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Reconsidering Monoculture Lawns

By Jean Siers

January 23, 2024

I love driving the winding country roads of my new state! I moved to the Delmarva Peninsula about a year and a half ago, and, having grown up in rural Minnesota, find great beauty in Maryland’s agricultural landscape. Sometimes it feels like the entire peninsula is covered with sweeping fields of corn, turning amber in the hot sun; or dense expanses of vining soy beans, waiting for the harvester.

And these crops are a huge part of Maryland’s economy. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maryland has:

439,538 acres planted to corn (that will be used for grain);
512,697 acres of soybeans;
164,831 acres of other grains such as wheat;
29,339 acres of vegetables (including sweetcorn and watermelons), and
4,200 acres of fruits, primarily apples and grapes.

That’s a total of 956,435 acres planted to agricultural crops all across Maryland.

But there is something else green that utilizes even more acreage. University of Maryland Agricultural Extension researchers found that about 1.2 million acres of Maryland are planted to sod. There are more acres dedicated to lawns in Maryland than there are acres dedicated to feeding us. That includes residential lawns as well as commercial uses such as businesses, schools, and churches. Lawns are lovely. Most of us love a place to play catch with a child, let a puppy out to romp, or spread a blanket on warm day to read a book. But those monoculture lawns come with a huge environmental price.

One of the things I love about living here – hot summers which make beach-going fun, and cool winters that encourage beautiful migratory birds to visit – is exactly what makes growing lawns so difficult. Maryland, along with much of the Mid-Atlantic, is in a transition zone, where temperate and subtropical climates meet.

To find grasses that will give us the perfect green carpet we want, we plant non-native turf, which has shallow root structures. Shallow roots (typically no deeper than 3 to 4 inches) require frequent watering. Our sandy loam on Delmarva doesn’t hold nutrients well. That means we have to fertilize regularly. The more we fertilize and the more we water, the greater the chance that those added nutrients will run off into the storm sewer, into a river or stream, ultimately entering the Chesapeake Bay or contaminating our groundwater.

Monocultures are by their very nature not environmentally healthy. The birds we enjoy seeing in our yards need caterpillars and bugs in their diets. Perfect green lawns don’t provide them. Butterflies often need specific plants to complete their life cycle (think monarchs and milkweed, or swallowtails and plants in the carrot family including parsley and Queen Anne’s lace). Bees need flowers (and flowering weeds!) for pollen.

Does that mean we need to plow up our lawns and let them go to nothing but milkweed and Queen Anne’s lace? Not at all. Doug Tallamy, professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and a huge proponent of native planting and biodiversity, says we don’t have to completely ditch our lawns. He encourages homeowners to cut their lawns in half. That can include permeable walkways, beds of native perennial plantings, and native shrubs and trees. If possible, replace non-native and invasive species already in your yard with natives. It doesn’t have to be done all at once. It’s a goal to work toward.

Wondering how to get started? Maryland Agricultural Extension has tons of information on native plantings and native varieties on its website, as well as information on invasive species and more. Then you can spend some of that time you currently spend fertilizing, watering, mowing, and reseeding watching all the birds and butterflies that flock to your yard!

Jean Siers is the Regional Director of Society of St. Andrew’s Delmarva office, a WET board member, and a Maryland Extension Master Gardener Intern.