Mowing the lawn!!!!

Personally I hate mowing the lawn. Not that it is hard work or anything but to me it just seems pointless. With just a look around the neighborhood or out for a drive, I can tell a lot of people don’t share the same sentiment. A lot of people have huge and I mean HUGE lawns that they mow all the time. One of my neighbors has two lawnmowers and he and his son mow at the same time. Mind you some of the lawns I see really do look beautiful but do they really use this lawn for anything other than appearance. My lawn is roughly 30’ x 70’ and I really only use a small path in our backyard. I hear a lot of people talking at work about lawn mowing and a common phrase abouot people that don't mow their lawns seems to be “don’t they have a sense of pride”.

To answer this question it is not really easy to answer without some explanation.

So let me offer up some food for thought;

First let me talk about the possibility of not mowing the lawn at all. Last year I put the lawn mowing responsibility aside for some fun instead. Needless to say the grass ending up getting a little long and I actually got a notice from the city that cited the city bylaw. It said that if I didn’t keep my lawn at a height of 6” or less than I would end up getting issued a citation that would cost me $25.00 and one could be issued every day. Is it just me or does this seem so silly. I don’t know about you but I was brought up to believe that appearances don’t really matter and that it is what is on inside that is more important. At a time when our planet’s natural spaces for wildlife to live in are rapidly declining, wouldn’t you think that a natural landscape is something that would actually benefit the planet as a whole and be something that a municipal government should adapt and embrace? Our town’s imagine seems to be very natural and concerned for its natural spaces but after hearing about this bylaw their image just seems a little superficial.

There are so many ways not mowing could help our planet get back to a healthy status. Here are just a couple of examples.

1. How many people have run over a snake with the lawn mower by accident? Currently 18 of Ontario’s 25 species of reptiles are on Ontario’s species at risk list. Their numbers are declining drastically and replacing our lawns with nature areas and not mowing would provide them with safer places for refuge and most likely help their population numbers increase.

2. How about the big one of using gas and electricity. Everyone is aware of the issue of the energy companies struggle to meet the consumer’s demand for oil and gasoline. Imagine how much gas and oil we could save if everyone stopped mowing the parts of their lawns that they don’t actually use. As for electricity, the energy companies have just introduced the use of smart meters which basically charge us more for using electricity during the day. I can’t really mow the lawn before 6am or after 11 pm can I? Energy companies have such a hard time meeting demands in the summer months they even schedule what they call rolling blackouts. A period of time where they turn off the electricty to a section and then move on to another section after the allotted time is up.

3. I don’t know if every one knows but the once plentiful Monarch butterfly was added to the species at risk list this year due to some very nasty weather that occurred in their wintering zone. Milkweed grows naturally here in Ontario and since the monarch butterfly uses this plant for food I am sure this could seriously help their number replenish much faster if we allowed this plant to be an addition to our backyards.

4. How about our bats. Right now our bats are struggling with a disease called white nose syndrome. Basically this disease causes them to wake up a lot during their hibernation which causes them to use up energy looking for food and water and since it is winter they have a hard time finding food and water so they basically they are starving to death. This disease is expected to affect something like 99% of our bat populations. Anyway back to the lawns, there are a lot of bugs that hang out in a field looking for shelter and the longer the plants in that field the higher the bug population could be. This wouldn’t eliminate the disease from spreading but it definitely would increase the bats breeding since their food source would be plentiful. I imagine in the long term it would give them a greater chance of survival.

5. How about watering, fertilizing and seeding the lawn. There is a cost to all of this as well as what a waste of time just to try and force something to go that doesn’t naturally belong there. I could understand this kind of effort if it was for food. Also where do all of these chemicals go that we put on our lawns to stop weeds from growing or to help the grass grow better? I suspect it goes back into our water system.

6. For me another big one is time and money. The cost of the lawnmower, electricity, extension cords and it takes me anywhere from 20 mins to one hour depending on the length of the grass. Personally I have other things I’d rather spend my time and money on.

I am also lucky to have a significant other that feels the same as I do regarding our lawn. So much so that she even affectionately calls it our heritage meadow.

So I guess I do have a sense of pride but just in much more important issues than appearance. I feel proud of helping wildlife, saving money and my time, reducing my carbon footprint.