Leaving behind lawn labor

To its devoted disciples, the move to smaller, more environmentally friendly lawns is kind of like watching grass grow. Has the idea taken hold? Have homeowners, businesses and institutions begun in any real numbers to question the American ideal of a vast expanse of deep green, thick grass that goes on as if forever? Is anything happening?

Yes, said John Alexopolous, associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Connecticut, who, when advising clients, suggests a lawn no larger than necessary for the client's lifestyle. Having said that, he added, "I would say not as much as you would hope."

"It's kind of a quiet movement," said Glenn D. Dreyer, director of the Connecticut College Arboretum in New London, which sponsors workshops each year on ways to reduce the size of lawns, which typically demand repeated infusions of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and water to remain lush.

"But as people think about it more, they realize maybe there are alternatives to all this chemical nonsense," Dreyer said.

Scientists say these lawns come at considerable environmental cost, and for at least a decade there have been efforts to rein them in. Excess nitrogen washes from the lawns, contributing to algae problems in rivers and estuaries, for example, and lawn mowers contribute to air pollution.

Gordon Geballe, associate dean and a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said he finds it paradoxical that people will hang a bird feeder in the same yard they bombard with pesticides that kill insects and plants the birds could feed on.

Things are changing, if slowly. Some towns, through their zoning, now insist that, when subdivision land is cleared, stands of trees be left, which can help reduce lawn sizes once the houses are built. And many larger institutions, often motivated by the desire to keep labor costs down, have converted lawns that had to be mowed every week into meadows or minimal-care plantings.

One problem is that people sometimes don't know what to do if they have a massive lawn that has been intensively cared for. One solution is to convert it to what Geballe calls a freedom lawn. You don't fertilize it, or treat it with pesticides or water it. It won't be as uniformly perfect as the intensely managed lawn, but it will be tough, and it will grow, he says. Allow parts of that big lawn to go to meadow, and even the amount of mowing is reduced.

Alternatives such as wildflower meadows or shrub and flower gardens are often used to reduce lawn sizes, though such changes do not necessarily mean less work or expense for a property owner.

"It doesn't necessarily make your life easier; I think it does make your life more interesting," Geballe said.

Even a meadow, for example, "takes some care, more than just planting it and walking away," Alexopolous said. "I think that can discourage people a little bit."

Still, Alexopolous said, one obvious benefit of a smaller lawn is that it means less mowing and, with planning, can mean less work overall. Alexopolous said many people with an acre or more of lawn to care for are "crying for help. They could easily reduce it by half and still have the most beautiful lawn."