Climate Resilience at Home: Convert Your Lawn into Food & Habitat

Written By Noble Root

While no single action will mitigate climate change completely, the collective action of homeowners can and will make a real difference. About 60% of land in the United States is privately owned. This means individuals have a tremendous opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint and increase biodiversity & climate resilience at home. It begins with reimaging your lawn.

In this article:

  • History of the American lawn

  • Cultural origins and beliefs 

  • The hidden costs of lawns

  • What you can do

  • Resources

How the lawn came to be

In the 1700s, Thomas Jefferson and other well-respected leaders displayed their wealth and associated power through their lawns. In fact, having a green, grassy lawn was the most visible way to show that these men (women couldn’t legally own property) were so wealthy they didn’t need to “waste” their precious land to raise animals or crops for sale or consumption. 

As Douglas Tallamy writes in Nature’s Best Hope, Jefferson based his landscaping on designs of rich Europeans with “expansive lawns accented with gardens of exotic plants from exotic places” (p 52).  

Could he have planted a beautiful yard with native plants? Of course, but that wouldn’t have set him apart from anyone else. Native plants were common and regularly available. His landscaped yard sent the message that he had so much money, he could afford to plant ornamentals instead of growing food. It also meant he had the resources to maintain the ornamental lawn.

In short, a manicured, grassy yard filled with non-native plants is a status symbol that dates back more than 300 years! And it continues to be a visual way to communicate affluence to this day. But does it have to be so? Or can we change the idea of what a front or backyard should look like? 

In this post, learn how the American Lawn has evolved over time, the challenges and dangers of maintaining the status quo, and simple changes you can make in your own yard to reduce your carbon footprint, increase biodiversity, and grow your own delicious, and highly nutritious, organic food at home.

What do we value as a society?

As mentioned, landscaping one’s lawn as a status symbol dates back several centuries. Yet the desire to belong to the dominant group goes back even further – to the beginnings of humankind. 

Tallamy wrote, “Being a respected member of a group of supportive people—an extended family, a society, a tribe, a team, a nation—was essential for our survival.” Without the safety net of having others nearby to lean on during tough times, humans wouldn’t last very long. We crave and seek acceptance from others within our group, and especially from those in power.

So as unconscious as it may be, lawns provide a way to broadcast affluence and status visually. They indicate that we belong to the group and agree with the established community norms. They let others know that we “fit in.”

What happens when the times begin to change? 

Currently, a multi-year drought continues to plague the western US, despite several waves of torrential downpours during December 2022 and January 2023. The drought is so bad, watering lawns has become extremely restricted in parts of Southern California. 

Specific counties like Los Angeles have gone even further and mandated that customers cut their water usage by 30 percent, watering just 2 days a week and only during specific times of day. Outdoor watering is completely prohibited on weekends and Wednesdays. 

Water usage aside, what happens when a person simply disagrees with the idea that you need a turf lawn without weeds? What if you’re allergic to grass, or simply want a low-maintenance landscape? 

Keeping up with the Joneses (and the Jeffersons!) has, by necessity, begun to change from sweeping green lawns to low-maintenance, low/no-water xeriscapes. But even as public opinion shifts towards building more environmentally-friendly backyard habitats and raised-bed kitchen gardens, there’s still a long way to go.

So what to do? Before we get to some real steps you can take as a homeowner, let’s take a look at lawns from an economic perspective. 

What are the costs of having a turf-grass lawn?

Here are four areas to consider:

  • Pesticides and fertilizers

  • Water usage

  • Fragmented landscapes

  • Ecological dead zones 

Pesticides & Fertilizers

Homeowners spend upwards of $350-$550 annually on lawn chemical treatments, and that doesn’t include maintenance (mow/blow services). 

Importantly, this number also doesn’t include the health and ecological costs of applying harmful chemicals around the home, or to your family, children, and pets. How many toxins do our children and pets absorb as they roll around and play on that lush carpet of green grass? Impossible to say. 

What we do know is pesticides have been linked to causing cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s disease, asthma, depression and anxiety, ADHD, and birth defects. They can also potentially harm the nervous system, reproductive organs, and the endocrine system.

While we might not be able to put a specific number on the national healthcare costs of pesticide use, we can still ask the question – is having a green lawn really worth the risk of you or your loved ones getting sick?

Water

Of the world’s water supply, 97% of it is ocean water and too salty to use. Of the remaining 3% that’s freshwater, 2.5% is unusable because it’s frozen, polluted, or located too far underground to get to. This means just 0.5% of the world’s supply of water is available to use. (Source)

Do we use it well? Recent satellite images show that lawns, which include homes, commercial sites, and golf courses, cover 45.6 million acres. That is roughly 3 times the size of New Jersey, and a total of 23% of urbanized land! The American lawn is the largest irrigated crop (even more than corn!) and requires vast amounts of water to sustain it. 

Case in point, in California, 9% of water is used to irrigate golf courses alone. On an individual level, about 30% of the average American’s water usage goes outdoors to keep yards green and plants alive. And while watering even the most efficient garden is necessary, the problem is “as much as 50% of the water we use outdoors is wasted from inefficient watering methods and systems” (source). 

That is a LOT of water used and begs the question, could there be a better way to landscape our properties? 

(Spoiler alert: The answer is yes.)

Fragmented Landscapes

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking there’s plenty of space for wildlife in our national parks, forests, and public lands. However, just 40% of land in the US is actually public, meaning private individuals and corporations own 60% of land in the US. 

Our landscape has become so fragmented and urbanized that native habitats are almost like little islands. Unfortunately, protected nature areas, like national and state parks, are spread too far apart for wildlife to move between. As David Quammen said, “Islands are where species go to die.” 

If animals and insects can’t safely move from one food source to another in between habitats, more and more species will disappear. However, if private homeowners converted even half their land into more natural landscapes with native plants, so called “biological corridors” would increase the diversity and climate adaptability of protected preserves in our forests and parks. 

Ecological Dead Zones

Seeing the words “ecological dead zone” might feel a bit jarring, and yet that’s exactly what turf-grass lawns are: monoculture with little to nothing else growing there. This is especially true if chemical pesticides are applied for that very purpose. 

Additionally, when the lawn is cut and grass clippings are removed, critical nutrients are removed from the soil instead of being composted back in. In response people add water, fertilizer, and pesticides to try to replace what they just removed. Couple this with fuel spills from gasoline-powered lawn mowers, blowers, and trimmers – and we’ve got ourselves an unsustainable, open loop of negative system inputs.

Birds, insects and other pollinators have a difficult time finding adequate food when turf-grass is the primary plant in the neighborhood. And for what? To maintain a status quo established by white men in the 1700s? 

What you can do

While some truths are hard to swallow, we must confront our past to move forward responsibly into the future. We live in an era of tremendous innovation and creativity. We can and must do better. If having the “perfect lawn” is an outdated status symbol, then it’s possible to change it. 

What if we redefined what “keeping up with the Joneses” meant? What if instead of weed-free yards laden with chemicals, the Joneses opted for stylish raised bed kitchen gardens, native backyard habitats, decided to water less, and planted food instead of grass? 

As more and more people realize the benefits of inviting native plants, insects, and wildlife in their yard, it will only be a matter of time before the “Jones’ lawn” becomes more natural, functional, and safe for the environment. The time will come when a green lawn turns a suspicious eye instead of envy.

Here are five things you can do to make your yard more climate adaptive and sustainable:

  1. Schedule a consult to brainstorm alternatives to turf-grass. Asking a professional can be extremely helpful if you know you want to make a change but don’t know where to start. 

  2. Do not apply pesticides or fertilizers. Instead, hand pull weeds or consider using an all-natural vinegar + soap solution to spot-treat unwanted dandelions (recipe below). Also, leave clover blooms for the bees and increase your mower height to support a healthier pollinator-friendly yard.

  3. Take baby steps! Consider “shrinking your lawn” by removing at least a portion of turf-grass and dedicating that space to a raised bed garden or native plant habitat. 

  4. Replace turf-grass with a different type of ground cover that doesn’t require constant irrigation and pesticide use. Examples include clover, wild thyme, and coastal strawberry. If you must keep your turf, limit or avoid watering the grass during the summer months (let it brown!)

  5. Reduce your carbon footprint by planting fruits, vegetables, herbs and other edible and native drought-tolerant plants. Oftentimes, lawns are the ideal location for raised bed gardens because they tend to be flat and sunny. 

Ecologically speaking, the “perfect lawn” is rich with plants that provide food, water, and habitat for you, as well as the animals and insects who visit your property. Ecological landscapes require minimal chemical, water, or human inputs to survive, and support all kinds of life.

If you’d like to convert your lawn into a stylish and abundant edible garden mixed with backyard habitat in the Portland, Oregon metro and Vancouver, Washington, areas, book a consultation with Nicole Spencer, founder and Garden Consultant with Noble Root. 

 

Resources:

About: 

Nicole Spencer is the founder and Principal Garden Consultant for Noble Root. She is a Gardenary-certified Garden Consultant, Kitchen Garden Coach, and Licensed Landscape Contractor specializing in raised bed edible gardens and backyard habitats. Her passion is helping clients transform their backyards into healthy, thriving, and productive oases that benefit people and pollinators in Portland-metro and Vancouver, Washington areas.

Noble Root https://www.nobleroot.com
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