The Case Against Lawns

Why you should rewild your garden

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First of all, if you're new here, my name is Sophie. I’m on a journey to slow down, reconnect with nature, and live more intentionally. After moving off-grid, I’m sharing lessons on rewilding, simplicity, and finding balance in a busy world, without any of the fluff.

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If a third of the world’s city lawns were instead planted with trees, we could remove an estimated 6,000,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over 20 years. — Professor Gillman

Drive through any well-off neighbourhood, and you will be met with rows and rows of perfectly manicured, impeccable lawns in all shades of green.

A green lawn has long been synonymous with a family home, a space to allow your kids and dog to play outside. Lawns conjure up images of perfection, of having it all together, of saying ‘hi neighbour’ while you’re pretending to enjoy mowing the lawn.

I remember growing up in a house exactly like it, with a decent patch of grass in the front. We even had the fluffy white dog to go with it, although he probably wasn’t as well-behaved as he should have been. I played on the grass on the weekends and I distinctly remember weekly discussions about who was responsible for mowing the grass.

In most of the houses I’ve lived in since moving to New Zealand, we had a lush green lawn surrounding our home as well. Discussions about who should mow the grass were part of our weekly repertoire as well. Where we are now, we don’t have a single inch of grass, and I couldn’t be happier about that. In recent times, I’ve come to realise that an impeccable, perfectly manicured, lawn is just not the best use of precious land. I also came across some research done by Professor Gillman at AUT, which showed the impact of our obsession with grass.

The environmental impact of your lawn

In the paper, which you can read in full here if you wish, Professor Gillman explains the environmental impact of all aspects of having a lawn. For example, the impact of mowing the lawn. Running a petrol-powered lawn mower for just one hour produces eleven times more emissions than driving the average new car for the same duration. In the U.S. alone, 1.1 to 5.5 million tonnes of carbon are emitted every year due to mowing the lawn.

And it’s not just about the mowing; watering is the other issue. I think we often don’t realise how much water is used to keep the grass green and lush. To put things into perspective, an average New Zealand person uses roughly 220 litres of water a day. Leaving the sprinklers on to water the lawns uses about 1000 litres in one hour. Using a standard garden hose to water the lawn uses about 1500 litres per hour.

In the U.S., about a third of all residential water use goes toward landscaping irrigation, amounting to 34 billion litres of water per day.

In essence, this means that while there is some environmental benefit to having a lawn as a green space, the impact far outweighs any potential benefit.

Photo by Ingo Doerrie on Unsplash

Why do we even have lawns?

Lawns weren’t always around. As I was digging around a bit to learn more, I found out they are apparently a European invention.

In the 16th Century, wealthy French and English landowners decided they wanted a lush lawn to flaunt their success. Interestingly, they didn’t use the grass we use today. Instead, they often used chamomile or thyme, which must’ve smelled amazing and would actually be better for the environment.

When the French and English started immigrating to the U.S. and New Zealand, they brought grass seeds with them to start green lawns to go with their new houses. As I was reading in one of my books from the early New Zealand settlers, a garden had to “look English” to be considered a beautiful and well-maintained garden. A lawn was a sign of wealth because, of course, only wealthy people could afford the help needed to take care of it. This was before lawnmowers were invented, after all.

Things developed further after that, and with industrialisation came the invention of the lawnmower. This made having a lawn slightly more accessible to the average person.

Today, we see green lawns everywhere, and they still are a symbol of wealth and status. It’s something that isn’t even questioned anymore: you buy a house, surround it with lush lawns, and then you’ve made it.

What if we used our green spaces differently?

As mentioned in the quote at the beginning of this article, research (yes, by the same professor) suggests that if a third of the world’s city lawns were replaced with trees, we could remove an estimated 6 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere over 20 years.

That is an incredible amount that would have a huge impact on climate change and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo by Steve Adams on Unsplash

Sustainable Alternatives to Lawns

There are so many other things we could do with these large grassy areas:

• Instead of huge parks with only grass, we could have areas with more trees (more shade!) or even lower shrubs so people can still enjoy some sunshine.

• Vegetable gardens and fruit trees — whenever I see a big lawn I think of all the space that could have been used to grow your own veggies or have a couple of fruit trees. I’m a big fan of growing my own food, even though I’m not very good at it, so this is my favourite option to replace lawns with. You’ll be saving money; additionally, it would mean your food is more local, which is also better for the planet.

• Native plants: the local birds and wildlife will love you for it. Native plants are also native for a reason: they usually need fewer resources to survive in the climate you’re in.

• Permaculture Gardens: I don’t know enough about this, but I’ve been reading up and learning about permaculture, and I just love the whole idea behind it. It’s about creating a self-sustaining ecosystem. My dream is to one day have a food forest. No, that doesn’t mean a forest of potato chips and hamburgers; although I’d be very happy with that too. Instead, it means an ecosystem filled with edible plants and trees.

• Bee-Friendly Flowers: We all know we should be looking after our bee buddies. If we planted more flowers, we’d attract and support many more bees and we’d have more colour in our garden - who doesn’t want that? Grass and lawns just aren’t as attractive to our little bees.

Photo by Den on Unsplash

Personally, we have gone for a mix of veggie gardens, native plants and trees. We are surrounded by native bush and, if you’ve been reading some of my previous articles, the birdlife is thriving here. We don’t have a lawn, and I don’t miss it at all. No lawn, no regrets.

There are so many ways to be infinitely more environmentally friendly than the lawns we have gotten used to. Additionally, most of these options actually need less maintenance, so you can say goodbye to that Sunday chore!

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One thing that inspired me this week

In case you need a little pick-me-up, listen to this short 30sec video. Always puts a smile on my face 😁

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