Why we don’t do lawn care
As a gardening company, we regularly get asked if we do lawn care too. Although lawn care can be lucrative, as of now we do not provide lawn care services. Our focus is on garden beds with an emphasis on sustainability. Lawn care is an area of business we may expand into as the company grows but as of right now, we don’t have the capacity to offer the service at the level we feel is necessary to align with our values.
Lawns can be a great addition to a yard, they offer a tough surface for play, a place to rest & relax, a place for your eye to repose between plantings. However, traditional lawns can have a significant cost on the environment. Conventional lawn care usually relies on excessive water, fertilizer, & pesticide use, as well as gas powered equipment. “Homeowners typically use 10x more fertilizer & pesticides per acre on lawns than farmers use on crops” (Polycarpou, The problem of lawns).
Lawns are typically a monoculture crop which do little to help the pollinators. A great way to change this is interplant your lawn with other plants. Clover is a great addition to a lawn that has been growing in popularity. Clover adds nitrogen to the soil as it grows which can reduce or eliminate the lawn’s fertilizer needs. Another great plant for interplanting is common yarrow. The leaves are soft, it handles foot traffic very well, and is a plant native to Edmonton. There are many hardy groundcovers that can replace grass altogether, like snow-in-summer, native wild strawberry, or Canadian ginger. Not all of these plants will handle foot traffic so consider what you use your lawn for before making a change.
There are ways to reduce the negative impact of your lawn, even if you aren’t looking to add other plants. You can overseed your lawn with a grass species better suited for your region, like a drought tolerant species. Irrigation water can be managed more efficiently by watering early in the morning or late in the evening, as well as watering your lawn deeply & less often. Pests & weeds can be dealt with using cultural control methods. Organic fertilizer can be used (make sure to always follow directions), grass clippings can be left on the lawn, & annual topdressing can be done with a high-quality compost all to help feed the soil in a beneficial way. You can switch out your gas-powered mower for a push mower to eliminate emissions (& the need to buy gas!).
Another way to reduce the impact of your lawn, is to reduce the size of your lawn. "The front yard is typically the most underutilized space on a person's property," Vaccaro says in an article on Better Homes & Gardens. The article’s author Kristine Gill goes on to say:
A 2022 Yardzen report shows that those requesting new front-yard designs are looking for dining areas, firepits, fenceless front porches, and pergolas—elements more typically reserved for backyard spaces. The report also showed a 66% increase in requests for replacing traditional lawns with different ground cover options including flower beds, vegetable gardens, seating areas, and play areas for kids.
We encourage all landowners to consider how their lawn & care practices impact the world. At Flower Power Gardening Company, we think it’s a great idea to use your yard space in a way that truly benefits your life but also helps the environment. We would love to help with projects or provide coaching if you’re looking to convert your lawn to a naturalized space or garden bed, or if you’d like to interplant your turf grass with other plants, like yarrow, or add nitrogen fixing clover.
Until we have the right know how & tools to provide alternative lawn care, that we can scale up to provide as a service, we will be staying off the lawns.
Reference list
Gill, K. (2022, May 23). Functional front yards are spiking in popularity-what could that mean for your curb appeal?. Better Homes & Gardens. https://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/moving/better-homes-and-gardens-real-estate/functional-front-yards-curb-appeal/
Polycarpou, L. (2010, June 4). The problem of lawns. State of the Planet. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2010/06/04/the-problem-of-lawns/