The quintessential American home includes a lush green front lawn. Growing up, I always wanted a suburban home with a large grass lawn. That is until I had it. At 25 years old, I purchased an older suburban-style house with a big grassy lawn in the front and back. It is the type of neighborhood where most inhabitants take pride in their lawns, keeping them trimmed, tidy, and free of weeds or dead patches. As a newcomer to the neighborhood, I followed suit, feeling a sense of pride from a nice-looking neighborhood. But after a year or two, I began to wonder why we (as a society) have decided to keep lawns in the first place. I, and most of my neighbors never use the lawn for anything. It is simply there as a costly chore. The only time most step foot onto their grass is when they’re tending to it (mowing, weeding, fertilizing, etc.) I live in a drought-prone region that often implements water bans, meanwhile, new developments continue to build new homes with grassy lawns requiring water. When I was a child, I recall my aunt being seriously injured when a lawn mower passed over her foot. And I recall when a neighbor’s window was smashed from a rock flung by the spinning blade of a running lawn mower. I began to think about the financial cost, the time I had been allocating for upkeep, the waste of water, and the risk to myself and to property, and wondered, why do we do this to ourselves?

Water Consumption

As I began to research this topic, I realized that it’s worse than I thought. Grass lawns have become the de facto option for residential groundcover across North America, regardless of whether the climate is tropical, desert, or somewhere in between. Residential lawns take up 2% of land but consume more irrigated water than any agricultural crop (Ponsford, 2020). This comes from 65% of homes having a grass lawn, half of whom regularly water them (Government of Canada, 2023b). The EPA estimates that more than 1/6^th of household water consumption – over 50 gallons per household per day – is used to water lawns (EPA, n.d.). Some American states and counties have implemented measures to reduce residential lawns to conserve water. Minnesota implemented its Lawns to Legumes program, incentivizing its population to convert their lawns into pollinator habitats (BWSR, 2019). In 2023, drought-prone Scottsdale Arizona banned grass in the front yards of newly developed homes (McCluskey & Yan, 2023).

Pesticides

American homeowners use ten times for pesticides per acre of lawn than farmers use on their crops to keep their grass weed-free (The Forest Preserve District of Will County, 2020). These chemicals are harmful to the environment and our health. They can run off into rivers, streams, and lakes harming aquatic life. Many lawn care chemicals are also associated with an increased risk of “several types of cancer, neurological conditions, immuno-response deficiencies, and birth defects… [and] pose risks to our pets” (The Forest Preserve District of Will County, 2020).

Injuries

517 unintentional injuries were recorded in Canada in the seven years between 2011 and 2018, including cuts, lacerations, fractures, burns, and amputations (Government of Canada, 2018). While no deaths were reported because of lawn mowing, serious and permanent injuries are common. Not only is operating a lawn mower dangerous to the user, but it can also endanger others. In the same seven years, 30 bystanders were injured – either being struck or run over (Government of Canada, 2018).

Personal Experience

What is my yearly cost?

• Weed control & fertilizer service: $357/year
• Spring Aeration & overseeding service: $135/year
• Lawn Mower (10-year life): $550/10 = $55/year
• Trimmer (10-year life): $250/10 = $25/year
• General Maintenance & Consumables (fuel, oil, trimmer line, etc.): $100/year
• Water: extra 12m³/mo [summer] (3100gal) @ $4.30/m³ * 5 mo = $258/year
• Total: $930/year

How much time do I spend?

• 5 months of the year, 3 hours per week, around 65 hours/year

By continuing to maintain my lawn, I choose to risk injury and property damage, endanger my health and the local ecosystem with hazardous chemicals, spend 65 hours/year doing unenjoyable chores, and pay $930/year, all just so that I fit into the neighborhood. Does anyone else think this is crazy? While I wholeheartedly disagree with all of this, I am also unwilling to let my yard become unkempt or fork out the cash for a costly landscaping project to replace the grass with something else. Instead, I have realized that the suburban home and lifestyle are not for me, and I am seeking to move to an urban community that does not put unnecessary value on useless lawns.

References:

BWSR, M. (2019). Lawns to Legumes: Your Yard Can BEE the Change | MN Board of Water, Soil Resources. https://bwsr.state.mn.us/l2l

EPA, U. (n.d.). Outdoor Water Use in the United States [Choose from the 8 types, choose only 1]. Retrieved November 24, 2024, from https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/www3/watersense/pubs/outdoor.html

Government of Canada. (2018, August 16). Lawn mower-related injuries—Data Blog—Public Health Infobase | Public Health Agency of Canada. Lawn Mower-Related Injuries. https://health-infobase.canada.ca/datalab/lawn-mower-blog.html

Government of Canada, S. C. (2023, December 8). Outdoor water usage by households, Canada, provinces and census metropolitan areas (CMA). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3810028201

McCluskey, M., & Yan, H. (2023, July 13). Scottsdale bans natural grass in front yards of new houses to conserve water amid Arizona’s drought | CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/us/scottsdale-arizona-grass-ban-new-houses/index.html

Ponsford, M. (2020, March 26). Designing an end to a toxic American obsession: The Lawn. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/lawns-american-yard-us/index.html

The Forest Preserve District of Will County. (2020, April 8). When it comes to our lawns, many of us are keeping up with the Joneses. Accelerator. https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/when-it-comes-to-our-lawns-many-of-us-are-keeping/