Whether covering the lawn of the average suburban home or a multi-million dollar golf course, grass has cemented itself as a major part of American culture. It can be seen as a status symbol, a representation of the American dream or the perfect place for your nuclear family to sit in the sun. What else could a person do but give in to the pressure of conformity when every other home looked perfectly uniform? For these reasons, grass has become an overpopular resource drainer that, if anything, does not deserve its place in everyone’s yard.
Grass skyrocketed in popularity after WWII with the assistance of the G.I. Bill, as both of these things led to a suburban housing boom that made prospective buyers idolize that clean-cut green carpet. Advertisers obviously jumped at this growing market of customers, and suddenly lawnmowers looked necessary to live a happy life. And guess what chemists turned to after war was no longer an industry for them? Pest control. While the chemical DDT was helpful for killing disease-spreading insects on the food sent to soldiers, its recommendation for public use brought the bald eagle closer to extinction and, of course, gave people cancer.
This is without even considering the water consumption. In a drought-prone state like California, somehow we still fall into this trap and waste so much water every year. And sprinklers seem to be one of the most easily broken mechanisms in a home, so the water often is not even going into the grass. Most of the time, it’s sprawling onto the sidewalk and somehow running algae into a drain. Returning to the idea of golf courses, now imagine this property was over 10 times larger and had to look perfect for the esteemed, well-paying guests. They can’t have a blade missing or else they will hit the ball wrong! This amount of water consumption is unnecessary and selfish.
Now, the goal is not to convince people to replace their grass with plastic turf; that would only be worse. There is really only one solution: native plants. At the very least, our homes can undo a bit of their disruption to nature by bringing a bit of it back. Not to mention native wildlife is able to live in its environment without any help, so it doesn’t require much maintenance. In California, while it may feel like a compromise to lose the green, our nature is still beautiful. There are plenty of pretty succulents and flowers that survive without more than our infrequent rain. In the times of our emergency droughts, there were even workers who would do this for free. While I don’t recommend only changing in times of crisis, if it happens again consider helping out by making the switch.
While many may have some attachment to their lawn, we must realize that this bond is manufactured, and consider how beneficial it would be to transition our state away from grass. The Earth only has so many resources that us humans canvas until it all runs out. Not to fearmonger, but it is possible the concern turns from a dry lawn to a parched throat, and at that point I doubt anyone will care how perfect their neighbor’s grass is. Grass is overrated anyways.
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