An intriguing article. I was surprised at some of the numbers. The authors had good success at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from lawns though.
4 thoughts on “The green, green grass of home?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
At first glance it is surprising indeed. Actually the fact, that mowing (manicuring) grass could be the subject of scientific research was even more surprising, than the fact that non-carbon-neutral nature of this activity could be a surprise to garden-owners.
I used to cut grass once a month around the house with scythe. I found no reason to dump the gases into the air emitted from burning 2 to 3 liters of gasoline necessary for cutting with petrol-driven cutter. For some reason, my neighbor has this passion and he exercises this on every weekend during summer. Than of course he has to exercise watering as well because the leafs of the grass are not present to shade the ground from the sun and wind…
In the backyard, this is the most ‘remote’ part of the garden from the house, there is an area where I cut the grass only twice a year usually, when half meter length is exceeded. The pathway where we walk is maintained monthly though. There is another area where I haven’t cut the grass since 4 years now. There I can observe, how nature reoccupies that area. Now there I can see some shrubs, few small trees and other kinds of plants growing, ‘planted by’ birds and the wind. Being there allows me to have the feeling as if I were in a meadow and not in a garden. Birds and insects like it too. Last year a male ‘cock’ of Phasianus colchicus (Common pheasant) spend a few days visit there.
Nice. When I had my small farm in North Wales, most of the hilltop was just wild flowers. 19 of the 21 British bumblebee species could be seen at times, many moths and butterflies, and a huge variety of birds, some very rare. Just shows it can be done, Mike 🙂
Interesting article Mike. What is also being of concern, along the same line, are golf courses. There are more and more of them appearing around the world. Quite a number are to be found attached to tourist hotels in many countries, and “golf tourism” is the in-thing these days. Something to look into more deeply perhaps.
That, Ven, is another interesting tale. When I lived in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, there are still large areas of forest, small woodlands, rolling meadows and streams, with associated wildlife. Usually farm land or woodland was not allowed to be built upon. So the wily money-seekers got permission to have a golf course, no doubt in wonderful settings, with little building development (perhaps just a clubhouse, restaurant and small shop). I was surprised therefore to find five golf courses within spitting distance of each other. I imagine, and it may have already happened, that these businesses would sooner or later fail and then the owners would seek permission to build some select and very expensive houses in a nice countryside setting. Seeing as how the golf course was no longer a woodland or agricutural land, there would likely be no impediment for a housing estate 🙁
PS I’d already mentioed the gross waste of water trying to keep golf links green in the desert.