In Defence Of Lawns

Lawns Are The Single Greatest Carbon Cleaners

Love your lawn with confidence, knowing that a home lawn is of massive environmental benefit, cooling our homes, reducing air-conditioning costs, providing a place for children to play and adults to relax. Lawns remove carbon dioxide from the air and create massive quantities of fresh, clean oxygen for us to breathe.

In fact, the lawns we all grow clean significantly more carbon from out polluted city air than all our trees and shrubs combined. Responsible lawn ownership is simply the greatest environmental action we can all take to redue carbon pollution and provide clean fresh air for us all to breathe.

So lets forget bogus carbon taxes - which are simply the trading of vapour to make the rich even richer from the taxes of hard working and honest people... we all need to plant environmentally responsible lawns!

With the current trend of massive advertising budgets trying to sell us plastic grass, there is most certainly a lot of misinformation being thrown about these days, not to mention some very convenient instances of not telling the full truth about both lawns and plastic grass.

This is an article in defence of lawns, and when you think about these things, they are really all just common sense. So here we go, let's tell the truth about the pragmatic value of the humble home lawn.

Reduce Air Conditioning Costs

A lawn naturally cools the home, thereby reducing the cost of air-conditioning, which not only saves an incredible amount of money each year, but also reduces CO2 emissions from coal fired power stations which supply our electricity.

Concrete, paving or plastic grass will all increase the temperature of the homes they surround, as well as holding onto ambient heat and keeping the home hotter throughout the nights following hot days.

Plastic grass laid on top of crushed rock can be up to 20 degrees hotter than a real lawn on a hot day, and concrete can be up to 30 degrees hotter than lawn on the same day!

Clean Air

Our cities are full of pollution from many different sources, with the most obvious being the millions of cars we all drive.

The sheer volume of lawns being grown in Australia mean that our lawns are the greatest filters of pollution which transform carbon dioxide into pure clean oxygen to breathe more than any other system we could ever conceive.

Amazingly, it takes just 15 m2 of lawn to produce enough oxygen to keep a person alive!

In the average yard, trees will contribute about 7-8% of total carbon dioxide conversion, shrubs will contribute about 1-2% of total carbon dioxide conversion, and the humble lawn will convert 80 - 90% of total sequestration of CO2.

Without our lawns to clean out pollution and provide us with fresh air to breathe, our cities would be extremely more polluted and more noxious to our health than we could ever comprehend.

There is simply no alternative whatsoever which could achieve anything close to these wonderful feats of air purification like our lawns can.

These positive carbon cleaning results can be further dramatically increased by a few different methods. These include keeping lawns at correct heights, regular mowing which encourages green leaf growth, and either leaving clippings on the lawn to break down and naturally fertilise the lawn, or to use clippings in compost or by digging lawn clippings into garden beds.

The Environmental Eco-systems of Our Cities

Indeed our cities do have environmental eco-systems.

These are the elements of nature which surround us, the trees, plants, shrubs, flowers, lawns, lakes, creeks, parks and ovals, and the bees, bugs, earthworms, birds, spiders, possums and more. Surprisingly, many of our native marsupials have managed to survive and adapt to out city lives and still visit our gardens at night.

Imagine our lives without all of these marvellous aspects of nature surrounding us.

Our soils, lawns and gardens are vital components in this city eco-system. Without them, so many of the wonderful aspects of nature which we all love would simply disappear from our lives forever.

Imagine… no more birds…

It's the circle of life, each component needs the other for survival.

People are an integral part of nature, and we all need to be surrounded by nature in order to feel "human", in order to feel "right", and in order to be both balanced and have any type of quality of life. One of the most calming things any of us can do is to sit on a lawn, under a tree on a Summer's day and having a picnic with our families.

Imagine a home without lawns and gardens… not only would they be ugly and hot concrete boxes, but the simple inability for us to go outside and relax surrounded by a beautiful garden, or for our kids to enjoy their own backyards in safety… just seems incomprehensible.

Pollution, massive rises in power consumption and stifling heat may be the first things which come to mind, and perhaps no more birds living amongst us, but it goes much deeper than these things.

Most importantly, our lawns feed this entire eco-system more than anything else around us. Our lawns are vital for our very survival in our city lives.

Maintenance Costs

Fertiliser Usage: when lawns are fertilised correctly and regularly, there should be almost no nutrient run-off whatsoever. In fact, the nutrients in fertilisers will greatly enhance the health of the lawn, allowing it to convert even more CO2 into clean oxygen. A healthy lawn will also require far less maintenance in the form of weed, pest or fungus control.

Lawn Mower Emissions: firstly, great strides forward have been made to reduce emissions from modern lawn mowers, and secondly, even after lawn mowing, a lawn continues to convert massive amounts of CO2 into clean oxygen. Besides the obvious common sense in this knowledge, the same fact has been repeatedly proven in scientific studies.

Weeds and Pests: the control of weeds and pests is also a consideration. However, by choosing a quality lawn type, the right lawn type for your region and requirements, and by keeping it in good health, a lawn can have almost no weed and pest issues whatsoever.

Example: I have sprayed my own lawn for weeds only once in 11 years, I sprayed 7 years ago, it is a Couch lawn which is one of the most highly prone lawn types to weeds and pests, yet still remains weed, pest and disease free to this day.

Need A Low Maintenance Lawn

If you've hated having lawns in the past because of maintenance times or maintenance costs, and because you never really used the lawn, then there is a real low maintenance lawn option which you'll love, which will allow you to keep a real lawn, and receive all the same environmental benefits which only a real lawn can provide.

There is a lawn type which is extremely low maintenance and provides all the environmental benefits of all lawns - yet needs minimal upkeep.

It's called Zoysia.

It has a fine leaf.
It is low thatching.
It is soft and inviting.
It has low fertiliser requirements.
It has very good pest and disease resistance.
It can be cut low with a cylinder mower, or cut higher.
It has good drought resistance, so it doesn't need as much water.
It has good shade tolerance - (better than Couch - not as good as Buffalo).
It has slow growth rates, so it can be left for a while between mowing.
Even when left for a longer time between mowing, Zoysia still will not overgrow anything like a Couch or Buffalo lawn will, and most certainly nothing compared to Kikuyu.
It stays green longer when it is under stress, unlike Couch for example.

You can pay extra lawn care attention to Zoysia and create a stunning cylinder mowed and manicured masterpiece lawn, equal to any other fine leaf lawn type.

Or you can pay a lot less attention to Zoysia, and it will never become as scruffy, or as long and unkempt looking as other lawn types will.

Zoysia is best suited to all the warmer climates of Australia.
Zoysia is not the best grass for high traffic areas - due to it's slower growth patterns.

The Ultimate Defense Of Lawns

And thats why we say…
Love your lawn with confidence...
Respect your lawn with confidence…
Respect your lawn with a clean conscience…
And respect your lawn for yourself, your kids and your families...

Cool your home naturally.
Love pulling into your driveway.
Contribute positively to the environment.
Have a beautiful home, lawn and garden.
Reduce your energy needs and expenses.
Breathe the clean, fresh air which your lawn created.
Enjoy the birds and other wildlife which come to visit.
Help your kids pitch their tent in the backyard.
Love watching your children play on a beautiful, soft healthy lawn.
Reduce your CO2 emissions, and help to offset the emissions your house creates in other ways.

You may also like these articles:
Zoysia Grass
Choose Zoysia Instead of Couch

Don't forget to see more about Zoysia in our specialised Zoysia section:
Zoysia Lawn Information