The Superficial Lawn

Everyone's familiar with the bizarre social pressure that an overgrown lawn puts up.

The well manicured lawn is and always have been an article of status. The rich in France and England would have their servants scythe the grass to a uniform height for no other reason than cosmetic effect.

That same effect followed in America throughout the United States' perspective of the Industrial Revolution. The rich would manicure their lot within an inch of it's biodiverse life, while the rest of humanity primarily used their land for gardens.

That kind of attitude transpires even today. The lawncare company Pennington even goes so far to phrase former slaveowners unmanicured fields as a crisis which the invention of the lawnmower was "a glimmer of hope for servantless Americans". The nation saw this trend grow (and biodiversity shrink) in popularity through the 1950’s - the caricature ideal of the suburban sprawl began to form in earnest.

Needless to say, the suburban lawn was cherished and passed down by people who certainly had their priorities straight.

We should pay more attention to the unnecessary environmental impact of lawns

All of this high consideration of appearances comes at an increasingly obvious cost. Biodiversity is down by 40% because of the destruction of habitats and the depletion of food sources for pollinators. Not even to mention the carbon footprint- operating a two stroke gas mower for one hour creates the same volume of greenhouse gas as a car traveling for 350 miles - that's not an exaggeration either.

So what next?

I get it, letting your property rewild altogether isn't an option for most of us. City ordinances and HOA's govern that out of our hands. But we can still make an impact with horticulture and pollinator gardens, which reduces the amount of grass on your land. If you can't change how often you mow, change how much you mow.

Depending on your municipality's source, electric lawn tools could be a much greener alternative to the combustion engines of yesterday. Many electric push mowers have simplified to the point of being equal in price to their gas counterparts. And now, even with the most polluting form of electricity generation, the difference in energy consumption is drastic enough that even the most conservative estimates lean in the favor of electric tools.

Here's what I've done.

After a good deal of research, I’ve found that electric generation for my area is primarily hydroelectric (Watauga, S. Holston dams), which means that the most effective fuel-based carbon cut will be gasoline. I’m stuck with combustion engines as transportation for the time, so I looked towards my field - literally.

A four-stroke engine was employed on my lawnmower that was operated weekly for the mowing season ranging from March to September, paired with a two stroke weed trimmer ran at the same schedule. My lawn took two hours to groom - 52 hours a year. This estimates at a 96 pound carbon bootprint on the back of my neck all for keeping the grass too short.

Realizing this, I ditched the gas motors and purchased electric 40 volt replacements and resolved to only mow every two weeks at the most - producing less than a thousandth of a pound of carbon emissions over the year.

Besides, it was fun to tell my less-than-tolerant neighbors to mind their own when it came to the grass.