To me nothing is worse than a 'lawn' gone bad. Meadows, prairies, natural
grasslands are wonderful and filled with life -- Astro-turf or the lawns
made to look like it, not so much. There really is no reason a suburban
'yard' cannot be an environmentally friendly landscape. A well establish
garden that is appropriate for the local climate is almost care free. A cut
grass lawn takes a huge amount of resource in time and chemicals to look
good and it is almost a sterile habitat. I can understand wanting to have a
play area for children but it would be so much better if every
block/neighborhood had a common 'lawn/playground' and houses created
wildlife friendly gardens.

I live in the suburbs of NY long island where many of the houses (very
costly ones at that) have rather dull large expanses of lawn and foundation
plantings that are clipped into ugly cubes. When we first moved here, the
area I liked most had little if any lawns but had many trees and a great
many hostas, mountain laurel, rhodies and azaleas. We could not find a
place there which we could afford and ended up in one of the development
tracks of houses built on flat farmlands. The soil was dead because the
builders had dumped the dirt dug out for the basement on top of the topsoil
and the lawn had done nothing to increase the topsoil over 30 years. For
the last 17 years I have been planting trees and shade gardens and slowly
but surely eliminating lawn. In the fall I gather up the leaves (mine and
the neighbors) and put them everywhere I can. My yard is filled with birds,
dragonflies, butterflies, assorted wild mammals, lots and lots of worms,
etc. None of those things were here when we first moved in. I live in an
area with large areas of sea water but fresh water is needed for the local
wildlife and my ponds work well for that. In the Midwest many farmers put
in ponds and it greatly improved the survival chances of migrating water
birds. Personally I think most people should lived in cities (and our
cities were designed to be people and animal friendly) and more land was set
aside for natural environments. I do not have high expectations but who
knows. Every new generation moves us forward a tad.

Donna

"kathy" wrote in message
...
Yeah, but....
Boy, does it sure wreak havoc in your basic
suburban neighborhood.

The weed seed from the dead lawn across the
street from us is a menace. One fellow is trying
to sell his house and it sure doesn't help to have
this dead lawn making the neighborhood look
tired and uncared for. The neighborhood is helping
out and I hope we can rescue it.

Changing planting to xeriscaping is an idea. There are
lots of good ideas out there. You don't have to have a
lawn but you should not create a problem.

Now country living - anything goes!!

k :-)