First Parish in Concord

Green Sanctuary Group

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Our New Eco-Friendly Lawn

In June, when it was time to plant our new lawn, we chose an eco-friendly grass seed. Currently our eco-friendly grass seed is being friendly to some crabgrass. Here’s more information about the decision to go eco-friendly and what the lawn will look like over the next 12 months.

Background on Traditional Lawns

The classic American lawn needs lots of water, fertilizer, and at least weekly mowing. As a result, 30 percent of fresh water used on the East Coast is for lawn watering. Running your lawnmower for one hour creates more pollution than driving a car from Boston to New York City.

Five billion dollars’ worth of fertilizer used in the United States is made from fossil fuels. Sixty-seven million pounds of pesticides (costing $700 million) is put on American lawns each year.

The most commonly used grass seed is fast-growing, with shallow roots. The shallow roots mean the grass doesn’t get the nutrients or the water it needs naturally, so fertilizer and water must be added. Fast-growing grass means that it not only pops up really quickly when you plant it, but it also needs to be mowed often.

Eco-Lawn Solution

The solution to this problem is a grass seed that grows a 9"–12" root system that enables it to get the nutrients and water it needs from Mother Nature. It is also a grass seed that grows much more slowly, so at maturity it can be mowed once a month rather than once a week. The deep root system also helps it resist insects and droughts. The grass seed we chose is the fescue species rather than Kentucky bluegrass or rye. It will not look different from a traditional lawn once it has matured. And of course we will avoid fertilizer, weekly mowing charges and excessive water bills once the grass is fully established. Assuming we don’t want to use chemicals, the best way to keep crabgrass from growing in our lawn is to have a thick lawn that doesn’t allow the crabgrass the sunlight to germinate.

We took advantage of our relatively cool spring and summer to do a June/July hydro-seeding of the new eco-lawn. Unfortunately that was not early enough in the season to block out the crabgrass, but we did get a head start on a fall seeding. Our plan was to seed in the summer, and then early in the fall add even more seed. The crabgrass will die naturally in late fall. By next spring things should look much better.

Information prepared by Jay Barnes, cochair of the Green Sanctuary Committee

Sources:
NASA:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6019
Purdue University:
http://www.purdue.edu/envirosoft/lawn/src/environmental.htm
People Powered Machines:
http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm
Wildflower Farm:
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com