A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent

I didn’t start out wanting to get rid of all the lawn around my house but somewhere in the process of converting grass to garden, bed by bed, it became the goal.

We moved to our current home 5 years ago and started the slow conversion. I didn’t have an overall plan. Each garden area evolved depending on the best use for the area. The sunniest part of the back yard became the obvious spot for the raised beds, our square foot garden. Although the raised beds were originally surrounded by grass, it quickly became a bother to mow so we covered that area with old carpet remnants and spread straw on top: an instant, defined, garden spot.

Several garden beds, and years, later the back yard had only one patch of grass left and we decided to plant it to lavender. That was last year’s project. I covered the lawn with weed cloth, cut holes in the cloth where each lavender plant went, laid down drip irrigation, and then spread the area with straw. We didn’t like the look of the straw this year and have started producing our own mulch that we like much better (more on that another time). The lavender is currently my lowest maintenance bed and it’s looking great.

This article is being written as we approach the replacing of that last bastion of Americana, the grassy front yard. Why is it so hard to take that step? What is it about our lawns that we feel so nervous about eliminating them?
Where did this love affair with the big green lawn around our houses come from? Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, producing up to 5 percent of the nation's air pollution. One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. And speaking of emissions, the EPA states that 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year while refueling our lawn equipment. That's more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska! Shocking! Isn’t that enough of a reason to retire our gas lawn mowers?

Lawns are great for children, but once that stage of family life was completed I wanted to move on to what I feel are more attractive uses of the area around the home. The weekly mowing of a lawn, using our battery-powered mower, has never been our strong suit as our neighbors can attest. Those dandelion flowers that distributed their seed down our street to everyone else’s yard won’t be missed a bit, except by the goldfinches, perhaps.
I already have more garden areas than I can easily maintain and know that I can’t handle any more. Well, maybe I can squeeze in one more (garden installation really is my favorite part), but the front yard is a large area that needs a virtually maintenance-free plan. That is the most important consideration for the current front lawn space. Next issue I will write about the process of converting and will explore a couple of methods that I am considering to eliminate the lawn and replace it with a low maintenance and low water use ornamental garden.

Holly Barnes is enjoying the best season of the year in her garden with the sights, sounds and smells of nature.