Each year Americans pursue with near fanaticism the "great American lawn." Ironically, the aesthetic concept of the lawn is hardly American; it originated in the late eighteenth century among English aristocrats. The U.S. colonies adopted the lawn aesthetic in an attempt to tame the prairies of the new country and mimic the sophistication of the old world. By the twentieth century, the U.S. Golf Association and the Garden Club of America jointly had successfully made it de rigueur to maintain a cropped green lawn and a manicured garden.
However, these great swaths of exotic turf don’t come cheap. They require watering, fertilizing, and mowing. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that since the 1960s, scientists and lawn experts have been searching for ways to enjoy thick green grass without the weekly maintenance of mowing. They have met with limited success. In fact, science currently offers only two options. One option is to use growth regulators. According to Ken Diesburg, who studies turf grasses at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, growth regulators, such as Proxy, can force grass to produce thick turf by shifting the plant’s hormonal balance. Instead of taller shoots, plants produce branches from which a thick turf forms.
The other option is that new bugaboo, genetic engineering. Currently, the Scotts company is developing a genetically engineered (GE) grass that needs less mowing and weeding and is resistant to drought and disease. Of course, genetically engineered grass raises environmental questions. Members of the American Society of Landscape Architects have petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop Scotts from conducting field tests on this plant, on the grounds that releasing GE plants could have unexpected consequences. Dwarf plants could cross-pollinate with standard plants and stunt the growth of their offspring. Children and animals could eat the grass, with unknown results.
Bill Scheffler, owner of Bio-Lawn care company in Naperville adds that while artificial lawn regulators may be nontoxic, they are synthetic substances, and they still unbalance the soil. "Synthetic molecules are too strong for nature to break down. Instead of enhancing the soil, chemical lawn care products deplete the soil of valuable nutrients and leave lawn that is vulnerable to insect and disease problems," says Scheffler. "Why do you think grubs feed on so many lawns?"
Luckily, we do not have to choose between endless labor and mindless science. Those who hope to approach lawn care from an environmental standpoint can opt to plant a number of native, low maintenance, and low-growing alternatives.
For example, Prairie Nursery, a source of wildlowers and native grasses in Westfield, Wisconsin, has developed a natural no-mow grass seed. It’s a blend of six low-growing fescue grasses including hard fescue, chewing fescue, sheep fescue, and the native red fescue (Festuca rubra), a cool-season bunchgrass. The No-mow grass forms a soft four- to six-inch dense turf. According to Neil Diboll, "Fescues are the best adapted slow-growing turf grasses for upper Midwest and northeastern United States and southern Canada. These cool-season grasses are shade tolerant, stay green all year, and because of their deep root system, are very drought resistant. They require little if any watering or fertilizing."
Fescues germinate rapidly and seedlings establish quickly. Many customers mow fescue lawn once a year at four inches in June, when the seedheads appear. This results in a low-maintenance, semi-wild turf that requires minimal maintenance. In shady areas, fescue often will not produce seedheads due to limited sunlight. You do not have to mow fescue lawn in these situations at all. For those that prefer a more manicured look, monthly mowing is recommended.
Diboll admits to having excellent results with this product when used in the appropriate situation, which includes well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade. However, he warns that No-mow is not recommended for wet soils, deep shade, or clay soils that exhibit standing water after a rain. For more information on No-mow grass, contact Prairie Nursery Inc., Westfield, Wisconsin at 800-476-9453.
A lawn is admittedly a difficult thing to establish and maintain in deep shade. So Pat Armstrong, owner of Prairie Sun Consultants and a frequent lecturer on wildlife landscaping, suggests scrapping the manicured look and planting Pennsylvania Sedge (Cares Pennsylvania). Its creeping foliage forms a lush six- to eight-inch carpet in well-drained soils in moderate shade. It survives various degrees of shade and competition from tree roots. And it thrives in the Chicago area. In fact, the city of Highland Park’s brochure, "Planting in Ravines" suggests that homeowners plant Pennsylvania Sedge in the many densely shaded ravines that characterize Highland Park and surrounding areas. If it works for the deep shade of ravines, it can probably work in the shade of your backyard.
In fact, both your backyard and your front yard can be the very picture of landscaping success, if you’re willing to look beyond the eighteenth century aesthetic of the English lawn. This spring seems like the perfect time to declare independence from both that obsolete aesthetic and the tyranny of mowing. With no-mow and native grasses, you can help support a truly healthy, truly American landscape — and add to your leisure time in the process.