Question Earthority!

It’s that time again. I’m looking out the window at a lawn much in need of mowing (my little city’s government strictly enforces a 6″ limit on grass height, and it looks like about 5 7/8″ out front).

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been looking into ways to replace some of the open, grass-covered areas in my lawn with lower-maintenance landscaping. I’ve told myself that it’s because I don’t like wasting water and electricity (yes, I use an electric mower — at least the pollution is produced at the power plant instead of outside my window), but really it’s mostly because I don’t much like mowing. Fortunately, This week’s backgrounder says that my laziness and the saving the environment coincide!

Other coincidences also make me feel better about the landscaping’s environmental effects. Three large shade trees (two oaks and a pine) keep lots of sun off my roof in the summer, and two of them shed their leaves for more sunlight in winter. Several flowerbeds, which I’m trying to get a proper balance of perennials in, reduce the open turf space. I’m going to look into low-water-consumption, hardy perennials this summer or next spring. On the south side of the house — lots of sun — I’ve replaced grass with mulch and stepping stones. There’s no room for trees there (it abuts a neighbor’s driveway), so I’m thinking of cacti or some such to make it a pleasant, low-maintenance walkway.

It’s the back yard that’s problematic. Always full of children’s toys, and a riot of weird growth except in the shade, where the constant traffic of young feet keeps grass from taking root. I’m going to ratify nature’s decision there and see what kind of hardy, low-moisture ground cover I can put near the house, then concentrate on making the grass lawn look like a grass lawn instead of a disaster movie set with some clover on it.

I figure in five years or so, I can have mowing down to a five-minute-per-week job. And I can tell myself it’s all to save the earth.