A Conversation about Lawns and Meadows

Lawns and Meadows; it’s a “new” discussion. Homeowners are under siege these days by the purists and the traditionalists. Advocates of lawns insist that a tidy lawn is the mark of a civilized property owner. It indicates good practices, keeping untidy nature at bay. Naturalists, on the other hand, think lawns are an abomination and an insult to the way things should be allowed to grow to make a balance in our environment.  I suspect most of us are somewhere in the middle. I do what pleases me and try for a happy medium. But if you’re torn between the opposing camps, here’s my humble opinion. 

Lawns: they can be beautiful, and certainly a well maintained lawn is a thing of beauty. Of course, a dusty or muddy patch of unhappy vegetation can be called a lawn, too. So for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that we’re only talking about the tidier kind. The good features of a lawn are these:    they surround the home like a frame for a picture, and they can make trees and gardens look like a park or a golf course.  A nice carpet of turf can protect the soil from erosion and damage from foot traffic.  Of course, there is an entire industry built around the culture of lawns, and making perfect panels of thick green turf. The battle is constant to maintain beautiful green areas, with use of chemicals to combat insects and weeds and small animals. Mowing becomes either a religious experience or a dreaded ordeal, and maintaining and fueling machinery is yet another expense. Watering can become an issue in these times of climate change and unpredictable droughts. Of course, you can invest as much or as little as suits you. My lawn was about an entire acre initially, and beautiful. I’m no purist, so just being green and healthy was enough. A combination of whatever grew there and was mowable was just fine. In fact, I have beautiful patches of Thyme every August.  The lawn is a gorgeous backdrop for my extensive perennial beds and various trees.    Listen to the Nature Calls podcast # 17 for a discussion of turf and lawns with expert David Chinery of Cornell Cooperative Extension at  https://ccecolumbiagreene.org/gardening/nature-calls-conversations-from-the-hudson-valley/episode-17-lawns-and-turf-grass. 

BUT ninety minutes at a time on a rider mower followed by an hour with a weedwacker gets tiresome. And I’m a Master Gardener Volunteer, so I hear all the latest, garden-wise. Pollinators are a big topic. Native plants are vital and monocultures of turf grass are detrimental to diversity. There’s much talk about replacing lawns with meadows, and I figured, “how hard can that be?” I reduced my lawn area by about a third, and plunked in an assortment of native plants popular with pollinators into the front yard over to one side. Then I chose a side lawn to be a restored meadow and just set it free. All I did there was mow paths and rogue out any big ugly invasives as they showed up. I mow it all down in the late fall and relax. It’s a beautiful grassy area with lots of small surprises. When I stroll through on my way to my compost area, there’s always something new. Reeds and sedges (it’s wet in some areas) and blue-eyed grass are alive with insect visitors. Native bee balm waves  above the rest along with yarrow and goldenrod. It’s a fairly small area, but has distinct ecologies, some marshy and some very dry. The more organized meadow in the front has become a labor of love, though. My vanity wants this to be pretty all season, so I put in a range of things (mostly native) to bloom in succession. It has become a battle of wills as they all compete to get established.  Along with the prairie grasses, asters and native sedums, I popped in some surplus daffodils and an army of Crocosmia bulbs… just because. I’m no purist and gardening should be fun or why bother. My point is that you can put as much or as little work into making a meadow as you please. But preparation will give you a better look and less frustration. Episode 75 of Nature Calls podcast discusses meadows at:  https://ccecolumbiagreene.org/gardening/nature-calls-conversations-from-the-hudson-valley/episode-75-meadows. By the way, it never did turn out to be a timesaver …for me, anyway.