Why Having Green Grass is Still a Good Thing!

With our society becoming more eco-friendly there has been a push to find landscaping and gardening materials that don’t require irrigation. This type of landscaping was first named in Denver, Colorado and has since been known as xeriscaping. While there is nothing wrong with looking for more sustainable ways to garden, is having a traditional grass lawn really that harmful to the environment? Read on and decide for yourself.

Environmental Benefits of Your Lawn

Beautiful, healthy lawns improve air quality, particularly in urban areas with high instances of pollution. Dust and dirt released into the air by automobiles, factories and our homes is trapped in the grass bed and prevented from being re-released into the atmosphere. Once these particulates are trapped, they are used by the plant and soil as nutrients when they are broken down into their basic forms.

As we all learned in science class, grass, trees and plants in our yards take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air through photosynthesis. It has been estimated that a healthy lawn covering 25 square feet will produce enough oxygen during the day to support one human for one day!

Noise pollution can be considerably reduced by plants and other greenery. Believe it or not, our lawns and landscapes absorb and deflect many of the various sounds in our environment. And yet another environmental benefit? The light from the sun is partially absorbed by the greenery in our yards, reducing glare. This small fact leads us directly to our next benefit:

Temperature Modification

Any landscape artist will tell you that the more adult, shade producing trees in your yard, the cooler your home. Everyone knows how nice it is to sit under the shade on a hot, summer day; your home is kept cool by the shade in much the same way your body is. Temperatures in the shade can be up to 14 degrees cooler than the temperature elsewhere. It has been estimated that if every home was properly landscaped, the United States would cut its home air conditioning energy consumption by a quarter. Ripping up lawns and replacing them with rock-scapes has increased the interior temperatures of our homes, and increased our use of electricity to cool them down.

Water Quality

A study conducted at the University of Minnesota, undertaken over a 3-year period, showed that runoff increased when grass was of poor quality and sparsely planted. A healthy lawn prevents contaminating runoff from reaching streams and helps reinvigorate ground water supplies. The roots of a healthy lawn act as a sort of filtration , removing particulates and contaminates from storm water before it reaches ground water supplies. In fact, except during times of above average rainfall, the runoff from a healthy lawn is near zero.

Well-Being

It has been shown that beautiful landscaping can lower a person’s blood pressure and have an overall positive effect on their mood. Hospitals concentrate on landscaping for just this reason. Sociologists believe that the absence of community parks or clean, healthy environments in inner cities can contribute to the social problems attributed to the areas. Don’t believe it? Take your shoes off and walk bare foot through the grass! Not only does it feel great between your toes, but it also provides a natural cushion for your children at play!

While xeriscaping can have a positive effect on the environment and has its place, using this type of landscaping may be doing may be no more helpful to our environment than good, old-fashioned green grass. Homeowners that wish to conserve water and still maintain a lush lawn can choose from a variety of eco-friendly grasses: bluegrass, tall fescue, sheep fescue and buffalo grass are all great options when trying to maintain a lawn without the use of heavy irrigation.

Image by Matt Lavin

Being eco-friendly doesn’t mean that you have to give up your green lawn. The environmental benefits to a properly landscaped yard are many—the drawbacks are few—and you can rest assured that you are doing more for the environment with your landscaping than you would had ever thought.

Jonathan McGraw is a natural landscape designer who writes for naturesfinestseed.com, a great source of environmentally friendly grass seed for your home or commercial projects.