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Remember rolling around in the grass as a kid? The sense of wonder you felt blowing on a dandelion flower and watching the fluffy seeds float off into the air? Chasing lightning bugs at dusk? And then life got serious. We got jobs and houses and somehow came to believe that dandelions, katydids, and a few wild mulleins were the enemy. After all, don't responsible homeowners beat their happy meadows into manicured swaths of green curb-to-curb carpet?
Respectable maybe, but not responsible. The American obsession with the perfect lawn is both expensive and dangerous. Homeowners apply up to 10 times more chemicals per acre than farmers do. Common lawn pesticides and fertilizers have been linked to various types of cancer, neurological damage, and Parkinson's disease. They're also the leading cause of accidental pet poisoning. Once the stuff is in your yard, your family will track it into the house on their shoes, where it settles into the carpets and cracks in the floor. Atrazine, a popular weed killer, has just been found to cause sexual mutations in frogs at very low doses. What might it do to our kids?
There is a simple solution: Give up the obsession with an emerald green chemical yard. For a naturally healthy and beautiful lawn, set the blades on your mower to a height of about 2½ to 3 inches, mow regularly, and don't rake up the clippings. Let them decompose in place and return their nutrients back to the soil. If you need additional fertilizer, rake in a ¼- to ½-inch layer of compost in spring and fall. With the money you'll save, you can take the kids out for ice cream, bring it home, and eat by the glow of the fireflies.
