Less Grass is Greener

HARTFORD, Conn. -- To its devoted disciples, the move to smaller, more environmentally friendly lawns is kind of like watching grass grow.

Has the idea taken hold? Have homeowners, businesses and institutions begun in any real numbers to question the American ideal of a vast expanse of deep green, thick grass that goes on as if forever? Is anything happening?

Yes, said John Alexopolous, associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Connecticut, who, when advising clients, suggests a lawn no larger than necessary for the client's lifestyle. Having said that, he added, "I would say not as much as you would hope."

"It's kind of a quiet movement," said Glenn D. Dreyer, director of the Connecticut College Arboretum in New London, which sponsors workshops each year on reducing the size of lawns, which typically demand repeated infusions of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and water.

"As people think about it more, they realize maybe there are alternatives to all this chemical nonsense," Dreyer said.

Scientists say these lawns come at considerable environmental cost, and for at least a decade, there have been efforts to rein them in. Excess nitrogen washes from the lawns, contributing to algae problems in waterways, and lawn mowers contribute to air pollution.

Gordon Geballe, associate dean and a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said people will hang a bird feeder in the same yard they bombard with pesticides that kill insects and plants the birds could feed on.

Things are changing, if slowly. Some towns, through their zoning, now insist that when subdivision land is cleared, stands of trees be left, which can help reduce lawn sizes once the houses are built. Many large institutions, often motivated by the desire to keep labor costs down, have converted lawns into meadows or minimal-care plantings. The Connecticut College workshops and other public education efforts also have influenced public taste.

At a house in Fairfield, Conn., landscaper Michael Nadeau's Plantscapes, an organic landscaping company, converted 1,800 square feet of lawn into a rain garden.

"Most people think if they have land, it has to be lawn," he said. But there are many options. At the Fairfield home, rainwater from drainage and roof gutters is directed into a low area that now is planted with plants that prefer periodic inundation. "It's a neat way to allow rainfall to stay on the property, and it allows the use of plants you normally can't use." Gone is a big patch of lawn.

Wildflower meadows or shrub and flower gardens often are used to reduce lawn sizes, but such changes don't always mean less work or expense for a property owner.

"It doesn't necessarily make your life easier. I think it does make your life more interesting," Geballe said.

Even a meadow, for example, "takes some care, more than just planting it and walking away," Alexopolous said. "I think that can discourage people a little bit."

Still, he said, one obvious benefit of a smaller lawn is less mowing and, with planning, less work overall. Alexopolous said many people with an acre or more of lawn are "crying for help. They could easily reduce it by half and still have the most beautiful lawn.