food, not lawns
food, not lawns
With respect and patience and openness and love, this is what I mean about the need for the Grass Fandom. This is so specific to specific arid gardening regions, like regions of the United States of America and Australia 🤦♀️ I do appreciate and admire Sigrid, and I see what she’s trying to say here! But this is what I mean about Anti-Lawn-Culture on social media, and why we need to be responsible science communicators. Don’t…. don’t dig up your lawn if it’s healthy and established and it flourishes without much input in your area… in many temperate circumstances your lawn is a colony of beautiful and useful plants that absolutely do provide habitats for native insects AS WELL as doing the great and necessary things that grasses do in domestic settings!
This is why science communication is one of the most necessary things we can do in this day in age, and I am so glad we are doing it. So many good, important, brilliant people are reporting stuff like this in good faith, without going “who is my public? Is it possible that people outside my USDA gardening zone might read this? Is it possible that we are repeating social media talking points, and should we loop in some primary researchers to ensure we are being evidence-based?” And I am so glad that everyone is taking on the social responsibility of science communication, and I hope we will all get better together. In the meantime, remember that advice - particularly gardening advice - only applies to those whom it applies to. If it doesn’t apply to your personal situation, it isn’t for you. It is your responsibility (and nobody else’s) to choose which bits of advice are relevant to your situation (and gardening zone), but you must be aware that not everything will apply (all people are different and the planet is large and complex.)
One last thing? We don’t all have to join the Grass Fandom, but can we PLEASE stop saying “dig up your lawn?” That will make people dig up their lawns. It’s a terrible phrase. It will cause people to take shovels and dig up their lawns. They will then look around trustingly, get confused, and dispose of the turf, that complex network of native microbial organisms, root networks, insect populations, partially broken down organic matter, living vegetable matter and TOPSOIL. And then - knowing people - having exposed their subsoil, they will try to plant in it. This is a slow-motion ecological horror film. If you want people to replace their lawns, then instruct them to kill the lawn humanely - I’m serious - retaining the soil matrix, and recycle all of the green matter back into their property. You can do it by cardboard; layer flattened cardboard boxes over grass to starve it of light, and layer the desired plantings and growing medium directly over it. Or cut up the turf, turn it upside down grass-to-grass, and build your raised bed on top of that (don’t dig!) Or hand-rip grass nodules out, chop up the removed matter and dress it back onto the ground, and hand-plant transitional native ground cover into the gaps. Or plant above it; maybe you live in the right kind of place and you want an orchard of miniature fruit trees; simply dig up the sections where you add trees to the ground, and let the grass grow long underneath, creating a soft and cottagey orchard that naturally mulches the trees. Or lay down one of those mulch blankets full of wildflower seeds, let everything grow long and let them battle it out. Or simply stop caring for it; if it’s truly terraformed, or transplanted into a habitat where it cannot live without life support, then let the lawn complete its life cycle naturally, and continue with your garden plans while ignoring it. Or just leave it alone. Don’t water, don’t add chemicals, just see what happens. Let the poor grass grow long, and let it flower, and let the pollinators come, and let it seed, and let the mammals and birds and insects eat the seeds. Let the secret pathways develop. Grasses are food for a significant portion of the biome. If it can survive in your yard without help, living only on rainfall and getting its own food, then it is likely to be a perfectly acceptable food source and habitat for life around you. Maybe it’s already the native groundcover where you live. Why not look it up online and learn about it? Everything invasive is native somewhere, and vast tracts of the planet are beautiful native grasslands.
With respect, I am willing to risk a distant friendship to say this in public, and I’ll say it until everyone is even more sick of me. If you really want to replace lawns, kill them humanely and compost them down! They’re full of local life! and that’s where all your topsoil is! You can block me if you want, but I’ll still be right. Plantcraft is determined by the local situation! the grass fandom is a grassroots movement! We will not be mowed!
