"Going Beyond Grass: Turning Lawns Into a Pollinators’ Paradise" [1]
"It’s time to rethink the American lawn: a landscaping default that sucks up money, water, chemicals, and time."
"If you ask someone to name their favorite smells, fresh-cut grass often makes the list. For many of us, it evokes an almost collective memory of an endless childhood summer.
And maybe that’s where grass belongs — in our memories.
Because while most people regard habitat as something wild and distant, our yards were once habitat — before they became a uniform expanse of lawn.
Today about 80% of Americans grow lawns, covering 40 million acres, or 2% of the country. Few of us think of ourselves as grass farmers, yet in the aggregate, grass is the single largest irrigated crop that Americans grow.
It doesn’t have to be. What was once habitat can become habitat again. Habitat that helps sustain pollinators (and therefore a host of other species) can be created — or restored — just beyond the front porch."