Grass

Not to me. At all. I'm working on getting rid of the last bit of lawn on my (small) property. I have garden beds and perennials and shrubs that I expand on every year. And I like an edible landscape, so where possible, I use fruiting/producing variets of those (blueberry bushes make a wonderful hedge - beautiful red in the fall; alpine strawberries are lovely in a border).

In deference to my dog, I may keep a small "bed" of lawn for him to relax on. I think it will make a pretty accent.

In Cambridge, we don't have lawns. Since our minds are on higher things, our yards are covered with weeds, brambles, dug-up sidewalk bricks, and the long flowing white tresses of residents who went barky sometime in the '60s. For a change of pace, we go next door to Somerville, which is a large farm known for growing asphalt and bathtub Madonnas.

If get the whole ecological argument, and I agree with it to some degree, but I also know that a house with a lawn is something fairly high on my list. Having spent my entire adulthood in cities with no outside space other than a strip of grass or a balcony, having a yard with some flat open space to place frisbee or catch, as well as chip around some golf balls seems pretty attractive. I guess if a lawned yard actually gets used for something rather than just display, isn't that a worthwhile use as well? Growing up in central Mass, our entire childhoods centered around our (and our friends) yards - and I think this was a lifesaver for our parents. So, perhaps I don't see lawns as sterile and useless monuments to vanity that some do.

A trip to PEI some years ago had us laughing at all the lawn-tractoring there. It seemed so foolish, and the image remains with me.

Lawns with a proper grade are a great way to shed water away from a home whil preventing mud and mulch "splatter" onto the house. Traditional "fescue" is better than crabgrass alternatives since it allows the soil to be looser packed while being thicker. Keeping the soil in this manner also allows for improved application of insect control, which in turn will greatly extend the life of the house (as the critters really want to eat your home). Water and insect control are key to a healthy home. For a large open area, a lawn is actually easier and cheaper to maintain than a mulch bed (the mulch actually consumes more energy per unit to manufacture and transport). There is also a deeo psychological link with the look of a rich green field, and a sense of security, with humans. Im not advocating to plow down the forests to make lawns, as I am an active trail runner and nature enthusiast. However, the war on lawns is quite ridiculous.

I prefer woods, with the caveat that the trees can't grow next to the house (because, for example, they fall in storms). I think Falk and Balling must not have had a good sampling of people in their study. Woods are natural from the Altantic to the Mississsippi and beyond; someone once claimed to me that when the Europeans came, a squirrel could (theoretically) have run from the Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching ground; where's the savannah in that? I once lived in Minnesota, where the trees were cleared long ago, and I felt vulnerable and exposed. But given what I see on TV, I would say that the terrain of Afghanistan offers the most protection, not the savannah. People who move from Marcus' neighborhood to the 'burbs seem to like having a yard. I think the status of having a mini-savannah is deeply ingrained in people and a bigger factor than you have indicated.

Having had a lawn, and having both cut it myself and paid persons of leaf blower (is that the PC term nowadays?) to care for it, all I can say is never again. I refuse to waste my time or money growing a useless crop just to cut it down and throw it away.

Lawns are for suburban zombies who have nothing better to do.

I grew up in California, where gardeners are taught to plan for drought. When I first became interested in gardening, we had a severe water shortage. The region was taught to not waste a drop -- catch the water from the tap as you wait for the hot water to come in, take buckets into the shower with you, etc., etc. The lawns had to be left to their own devices in favor of taking the precious excess from the house to support trees and shrubs.

With climate change, chances are high that rainfall patterns will become much less predictable. My community (which is on well water, not MWRA) has instituted a policy which encourages minimal water usage by charging for water on a graduated usage basis -- the more water you use, the higher the charge per cubic foot.

The time to rethink our use of water and our yards is now. My goal, like Susan, is to keep just a small patch of lawn for an accent. I've been slowly but surely replacing lawn with shrubs, veggies, fruit trees, permeable hardscape, etc., etc., that only need water when first planted and during significant, prolonged heat. Not having lawn also means less of all of those nasty nitrogen-based fertilizers that make their way into the waterways and cause lakes to be choked by vegetation.

I like a bit of lawn between the house & the trees & scrub. Whenever I let the scrub win - way too many mice set up residence in the house.

Lawns are wasteful...better to go with produce, herbs wild flowers shrubs.

You can actually have a bit of both. I think the type of lawn referenced in the article - the pristine bluegrass, putting green type lawn that no one can walk on or use - is the problem. There are alternatives like a chamomile or clover lawn and various ground covers that can give the sense of openness without the mowing, pesticides and fertilizers that current lawns require.

With the exception of a playspace for the kids and some open space to have chairs, a table, a composter, and a chicken coop - if I can't eat it, I don't need it in my yard.

I like my lawn and it doesn't take much to maintain it (although one morning this week, the whole front lawn had equal sized mushrooms peppered across it, so maybe I don't fret over my lawn like some people). I only watered it once this year. And no, I'm not going to farm my 1/3 of an acre instead (unless those mushrooms are edible)...

Save the world liberals, get rid of your front lawn.............

Ever hear of the prospect/refuge theory? That explains the psychology of lawns.

Johan, I just looked up Prospect/refuge theory. Thanks. It sounds like the experiments I mentioned were demonstrating this theory.

Elimination of lawns would likely move the economy closer toward a depression and cause a spike in unemployment, and a new wave of foreclosures . This is a multi billion dollar business.
Joe Average's yard doesn't amount to anything in the general scheme of things but, the lawns in Winchester , Marblehead Neck, Wellesley,.....keep many workers occupied and off welfare . Lawns are good for the economy. It helps redistribute the wealth.
The elimination of lawns would have devastating effects on this country.

Lawns are not important to us, at least the manicured, high-maintenance grasses that are popular. Much to the chagrin of some of our neighbors, our yard is largely covered with native plants and trees, including the visually important areas along the road and property boundaries. We enjoy the shade of the trees in the summer, their beauty in the fall, and their inspiration as they turn green in the spring. Yes, the leaf collection is a major headache, but the reduction in lawn care effort is a major benefit. Our yard is, at best, a few blades of grass interspersed among native plants that some might label as weeds.

For the definitive answer read The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblein. He nails it and won the Nobel Prisze for his research.

I`m all in favor of our lawn, as long as my wife mows it and the dog stays away
from our mower!

My sister in law in Phoenix has a gravel yard that requires raking twice a year. In the winter, a few green things pop up between the stones only to be scorched brown by May.

"Lawns are for suburban zombies who have nothing better to do."

Ridiculously out of date, narrowminded, depersonalizing cliche of a comment above from someone apparently hipper-than-thou. I too live in the city, and enjoy a small backyard. We can take our kid out and get some shade from trees around us on days like today where it's cooler on the lawn than at the playground or field. I don't water it, fertilize it, or worry about dandelions or clover. I don't consider liking to have fun on a soft grass (rather than hardscape) evidence of a non-cool suburban, zombiefied existence.

The British settlers planted lawns because they had sheep. We don't have sheep, so we don't need lawns. Grow groundcover like Pachysandra terminalis. It's low maintenance and it conserves a lot more water than grass.

I guess the lawn can now take it's place along with the SUV, firearm, deodorant, "conventional" produce, television, movies (but not "film"), non-Apple technology and country music in the pantheon of things to make people feel bad about.

I agree with city liver. My back yard is overgrown like a meadow because I refuse to cut it in this heat and I don't care about it. It is just there. I have heard that the Japanese have perfected a strain of dwarf grass that only grows so high. I absolutely hate all the lawn maintenance companies that work here with their noisy gas powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers and weed whackers. The other day my neighbor's team woke me up just after 8:00 AM with some kind of ride on mower that sounds like an airplane on the roof. And this is only for a very small lawn and she's at her other house at the Cape for most of the summer. $50. for 15 minutes of work! And all those dangerous chemicals that kill wildlife and drain into our water resources. Do you think for one minute that animals and small children can read those little signs that warm them about these dangerous chemicals?
This cult of lawn worship is wasteful and ridiculous. If I didn't live in Boston, I'd get a sheep. If I want grass, I'll go to the park. And yes, all my lawn tools are electric as is my snow blower. I don't use a leaf blower- I use a rake.

"...we don't need lawns."

Pachysandra looks really nice, and I don't have sheep, it's true, but can a toddler run over pachysandra without falling down? No? Oh well, then I guess I need a lawn.

why can't lawn-obsessed people just go to the park? It comes down to vanity and self-imposed isolation. People would much rather play in their yards by themselves than walk the 2 minutes to the park and meet other families/children.

Quite frankly, I have other more interesting and/or pressing things to do than tend to the lawn. Seems like a boring, pathetic life to spend so many hours doing manual labor of questionable value.

I love all the holier than thou comments! While all the tree-huggers and liberals are standing in their yards filled with waist high weeds, grass, and poison ivy, I'll be hosting a big BBQ at my place this weekend on the lawn. There will be frisbee, wiffle-ball, slip and slide for the kids, plenty of room for a pick-up game of touch football, and room enough for anything else that might seem like fun for the kids and adults.

You can sit in your Prius and complain all you want... me and my friends will be outside having fun.

Mowing the lawn on a nice sunny weekend day is very relaxing and when it's done I get to see the results of my labor. That's different from what I do in my day job, engineering, where I could be working on a product for months. Plus, I love the smell of cut grass and love walking barefoot in it. Come to think of it, my life revolves around my lawn.

no more lawns: who's "lawn-obsessed"?
You've continued the trend of big, sweeping statements by those who don't like lawns in this post.

"vanity and self-imposed isolation"?!
LOL, presume & hyperbolize much? There are valid reasons for mixing in time outside one's own house with kids/family & friends along with the usual trips to the park, playground, farmers' market, library, pool, store, museum, hipster-clothing store, whatever. Variety is one such reason.

Most people I know, urban or sub-, use their lawn in normal, non-obsessive ways. Takes me 20-30 minutes to mow mine.

Our one acre patch of grass in suburbia is what spurred my husband to indulge his mid-life crisis by buying a John Deere tractor mower and firing the lawn guy instead of dumping me for a trophy wife and getting a Ferrari like so many men do.

We bought a house with close to an acre last year and as much as I love the way it looks, it's so expensive to maintain-fertilizing, grub treatment, the irrigation system-it adds up fast. I love the look of it of course but I wouldn't be opposed to getting rid of some of the grass.

When lawns are outlawed only outlaws will have lawns.

I agree kaquino. My husband has a stressful desk job and mowing the lawn and tending to the garden are his meditation. Both are organic. We have rain barrels, that we use for supplemental water. What is the big deal about lawns and why is this so offensive to people? Folk on here have some straaange notions and should perhaps mind their own business.

I never liked lawns until I owned my own home. Now I can't find enough time to
work on it. Grabgrass is the enemy, Turf's Builder 3 Step system makes me look
like a genius.

Lawns are neat!

Cool post as for me. I'd like to read something more concerning this topic.