Is it time to ditch the high-maintenance front lawn? | Canada Voices

At Vancouver’s BC Place, one of the biggest stars of the World Cup doesn’t play for Canada, Qatar or any other team. It’s the pitch itself – an engineered mix of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, praised by players for its optimal slip-resistance and bounciness.

These days, though, grass has been getting a bad rap. Critics point to the significant amount of water, fertilizer and time it takes to maintain.

Here, experts weigh in on whether it’s time to love or leave the lawn.

Are lawns really up for debate? They’re everywhere.

For some, that’s exactly the issue.

The David Suzuki Foundation has been mapping lawns in seven Canadian municipalities.

“In Toronto, there are nearly 80 square kilometres of lawns, which is roughly 50 times the size of High Park,” said Jode Roberts, a spokesperson for the organization. “In Montreal, there are 97 square kilometres, or roughly 43 times the size of Mount Royal Park.”

And that’s a bad thing?

“Lawns are not exactly environmental overachievers,” Roberts explained. “A conventional lawn is a bit like a giant green carpet. Some ecologists have called them green deserts. They’re tidy and familiar, but they don’t provide much food or shelter for bees or birds or local wildlife.”

Despite that, they require ongoing maintenance.

“I often say lawns suck,” said Roberts. “That’s because they do suck resources. They suck water. They take a lot of time and energy to maintain, to mow and fertilize.” (In North America, lawns are responsible for up to one-third of municipal water usage during the summer).

Then why are lawns so popular?

Lawns have a long history. For hundreds of years, they were a status symbol for the aristocracy – people who had so much land they didn’t need all of it for sustenance farming, and enough money to afford the staff needed to maintain the grass.

Lawns became increasingly attainable for less ritzy folks with the advent of mechanical lawn mowers, sprinkler systems and suburban housing developments. To this day, they remain a powerful marker of middle-class modern life.

Is it still all about status?

No, there’s more. For all of their faults, lawns offer tremendous utility.

Sara Stricker has a PhD in plant biology and works at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute, an organization at the University of Guelph focused on lawn care and maintenance. She pointed out that lawns are great places for kids and pets to play. “They’re also great for backyard weddings, picnics, barbecues, sports like soccer,” she said.

Lawns also trap dust, produce oxygen and filter rainwater runoff back into our groundwater, which hardscape surfaces such as paved roads can’t do, she added. Cut grass also reduces the habitat of pests such as ticks.

Is there an alternative to lawns?

Roberts runs the Rewilding Communities program with the David Suzuki Foundation, which encourages homeowners to repopulate at least a portion of their lawn with wild flowers and native plants.

“They aren’t zero maintenance – nothing is,” he said. “They tend to need weeding, but also don’t demand as much watering and don’t need to be mowed.”

In addition to easier upkeep, Roberts noted another draw: butterflies.

“People can do simple things to help see more of those in their yard,” he said. “For example, in Eastern Canada, they can plant milkweeds to attract monarch butterflies.”

Butterflies are nice. Why don’t more people do this?

For one thing, not all municipalities allow rewilded lawns. It’s something that Brendon Samuels, a biologist with a PhD from Western University, knows firsthand.

Susan McKee, a resident of Samuels’s hometown of London, Ont., spent 20 years growing milkweed for monarch butterflies.

“When McKee went on vacation, a neighbour complained that her yard was overgrown,” he said. “By the time McKee returned, the city had mowed everything down.”

The event motivated Samuels to start his own wild garden. “I got a ticket saying I was also in violation of the bylaw. It says my lawn couldn’t have weeds, but never defined what a weed was,” he explained.

In successfully challenging the ticket, he also worked with the city to rewrite its regulations and allow for more diverse plant species.

“We live in a time of declining biodiversity. My garden has a number of different native species, including wild strawberries and rose mallow, which is a type of hibiscus flower. It’s amazing to see what the vegetation attracts, including fireflies and butterflies and so many bees.”

So start by checking your local bylaws?

Or fight the powers that be.

Samuels, in conjunction with the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, developed a toolkit for people who want to advocate for changes to their municipal bylaws.

What about making conventional lawns more sustainable?

Al Pinsonneault, president of the Professional Lawn Association of Ontario and a longtime landscaper, said it can be done.

“For example, there are battery powered lawn mowers, and a blend of grass seed that requires less water and fertilizer,” he explained. Pinsonneault recommended seed mixes with 80 per cent tall fescue and 20 Kentucky bluegrass.

Stricker noted that there are also low-lying plants that can be intermixed with grass to help increase the lawn’s biodiversity, such as white clover. “It produces nitrogen, which is a natural fertilizer,” she said. “And it produces a flower that bees love.”

Final verdict?

Love the lawn if you need space for sports and recreation.

Mow no more if you want to get wild.