6 minute read
Thoughts from Mary Boorsman ������������������������������
Mary Boorsma, Albert Lea Seedhouse & Garden Center
This will not come as a surprise to my neighbors, but lawns are not my landscaping strength. I know what the ideal lawn looks like, and sometimes I aspire to this ideal. Every time I mow, I think about how I’m going to treat my lawn for weeds, aerate in the fall, fertilize regularly, thatch and over seed, water when it’s dry and do everything right. Then I go inside my house, where a hundred other things are begging for my attention, and I forget about my lawn until the next time I mow. It’s the classic story of the monkeys in the rainforest. When it would rain, the monkeys would huddle miserably under banana leaves and tell each other about the great shelter they would build to keep themselves warm and dry when it rained. Then, the sun would come out, the monkeys would dry off, and they would forget all about the misery of the rainstorms. I, too, am a monkey with a short attention span.
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Like a rainstorm, the state of my lawn can cause me some discomfort. One’s lawn is, after all, the first thing one’s neighbors see and it’s easy to draw conclusions about the moral fitness of a home’s inhabitants from the front yard. Lawn ornaments like broken washers or rusted-out cars say something to those who pass by. Likewise, a well-manicured swath of carpet like green also speaks loudly. Humans have a deep-rooted attraction to a smooth, unbroken, clipped lawn.
At the Seed House Garden Center, the staff can spend entire days doing nothing but helping customers maintain their small patch of collective green: Discussing the merits of fine fescues versus perennial rye. Weighing the pros and cons of sulfur-coated urea versus poly-coated urea. Peering at the active ingredients of broadleaf weed killers and teaching folks the advantage of spreader stickers. Lawns are big business.
Here are a few lawn facts, courtesy of John Green, Bestselling author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist:
“*There are around 128,000 square kilometers of lawn in the U.S., greater than the size of Ohio, or the entire nation of Italy.
*To keep all the lawns in the U.S. green year-round requires, according to a NASA study, around 200 gallons of water per person per day, and almost all of the water shooting from sprinklers is treated drinking water. *To thrive, Kentucky bluegrass (the most common lawn grass) often requires fertilizer and pesticides and extensive watering and it cannot be eaten or used for anything except walking and playing on. *In short, the U.S.’s most abundant and labor intensive crop is pure, unadulterated luxury.”
It has taken me a long time to put my lawn in its proper place. I still hunger for a beautiful front yard. However, the fact remains: unless you own a golf course, a lawn is a hobby. Like painting. As painters assemble their palettes, paints and brushes, a lawn enthusiast assembles a mower, trimmer, water, seed and a wide range of chemicals. The hobbyist pours hours of attention and effort into a lawn and at the end of his or her efforts, there is something beautiful to look at. I will gladly keep my front yard free of broken cars and piles of debris. I will mow and weed and occasionally water. But at the end of the day, this monkey would much rather pour hours and attention into making cookies for my family or cutting flowers from my garden to give to a friend. Lawns are just not me.
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