summer to keep it green.  To keep it the bouncy, vibrant green we have become addicted to, make it 46, 000 litres (12, 000 gallons) a summer.  Of drinking water.

And this "clean" drinking water is rapidly disappearing around the planet, as population explosion, resource extraction, global warming and pollution take their toll. Town after town across North America is finding its water supply gone, or undrinkable due to the presence of high bacteria counts or man-made chemical contamination.  In the past year (August 2000-August 2001) we’ve had news reports of contaminated water supplies all over North America, from Walkerton, Ontario to Lake Tahoe, California.  I live in a temperate rain forest, yet more people get sick from contaminated water here than anywhere else in Canada.

Water Business

Most of the lakes in the world are polluted.

This crisis of pollution and the scarcity of clean water are viewed by some as a tremendous business opportunity.

Monsanto, the company that brought you patented and genetically altered vegetable seeds, along with Round-up and other pesticides, is trying to "buy" rights to clean water all over the world, in order to SELL it back to us.  This is not a joke!  Truth IS stranger than fiction!  And there’s more:

The World Bank wants to privatize water and establish a trade in water rights.

A California company is suing the Canadian government under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) because British Columbia banned water exports.  This company is asking $250 million dollars US in compensation for "lost revenues" because it cannot access BC’s water to sell.

Water Wars And Big Sticks

Forty percent of the world’s population relies on water originating in a country that is not their own.

In North America, some states are already in legal conflict with their neighbours for rights to the water that flows across their mutual borders.

Malaysia, which supplies about half of Singapore’s water, threatened to cut off their supply over criticism of government policies.

Some states in the USA are taking neighbouring states to court over damming and water diversion.

And it is going to get nastier.

Given these facts, should it even be legal to consume 60% of our .5% of available water and then contaminate it for a (ahem) LAWN OR FLOWER?

Environmental Refugees

Just ask the environmental refugees of the world, people who have moved their families to a region that, among other things, at the very least has drinkable water.  Ask those not able to move, consigned to drink and bathe in contaminated water, or to walk miles each day to get their water drinking and cooking.  Over one billion people in the world will lack access to clean drinking water. 

By 2010, about 2.5 billion people in the world will lack access to clean drinking water.  In the United States, 30% of the population will experience severe water shortage by that date.

So water is THE next hot commodity.  Something to make money from, something to go to war for, something to use as a political big stick.

After oil, the next global conflicts will be about access to fresh water.  As population and demands for water grow, so does the potential for violent conflict.  Bet on it.

Another Truth: Lawns Pollute!

Runoff from chemical treatment of lawns and gardens itself has seriously compromised ground water supplies everywhere in the United States and Canada.

Several Canadian provincial Ministry of Environment departments  have been concerned since the mid-eighties about runoff from lawns and gardens that have been dosed with pesticides and chemical fertilizers.  Some municipalities have been practicing low- or no-use programs for years, and some are now even making it official by passing non-cosmetic-use bylaws (e.g. Halifax, Nova Scotia).  Hundreds more are looking to do the same.

The USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that forty-three million kilograms (ninety-five million pounds) of chemicals applied to American lawns each year, and that number grows by 6% annually.

That urea-based fertilizer, that combo fertilizer/weed control, that fungicide for moss, that herbicide for "weeds," that insecticide for ants . . . where do you think these chemicals go after they are put on your yard?

With the first rain or watering, right into your community’s groundwater!

Pesticide manufacturers depend upon it.

And does the lawn still go brown and will those exotic flowers wilt and die without yet still more water?  Uh-huh.

And is this healthy or even smart?

Lawn Toys Pollute, Too!

Then there’s the pollution and resource consumption from lawn mowers, leaf blowers, etc.

The US EPA estimates that a three-and-a-half HP lawn mower pollutes the air in a single mowing with as much exhaust as a new full-sized car driven 560 kilometres (350 miles).  They also estimate that the 50 million lawn mowers in the US burn at least 1140 million litres (300 million gallons) of gas per year, and that 76 million litres (20 million gallons) of gasoline and oil are spilled earch year, just refueling lawn-care equipment!  That’s more than the Exxon Valdez spilled into the Gulf of Alaska in 1989.

And electric mowers, while "cleaner," use power.

Lawns Are Monocultures Begging For Trouble

It’s simple.  Because lawns are monocultures, or a blend of a few grasses at best, they ATTRACT the problems that plague gardeners.  If there is a Kentucky bluegrass-loving insect or disease in your area, and you have a lawn of Kentucky blue, well, you figure it out.  Dinner’s on!

A drought will decimate a monoculture that is drought sensitive, but will only challenge a small part of a planting of natives that have varying needs. 

And native birds, butterflies, bees, and moths that depend on the seeds, berries and flowers of native flora are less likely to visit your Kentucky blue.

Lawns Are Not North American Friendly

The grass plants in your front lawn are almost assuredly created from stock that is not native to your neck of the woods, or even to your hemisphere.  Therefore your climate and soil conditions will never be optimum for your lawn’s health.  Your grass plants will always be stressed and more susceptible to disease, pests and severe weather.  This means and endless future of very expensive, intense, and environmentally damaging maintenance to keep those exotic grass plants looking "pretty." 

And Never A Drop To Drink

Most of the drinking water applied to your lawn never even makes it to the deep roots of your grass plants.  Much is lost to evaporation, or, at best, sits on the mat of thatch at the base of the grass leaves, making a nice warm moist breeding ground for diseases and insects that attack lawns.

And if you, like most North Americans, water too frequently and too shallowly, the water that does make it into the  soil will only penetrate an inch or two, causing your grass roots to curl up to the surface in search of moisture.  This weakens the plants, again, making them more susceptible to problems.

Lawns Need Super Soil

For your lawn to be its  healthiest, the plant roots need to grown to a minimum depth of 20 cm (8 inches) in humus-rich soil, with good aeration and millions of beneficial organisms that naturally protect the plants from predators.  Sound like your yard?

Lawns Speak Volumes But Say So Little About Us

Most towns and cities in North America could be interchangeable.  Lots of pavement, lots of buildings, and as Lorraine Johnson has so accurately stated, lot of yards "covered with the botanic equivalent of pavement: lawns."  Same trees, same shrubs, same same.  Morbid silence.  Little or no bird life.  Few, if any, butterflies.  Sterile.  Could be Manitoba, could be Massachusetts, could be Montana.  BORING.

Now find and check out a native yard in your area.  Cheeps, trills, and squawks of birds, gorgeous butterflies, humming honeybees, lots of unusual (in fact, usual) trees, shrubs, flowers and ground covers that are not found in any other part of the continent.  Found only in your part of the world, and a celebration of LIFE.

Clearly, it is time for North Americans to rethink their lawn addiction and its financial and ecological cost.

Some municipalities have banned water use for lawns in the summer, period. 

Some governments in North America are already offering financial incentives and technical support to residents to remove their guzzling, polluting lawns and replace them with native plants. 

THIS BOOK WILL TELL YOU HOW TO DO JUST THAT: how to cut, roll up and compost your turf-grass lawn and your water-sucking ornamental "exotic" garden plants and replace them with gorgeous native ground covers, flowers, shrubs, trees and grasses that will need no fertilizers, no chemical controls for pests, no moving and NO WATER after their first year.

But first, let’s take a look at this obsession with lawns and fancy flowers from foreign countries, and where the first seeds for that obsession were sown. 

CHAPTER TWO

Out Of The Forest And Onto The Lawn

From the beginning, lawns have meant status and wealth.  Here’s how it happened.

Africa, Asia, Europe & Great Britain

There are several versions of how lawns got their start.  Most sources agree that the clearing of land began with the advent of settled communities in Africa, and later, Europe and Britain, to enable people to see their enemies advancing.  There are differing opinions on whether those "enemies" were other humans, wild animals, or nature, herself.

Whatever the fear, forests were cut down, and tall grasses kept short, by early lawn mowers: slaves and the merely poor.

As communities and hierarchies became more evolved, the wealthy had more leisure time.  They began to keep grass short to provide play area inside the castle walls, and to cultivate large expanses of non-food-producing areas outside their homes, yards intentionally landscaped with grasses.

Royal and aristocratic grounds had to look splendid to keep up with the social one-upmanship of high society.  In the early teens in Europe, and then in England, all flora and fauna that was foreign was sought after to reflect one’s wealth and "taste."  The more foreign, the better, and the exotic plant trade began in earnest.

In the early eighteenth century, the palace at Versailles had its tapis vert, or "green carpet," made entirely of grasses from Asia, designed by one of the early landscape architects, Andre Lenotre.  Peacocks and tigers from India prowled well-manicured megaestates in England and Europe, planted with date palms and African grasses.

As money tricked down to the next layers of society in the mid- to late eighteenth century, new landowners got busy emulating those above them by building estates, and, of course, the biggest lawns possible.  "Turf" became an accepted sign of wealth and status.

Into The New World

When Europeans first reached North America, there were no lawns or gardens.  The first peoples of eastern North America used natural clearings in the woodlands to grow their crops, moving these "farms" from year to year to maintain healthy soils.  Plains Indians burned the native grasses from time to time to encourage buffalo and bison to graze on new shoots that pushed up through the soil after a fire.  And on the west coast, fishing, hunting and foraging kept first peoples happy.

The first European farmers to land on America’s east coast replaced native annual grasses with grasses and clovers from home, which they believed had a higher nutritive value fro grazing animals.  In the mid-sixteenth century, clover was a major import to New England.

The east cost was also likely the original foothold for dandelions, plantain and other weeds via the ballast of ships anchored in harbour.  Ballast, grazing stock and birds hitchhiking on slave and trade ships spread Bermuda grass and Guinea grass, both natives of Africa, and Kentucky bluegrass, a native of the Middle East, throughout the south before human settlement.

The first North American lawns were planted in New England b wealthy landowners in the late 1700s to copy the aristocracy of England and Europe.  These North American properties became "estates."  Kentucky bluegrass, which was the darling of the English estate greens, became a favourite lawn grass in North America.

Then came the suburbs, and lawns were entrenched in our psyche.  To have a lawn showed communal wealth, status, and good taste—and defined one’s domain.  "Turf Wars" were not accidentally named.

And now?

The Great Lawn Questionnaire

In preparing for this book, I informally and unscientifically surveyed two hundred Canadian men and women at random and asked them four questions:

The results were fascinating.

The Men Speak

What does my lawn mean to me?  The men invariably (78%) used words like "pride," "beauty," "peace," and, tellingly, "best in the neighbourhood" when referring to their lawns.

When asked how they felt about their gardens, they were less enthusiastic—and no wonder—only 12% of the men were involved in their creation or care.  So they responded with "nice," "pretty, I guess," and "that’s my wife’s/partner’s thing."

In response to a proposal to replace their lawns with native plants, an overwhelming 87% were aghast at the idea for any reason whatsoever, no sir, no ma’am, leave my lawn alone!  Responses like "No way!"  "Just try it!" and "I’d refuse!" were literally gouged into the paper.  Reasons given: "Where will the kids play?" or "I love my new mower!"  However, most respondents admitted that their kids weren’t allowed to or didn’t play on the lawn anyway.  Some who gave kids as a reason even admitted that they were kid-less.  Interesting.

The most common response to the idea of replacing the gardens with native plants was, "Not my area, ask my partner."

The Women Speak

In answer to what their lawns meant to them, more than half of the women (58%) were lukewarm, at best.  They used words like "too much work," "always looks bad no matter what we do," "a chore to get my (fill in the blank) to mow it."  The rest used the "pride" word.

When asked how they felt about their ornamental gardens, 78% responded extremely positively, with words like "therapeutic," "essential," "beautiful," and simply, "mine."

The women’s response to the proposal of replacing their lawns with native plants met with little resistance: 17%.  The most common concern was the expense and physical work anticipated.  In fact, the majority of female respondents (82%) thought native plant replacements for their lawn would be "a good challenge," and a "wonderful idea!"

So what’s going on in North America?  Why this continuing obsession that sucks and pollutes our water supply (watering, fertilizing, applying pesticides), our time and energy (mowing and fertilizing), our clean air (mowing, leaf blowing), our peace and quiet (mowing, leaf blowing), not to mention our pocketbooks (all of the above)?

It’s that old status thing: THESE are MY boundaries, and I have tamed nature! 

THIS IS MY TURF, literally.  The obsession has taken root, from centuries of royal landscaping on the other side of the world, to yards in big and small towns across North America, and has damaged our environment in the process.

CHAPTER THREE

Go Eco, Go Biodiverse, Go Water-Friendly, Go Native!

What if the status symbol for the new millennium is NOT a lawn, but a beautiful yard full of ground covers, grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees that by their nature enhance our lives and help to keep the planet healthy?

Definition of "Native"

A native, or indigenous, plant of North America is one which grew in a particular region of North America prior to European contact, i.e., it is native to that region.

Definition of "Exotic"

An exotic plant is one which was introduced into an area by design (man) or accident (wind, birds, flooding, etc.).

Can You Say "Xer-i-scape"?

When you xeriscape a yard, you plant specimens that once established need no water. 

These plants may be native or exotic.

All About Native Plants:  Adapt Or Die

Native plants have been evolving, without help or management from man, in their primal habitats for thousands, if not millions, of years.  This evolution has made them hardy just where they are, in the conditions that are found where they are.  It’s been a kind of "adapt or die" scenario.  So once properly established in the appropriate place in your yard (e.g., shade, sun, wet or dry, soil preference) they will need little care.  No water after the first year.  No fertilizers except mulches and compost.  No pesticides.

Natives CAN Give You A Job Or Two

For those who are panicked at the thought of "nothing to do," don’t worry, there are some "chores" associated with a native garden:

Watering

Watering in the first year of a native plant’s life in your garden is essential to allow the roots to grow into your soil.  Water deeply and infrequently, to promote deep root growth.  Each plant in each region of North America will have slightly different watering requirements their first year.  You will need to do your homework and water accordingly. To make things easier and less wasteful, it is very important to group plants with similar water needs together in your garden.

Composting

For optimum native plant health, and as a brilliant environment idea in its own right: COMPOST!  Get yourself a sealed compost container with the little drawer in the bottom (available at your local hardware store), and put all non-meat and non-oil-based kitchen waste in it every day.  Beautiful, crumbly dry compost will come out the bottom, and your plants will be thrilled when you spread it around them.

Mulching

You can also gather up the leaves from your yard and neighbourhood that are going to the dump and use them as a nutritious mulch around your plants.  Get some wood chips for mulch, too.  Continual mulching will keep weeds down and provide a slow, constant source of food as it breaks down.

Weeding

Some weeding will be necessary to keep the exotics and "weeds" out until the natives are established, and after that.  Only weed by hand!  The wonderful soil beasties, birds, butterflies, etc. that have come to your native garden will be harmed if you use chemical weed killers.

Grooming

To get continuous bloom from your wildflowers, you will need to pick off old flower heads as they begin to fade and die.  It’s called dead-heading and it greatly prolongs blooming time of natives plants.  You can prune shrubs and hedges to keep good air circulation around each plant in your yard.  And if you must, there are natives that you can even mow . . . from once every few weeks, to once a year.

So you won’t be bored, and suddenly without a job in the garden.  Promise!

Talk To The Animals

As with flora, so with fauna.  By reintroducing native plants to their original regions, you will begin to attract native wildlife back to your yard.  Gorgeous butterflies, hummingbirds, song birds, birds that eat the insects that eat your plants, and even bumble bees.  If wildlife attraction is a part of going native for you, then check out what the food, shelter and water needs of the species you want to visit—and move in—are.  You can create a veritable Garden of Eden of insect, bird and animal life!  See Chapter Six for ideas.

Many Native Plant Choices

And your plants will be gorgeous!  There are many diverse choices in the native plant families that offer a huge variety of colour and texture for each region of North America:

There are drought lovers, swamp lovers, shade lovers, sun lovers, acidic and alkaline soil lovers, scented and unscented, tall, medium and low growers.  Just look at the photos throughout this book; most of the plants in these yards are native to their regions and were planted according to their beauty and suitability to the site’s conditions.

Shrubs provide natural fences and barriers, and shelter for animals.  Fruit-bearing shrubs provide food and nesting sites  for birds.  In smaller gardens where shrubs would be overbearing, vines can be trailed over trellis and fence to provide privacy, shade, and a home and source of food (pollen, leaves, fruit, nectar) to birds.

Low-growing ground covers make great replacements for lawns in areas where you want to maintain a relatively flat surface.  They hold the soil, preventing erosion—a good idea on slopes.

And flowers . . . well, native flowers are prolific in blooms, pollen and nectar, providing a beautiful view and essential food for the birds and the bees.

Native grasses in prairie and meadow habitats also prevent soil erosion, and will thrive in dry windy areas.  And hey!  If you can’t do without the "lawn look," try buffalo grass in the appropriate region.  You can mow it every two weeks or so with great results!

Native tress are an excellent consideration if you have the space, and are planting for the future.  Make sure you take into account their full canopy spread as mature adults when deciding where to put them.  Trees provide shelter and food for birds and small mammals and shade and beauty for humans, in all stages of their life cycles. 

All This, And Economical, Too!

Let’s talk money.  Expense is a concern of many whose lawns and flower gardens are already established.  But if you count up the financial and environmental costs of the annual plants, (see Myth 5 below), transformation does not seem so outrageous.

And it can be done a bit at a time.

Convinced?  Curious?  Read on!

Nine Common Myths About Using Native Plants

MYTH #1:  Native plants produce pollens that are allergens, increasing hay fever in humans.
FACT:  Conventional turf grass contains more allergenic pollens than native plants.  Ditto ragweds, which move into developed areas, and those showy, exotic flowers.

MYTH #2:  Native plant gardens attract vermin and disease.
FACT:  Vermin like garbage, not native plants.  And native field mice like grains, not the type of native plants that will be used in your yard or garden.  As for disease, the tick that carries Lyme disease occurs in both native and exotic landscapes, and is carried by both wild and domestic animals.

MYTH #3:  Native plants will become invasive in my garden and in other gardens in the neighbourhood.
FACT:  They should be so lucky.  Most, if not all plants considered "invasive" are exotics brought to this country from abroad, or to your neck of the woods from another part of North America.

MYTH #4:  Native plant gardens will be drab and colourless.
FACT:  There are fabulous, intensely bright and beautiful colours as well as reserved hues of bronze, silver, and copper represented in all the native plant communities North America.

MYTH #5:  Native plant gardens are too expensive.
FACT:  Even though it will require some investment to switch to a native garden or yard, if you add up ALL the costs of maintaining a lawn or exotic garden including the cost of:

the initial investment of putting in a native garden bit by bit pales by comparison.

MYTH #6:  Native plants are hard to grow, and too delicate.  They don’t last.
FACT:  If you do your research properly and select plants that are native to your local region and that suit the condition of your yard (shared, sun, moisture, etc.) the natives will THRIVE.  They have been here for millennia.  They are extremely hardy and strong.

MYTH #7:  Native plants harbour mosquitoes.
FACT:  Areas of standing water, not native plants, provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

MYTH #8:  Native gardens look like "the bush": wild and messy.
FACT:  Native gardens can look as sculptured and manicured as any formal, exotic garden or as wild as any meadow.  The plant selection and design is up to you. Just check out the photo opposite.  Does this look "messy" or "wild" to you?

MYTH #9:  My municipality will only allow turf-grass lawns. FACT:  Most states and provinces in North America are actively encouraging residents to incorporate native plants into their yards and gardens a bit at a time to reduce dependence on water supplies.  While some municipalities have yet to be converted and are giving native garden growers an opportunity to test the bylaws, others are leaning, and even converting public spaces to native gardens.

Rubin, Carole. How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass: A North American Guide to Turning Off the Water Tap and Going Native. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2002. 11-33.