2013 My no-mow philosophy

Steven B. Zwickel

October, 2013

I have never been a big fan of lawns and never enjoyed mowing at all. The house in Brooklyn where I grew up in had a tiny patch of lawn in front that we shared with the neighbors and a small grass lawn in back. With a push mower, I could do both in about ten minutes, including the time it took to shlep the mower from the front of the house to the back.

Needless to say, we didn’t put a lot of time, money, or thought into lawn care. But, when I was planning to get married outside on the back lawn, I spent quite a bit of time turning over the soil, seeding, fertilizing, and watering. Of course, it rained the day of the wedding, so we got married inside, but we did get a few photos of us posing outside on the lawn under an umbrella.

We now live in a house that has both a good-sized yard in back and a smaller one in front. For many years, mowing was one of my chores, in seasonal rotation with shoveling snow and raking leaves (the price we pay for living on a street with dozens of wonderful old trees). 

It was my wife’s idea to let ground cover take over the back yard. She turned to me one day and said, “Steven, how would you feel about not having to mow the grass any more?”

I am truly blessed, I think, to have such a wife. Not having to mow? What a great idea! I started thinking more about the grass we use for lawns and I learned that it is actually an invasive species. According to the Scotts Company, all the grasses we use for lawns in America comes from other parts of the world. Fescues come from Asia and Europe, zoysia from Japan, others from the Caribbean, West Africa, China, and other places <http://www.scotts.com/smg/goART2/InfoHowTo/where-does-your-grass-come-from%3F/16600006>. By getting rid of the grass, we are helping the environment! Who knew?

So, we let the backyard go without mowing to see what would happen. Soon we had a lovely woodsy-looking yard. Now, some might call them weeds, but they provide a beautiful green texture to the ground and over the years my wife added to the greenery. She planted lilies, hosts, bushes, self-seeded trees, and other shrubbery. It looks like a patch of the forests that were originally here and we, and our neighbors, like it a lot.

The front lawn was more of a problem. A previous owner of our house had done some serious damage to the soil. We tried for years to grow grass out there, but the poor soil and the deep shade from the trees kept it from taking. I planted two dozen different varieties of hostas on half the lawn and those took off. After searching for a good-looking, fast-growing ground cover, we found something called Moneywort (also called Creeping Jenny). It spread quickly and has almost completely replaced the shabby patch of grass in front of our home.

We seem to have started a movement. I see some other houses in our neighborhood have replaced parts of their lawns with hostas and ground cover. Some are using Moneywort as ground cover. So, join the crowd: get rid of your grass and pitch your lawnmower. Save your summer days for quiet relaxation instead of pushing noisy, smelly, engines around to keep an invasive species growing.