How Much Lawn Does One Household Need?

How much lawn does one household need? A couple of years ago I prepared to do without a lawn entirely. As I transformed our weedy patch of a front yard into a Whitman’s Sampler of gardens, my wife asked: “Can we keep some grass?” I replied with a frown. “Just a little? A lawnlet?”, she asked. At this, I brightened and said, “Well, when you put it that way…”

Now, in between the raised beds of vegetables, the carnivorous plant garden and a bed of meadow perennials you’ll find a cozy, wedge-shaped “bed” of fescue grass — our lawnlet. It’s just big enough for a couple of adults and a black lab named Molly to loll around on. We use this bed for star-gazing at night and flower-gazing during the day.

I can mow this bed in 7 minutes (I counted ‘em) with a sling blade in one hand and a mug of beer in the other, while chatting with neighbors as they walk their dog or push a stroller. Talk about multi-tasking. I’d like to see other lawn-proud gardeners try that.

It may not be to your taste, but don’t sneer at our micro-patch of grass. If you’ve ever envied those fields of fescue on some corporate campus or even some neighbor’s plush front lawn, keep in mind that sustaining a non-native plant like fescue in the southeast is almost as challenging as keeping something as artificial as an aquarium looking good. It takes lots of monitoring and lots of expensive products applied at just the right time and in the right amounts. Much of the problems with fish kills in our rivers and the decline of shellfish on our coasts stem from the fossil fuel-based nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides running off of many square miles of lawn. It’s not a stretch to say that less lawn could mean more seafood.

Maintenance on a large lawn doesn’t just kill seafood, it’s also murder on your free time. While I lounge around on our lawnlet, I might spend about five minutes every month or two hand pulling the few weeds. A couple of fistfuls of organic lawn fertilizer—18-8-6 from Plant Tone—spread on Valentine’s Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving supplement the nutrients from the lawn clippings that I leave in place to decompose. That and a couple of fistfuls of lime every other year to keep the pH up around 6,5 takes about 5 minutes tops. An occasional watering from a 1950’s era sprinkler during the summer and raking the autumn leaves for the compost pile keeps the lawnlet green and lush year-round and no threat to sea life or my relaxation schedule. The best time to start or reseed a fescue lawnlet in our area is Sept. The roots will have all fall winter and spring to establish themselves before summer.

The time we used to spend mowing and tending the front yard when it was all lawn, we now spend cutting flowers, harvesting vegetables and herbs, mulching beds with shredded leaves in winter and laying around on our grass bed watching the clouds, flowers and birds.

So how much lawn does one household need? Some might be happy with no more than a lawnlet. We are.