Lawn or Unlawn?

Wildflower Spring

Photo by Emmy Ulmschneider

By Emmy Ulmschneider, Master Gardener

To lawn or unlawn, that is the question!    We think of lawns as an iconic American institution.  But our carefully manicured green lawns have their roots in European aristocracy.  Today, from Maine to California we have roughly 44 million acres of lawn, roughly the size of Georgia.  To irrigate all this greenery, we use about 2/3 the amount of water we use to grow our U.S food crops.  In our area, during the summer irrigation season, our water usage more than doubles.  About 70% of our residential water bill comes from water used for irrigation principally for our green lawns.  We are taking high quality treated water and pouring it out on our lands.  And although lawns are easy to maintain, just mow and blow, they have hidden negatives.

Lawns are resource intensive and polluting.  Besides costing money and time to maintain lawns, lawn pesticides and chemicals are toxic.  These toxins can find their way into our ground water affecting both us and our urban wildlife.    Emissions from lawn care equipment like mowers and blowers contribute to urban air and noise pollution.  Lawns require vast amounts of water, time, and money, but provide few of the ecosystem services that benefit both us and our urban wildlife. 

What we do in our landscape matters.  For me, the most important reason to unlawn is that lawns are biological wastelands.  They do not provide the food, water, and shelter that our urban wildlife needs to survive.  As the amount of land that is being urbanized increases the amount of land available to support our American wildlife decreases.  And we are reaching a critical threshold.  A 2019 study estimated that we have lost about 30% of our native bird population.  That also means that we have poisoned or killed many of the insects that are part of the food web that supports our native birds and other urban wildlife.  I have seen this firsthand in the diversity of species and the numbers of individual birds that I see now in my yard.  I miss being woken up by the bird chorus that used to welcome the dawn each day.  For the 2025 State of Birds Report see   https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/u-s-bird-populations-continue-alarming-decline-new-report-finds/

So, shed your last link to an outdated British connection and rediscover your regional American identity with the beauty and resiliency of our native plants.  As you do your part to regain our native landscape, you will welcome back our native American wildlife.  Take the challenge, unlawn and regain our Texas heritage. 

And there are many references to help.  A good place to start is with Doug Tallamy and his Homegrown National Park website.  There are resources to help you plan and plant, listen to Doug Tallamy talk about the benefits of native gardens, and Get on the Map, https://homegrownnationalpark.org/ to regenerate biodiversity and reclaim your American heritage!  For more regional Texas advice visit the Native Plant Society of Texas: https://www.npsot.org/posts/embracing-change-how-native-plants-revitalize-our-yards-and-ourselves/

If you have questions, call the AgriLife office in Odessa at 498-4071 or in Midland at 686-4700.   Additional information, and our blog for access to past articles, is available at westtexasgardening.org.  Click on “Resources

Lawn Alternative: Wildflower Meadow

Photo by Emmy Ulmschneider