State officials gather to promote grass
By adamg - 4/22/10 - 10:17 am
State officials celebrated Lawn Care Month at Paul Revere Park in Charlestown:
"From the aesthetic to the ecological, lawns are often overlooked for the significant benefits they provide to our daily lives," said Commissioner Soares. "I encourage residents to visit their local garden centers to learn more about good lawn care practices that are best suited to their lifestyles and our environment."
Huh, what about all the water that's wasted in the mad pursuit of Fenway-style lawns and all the runoff from fertilizer and Grub-Be-Gone that bespoils local waterways and aquifers?
Comments
wow even lawns are
wow even lawns are ecofriendly now?
In reality they aren't much better than concrete. They require maintenance, predominantly using gasoline-chugging and pollutant spewing machines. They compact quickly, and ultimately are similar to concrete and asphalt in terms of stormwater runoff. To keep up with the Jones' emerald green carpet many will resort to fertilizers and other nasties that end up in groundwater or the harbor. They are monocultures that invite and act as a conduit for pests, diseases and invasives. They require inordinate amounts of irrigation.
Outside of the UK or Ireland, a lawn is about as unsustainable as it gets, despite their "green" hue.
I use a reel mower - no
I use a reel mower - no gasoline. My lawn is so compacted that I just had water in my basement twice in a week. I use fertilizer every few years, and pesticide once in the last twenty. My lawn is not a conduit to pests, disease or invasives, and I don't water unless I'm filling patches with seed.
Have a nice day.
Your basement flooding in the
Your basement flooding in the period of back to back of 50 year storms is not necessarily an indication of your lawn's ability to percolate healthfully. And despite all that rain I wonder how many weeks until you have the sprinkler going.
Thanks, you too.
Never watered my lawn, such as it is....
...over the course of 7+ years in Georgia and 12+ years in Boston. And I too have used a reel mower the whole time (even when dealing with a BIG lawn down south).
Why so much antagonism towards people who happen to have houses with lawns. (I watch with joy the increasing mossification of our back yard -- no maintenance needed at all for this).
Moss rules
A friend in Bedford let her back "lawn" (tufted dirtpile) go to moss a few years back and let the native shrubs cling to the fenceline. The result? Lovely, low-maintenance greenery. I think "lawn" needs to be better defined in this discussion. The Flagstaff resident with a quarter acre of Kentucky Bluegrass is certainly doing a lot more damage than, say, a JP lot given over to clover.
Right, I shouldve known my
Right, I shouldve known my audience before proselytizing....
You/us push-mowing, non-watering, weed-welcoming blue state hippies should be excepted. But somehow I'm thinking that the people paying the lobbyists that pushed for "Lawn Care Month" are not promoting moss-invaded, tufty, seasonal yards.
At least one of the state's linked articles...
...is very eco-friendly:
http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/resources/lawn.htm
Another real-mower owner raises hand
But these days it mostly stays in the shed because the weeds masquerading as a lawn around our house have sucked up enough iron from the soil that the mower only bends them, rather than cuts them, and then they pop back up and put their little weedy fingers to their little weedy heads and give me a big Bronx cheer.
So then I go get the (electric) weed whacker and show them what's what.
No flooding here, ever, but that's one of the advantages of living on the side of a hill, I guess.
No weed whacker for us....
Just an old-fashioned (maual) weed cutter: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Uf2gRh50L._SL500_.jpg
;~}
That just makes me want to ..
Scythe ...
We also have a grass scythe...
...but it got superseded by the easier to use weed cutter.
If one lets things get too out of hand, one gets very sore using either of these implements. ;~}
Oh, that cuts to the core
If I wrote about this, I think I'd include it in my clippings.
Park Vs Mall
The Paul Revere Park is the one in Charlestown and the Paul Revere Mall (what I think you're thinking of) is the one in the North End. One is very grassy while the other is very not.
Ugh, thanks
Fixing now.