Front Lawns

The Dandelion King

As I’ve told my neighbors, I feel bad about lowering the value of their property. I mean, it isn’t my goal to have a front yard that, by standard reckoning, is unattractive. The unkept look of my lawn is just a byproduct of a conclusion I reached a few years ago: the war on weeds, though not unwinnable, isn’t winnable at a morally acceptable cost.

I hope you’ll agree with me. As the spring lawn-care season unfolds, I’d like to enlist you in the war on the war on weeds. I want you to aspire to make your yard look like my yard...

I soon learned that the carpets of green in suburbia are the product of assiduously applied chemicals. “Pre-emergent” herbicides are laid down more than once in the spring (mixed in with the fertilizer) to sabotage the germination of crabgrass, dandelions and other undesirables. If this fails, post-emergents may be applied en masse. And as the summer wears on, local pockets of resistance can be wiped out with a spray canister of poison.

As I’ve already suggested, my eco-friendly ethos dovetails suspiciously with my laziness. Waging a war on weeds takes more time and energy (or money, if you outsource it) than just mowing the lawn every once in awhile. (I’m not so radical as to oppose lawn mowing, though I recommend push or electric mowers over gas guzzlers.)

I certainly applaud less lazy people who craft eco-friendly carpets of green in labor-intensive ways — researching and implementing elaborate “organic” weed-suppressant strategies. And I have nothing against people who can hire a battalion of weed pullers. But for me, the practical way to have an eco-friendly lawn is to have a weedy lawn.

The first step is for you to look at your neighborhood anew. Next time you see an unblemished expanse of grass, think about the chemicals that probably got dumped in your vicinity to create it. Are you grateful for that?

And next time you see a yardful of sprouting dandelions, note that they look remarkably like things we call “flowers.” And later, when the flowers turn into fluff balls, look closely at one of those fluff balls and ask yourself whether it’s really so unattractive. Meanwhile, absorb the fact that the lawn you’re looking at is doing nothing to harm pets, toddlers or people in general.

His neighbors would cringe at my yard. From a vegetable garden surrounding by fences, native plant islands and a "lawn" of dandelions, moss, plantain, violets.... Hey, I like it!