Here are 10 reasons that you have to stop putting your resources and money into something that does not benefit you in anyway. Boycott the uniform, non beneficial, unhealthy lawn.
Happy Monday good people, where I am it is a beautiful sunny day reaching a high of 16 degrees Celsius or 61 degrees Fahrenheit. I want to talk about your lawn today.
Lawns have been maintained for a very long time, of course developing as the technology for lawn mowers improved. This began in the 19th century and has since become a billion dollar industry.
Part of the appeal for lawns in the beginning was to show class, simple horticulture innovation, and as a home security system.
Those who had lawns could afford to maintain it, buy grass seed, and/or pay someone to maintain it showing that one had the money to spare on maintaining the visual appeal.
A classic landscape design for any English horticulture is lawns. Simple landscapes are based on a wide open lawn with some ornaments and bushes throughout in a design.
Lawns were a home security method because, unlike in a forest, you are more easily able to see threats coming from farther away, and there are fewer objects for threats to hide behind.
It is engrained in the basis of what British horticulture believes to be one of the most important elements of landscape design. Though lawns are gradually reverting back to a more natural aesthetic appeal, many people still invest in maintaining their lawns.
10 reasons:
1. You can, but likely won't, eat your grass and weeds
It isn’t very widely known that the so-called weeds in your garden are edible, and actually healthier than produce found in the grocery stores.
For example, the common broadleaf plantain leaves are comparable to spinach both in nutrients offered as well as taste, though of course offering higher levels than spinach. The stems are comparable to celery in taste, though they too offer much higher levels of nutrients than celery.
These common weeds grow on your lawn because they prefer sunny spaces with little competition. Grass is also an invasive species, in fact, the varieties used on the everyday lawn such as Kentucky blue grass are not even native to North America.
Other edible common weeds on most lawns include; dandelion, clover, violets, and thistles.
A large portion of the population with lawns are against invasive and non-native species, yet, their lawns are a host of non-native grass species which they intentionally grow. The weeds are the native species trying to survive which are hardly invasive in nature.
On a naturalized property, “weeds” are less likely to occur because there will be more shaded area which is not ideal for their growing conditions, and there will already be biodiversity which is the purpose of these “weeds” growing.
It is nature's way of restoring balance.
Growing a garden on your lawn offers food for you, the weeds may still grow, but that just means more variety of free food.
2. Gardens and native species attract and support pollinators
Sadly, pollinators are being attacked at every angle. From chemical sprays killing them, their homes, and their food, to being harmed by even the chemicals in the air.
Small species like bees are, in fact, considered an indicator species in the ecological science world. Just like other small insects and even some animals.
An indicator species is a species that is highly influenced by its environment and shows it through death or a change in their behaviour.
The idea of indicator species is to study how humans alter the environment, to what extent we alter the environment, and if possible, a source is found based on the characteristics of the change that has occurred with the indicator species.
One thing that we can do to reverse the damage that we have caused pollinator species is through growing a garden full of plants that will feed or home the pollinators. This means flowers, whether it is marigolds to deter bugs and deer or the flowers that come from fruit and vegetables.
Growing a garden and skipping on the lawn will help beyond your garden, but will save a whole collection of species that cannot become extinct.
Human survival really depends on many factors of the environment, and pollinators are a huge one. Without them, many things won’t grow (like in the bee movie).
Planting native species and naturalizing a property can have similar effects of creating familiar homes and food for the pollinators.
3. Wasting water and increasing your monthly water bill
Lawns are a waste of water! Same as washing your car and watering your driveway.
Every time I see this ridiculousness I roll my eyes and shake my head because they are the biggest waste of water there is beyond industrial water waste.
Yes you will be required to water your garden, but you will be controlling that and eating the product, unlike your lawn which you will not be eating.
Switching to a garden will decrease your water bill significantly if you are prone to watering your whole lawn and getting nothing out of it.
Lets save water and plant a garden instead, or better yet, naturalize your property and your water bill will be null outside of your house.
Planting native species is the best way to stop wasting water and money outside. If you plant bare root plants they require water for the first year, maybe 2 years, then they only require the rain water that naturally occurs.
If planting full grown species, they only need to be watered for the growing season, then left to their own natural devices to grow and thrive.
4. Gardens are better for your general health
Gardens offer you healthy foods which you are most likely to eat because you grew them yourself. Eating fresh produce can help in weight management.
There is a pride and joy in growing something, watching it become more everyday just from water and maintenance. This boosts your mood and offers happiness within yourself.
Growing your own food does take some work, and that work can help you achieve your weight goals in a positive and healthy way.
Gardens help improve your energy by giving you motivation and purpose.
Gardens will raise your frequency through interacting with the soil and earth in a positive way, and the peace and positivity that comes from both eating healthy and working with the land.
Lastly, gardens improve your health through an increase in healthy air and creates higher oxygen content around your whole property.
A garden is a representation of what you put into it, you get out of it. Putting peace and positivity into your garden will yield such things.
5. Naturalizing your property increases oxygen
Naturalizing your property will produce high levels of oxygen due to the soil microorganisms. Soil microorganisms break down compounds and release oxygen which comes through the soil.
When you have a single species lawn the microorganisms die off or there are significantly fewer of them and a diversity of species.
A healthy handful of dirt will have thousands of microorganisms of different species. Which is gained through diversity in the plants and animals that live and travel through that patch of soil.
Another way that oxygen levels will be increased around your house is through vegetation and trees that are planted. Part of their growing and living is through photosynthesis which requires CO2 and releases oxygen. This of course is the very simplified version.
Lastly, to debunk this common misunderstanding, the majority of our oxygen is sourced from the ocean and not just forests, though forests are very essential in many many other ways.
6. Naturalized and garden properties have cooling effects
Whether your property is covered by native species or by a garden, there is more shade produced that keeps the area cooler when the sun is out heating up the area.
The heat island concept is essentially when the sun is absorbed by all of the concrete and buildings, rather than 80% of it being reflected by vegetation as it naturally should be.
Anytime that you check the weather reports in a major city the temperature is usually a degree or more warmer than just outside of the city. This is why, and it goes beyond just cities, but individual properties.
Having a lawn of a single species is ineffective at reflecting enough sun to be worthwhile to cool down your property.
Goring a garden or having native species like trees and shrubs will be much more effective at reflecting the hot sun.
How cool you keep your property affects how cool your house stays during the day and how much you pay for air conditioning.
Naturalizing your property or keeping gardens will save you a significant amount of money on air conditioning and fans running.
7. Provides soil stability and prevents run off
Grass does not root very deep when it is maintained short. Trees, natural wild grasses, wild flowers, and shrubs have very deep roots and provide structure for the soil.
There are mobile and immobile nutrients in soil. Immobile nutrients aren’t completely stationary as they do, over time, diminish with rain and run off from lack of stability and uptake.
Having a variety of plants means that there is a variety of nutrient needs from the soil. Everything is utilized at some point.
The issue with grass is that it only requires certain nutrients which in turn can lead to over time unhealthy and desert soil conditions.
Having more nutrients running off of lawns means that the water that carries these nutrients further into the soil or into the sewers means that there are higher nutrient contents being dumped into the waterways.
The high nutrient content can lead to eutrophication in lakes. Eutrophication when out of control means the overproduction of algae which kills lake bottom species. This leads to a decrease in the oxygen available in the water and this kills aquatic species such as fish.
8. Naturalization and gardens are better for mental health
Putting your hands in the dirt and watching something that you did grow boosts your feel good hormones and in turn aids in managing mental health.
A common suggestion for people who struggle with depression, anxiety, and SAD is to spend time in nature and do planting, or grow a garden.
There are many healing properties that nature offers, and having your own little forested backyard can be a great way to motivate yourself to get outside.
There will be no more excuses that the closest natural area is too far away, because it is in your backyard, and you can find a pride in knowing that you planted the species and they are thriving.
The act of planting is also therapeutic, similar to art therapy, gardening therapy is very effective for people who aren’t as artistic and/or enjoy time to themselves.
The consistency, and the early mornings required for gardening will also help with people who struggle to get up in the morning. Gardening and naturalization provide purpose.
9. Gardening is not a chore like tending to a lawn is
Gardening is satisfying and motivating, as you watch beautiful flowers bloom, fruit grow into edible delights, and trees grow taller than your house where birds can make homes and squirrels can play in.
Watching your yard come to life because you made it that way is exciting.
Managing a lawn feels like a chore that you have to do. Whether to compete with your neighbours, or to do it out of obligation, mowing, trimming, weed wacking, and weed pulling is tedious and feels useless because you do it every week just to see the exact same outcome.
Gardening and naturalization offers the opportunity to watch things grow and flourish, rather than every week killing off any growth.
Unless one enjoys killing and uniformity, lawns will not be beneficial.
10. Gardens and naturalization improve soil conditions
As previously stated throughout the other points, is that having a garden and natural property offers nutrients for microorganisms and small critters to thrive.
This can be beneficial for the soil, the plants, oxygen, and cooling effects on your property.
Having healthy soil will also increase the ability of water to move through your soil meaning instead of water falling on grass, pooling in low spots and running off into the street or onto your driveway, it will drain through the soil and add to the ground water naturally occurring underneath the soil.
A natural property provides nutrients through natural decay of plant parts such as debris that falls off of trees, or grasses and wild flowers that decompose every winter. The layers are decomposed with the use of carbon, small bugs like earthworms, and microorganisms.
These layers become incorporated into the soil from mixing and compaction over time. Creating a combination of plant organic matter, parent rock material, and water/air pockets.
Final Remarks
I have now discussed 10 reasons why having a naturalized property and/or a garden is beneficial. I hope that at least one point resonated with you.
When the day comes that I have my own property, I plan on naturalizing my property with native wildflowers, trees, and grasses with strategy and design, then the rest of my property will consist of gardens ranging from fruit to vegetable to medicinal herbs. I do not plan on growing a lawn.
I would like to make a blog post discussing invasive and non-native species in more depth, and there will be more blog posts about gardening coming up soon.
I am working on propagating orange trees currently, I am so excited to see how they grow! I plan to keep updates going for these little guys too.
Thank you so much for reading my thoughts and opinions, and if you want to hear more as well as learn some new great vegan recipe ideas please don’t forget to subscribe to my blog. You don’t want to miss all of the exciting posts coming up!
Have a great week everyone, and have a happy Monday.