Green lawns look fine when there’s plenty of water to go ’round, but in these parts (Austin, TX) they just make no sense.  They don’t attract bees, hummingbirds, or frogs, they hardly get used for their intended purpose of playing or lounging around, and they use too many resources to justify their existence. Historically, the lawn is a throwback to the times of kings and queens, when the monarchy sought a sense of calm in their lives by dominating nature and the wild.  In modern times, where people have busier lives, lawns have simply become manicured placeholders for spaces that seem easily manageable.  Now, in an age of shrinking resources such as fresh water, cheap oil, and space, lawns are becoming obsolete. In light of the burgeoning ecological awareness of many urban/suburban dwellers, lawns are dissatisfying when compared to more diverse native “wildscapes” or edible “foodscapes” that are easily installed and maintained and require less finite resources, while having the potential to provide great amounts of output. 

Its nice to know that there are other options out there for people with busy lives who desire a greater sense of wildness around them, a little extra healthy home-grown food, or in the least frogs and crickets chirping at night.  

Just as an example, I replaced my own lawn, which was only one species of St. Augustine grass, with over 20 different species of native, edible, and/or medicinal plants that need little water or maintenance.  Almost all of them are highly aromatic and have unique qualities, attract insect and bird pollinators, and provide colorful, diverse beauty for everyone to enjoy.  There are mulched paths for exploration and a seating area for appreciation. I find myself excited to see the changes that happen every day in the new garden, even though it doesn’t need me to take care of it a lot.  

In comparison, the lawn was just something I passed by every day on the way to and from work.  It was just a backdrop that blended well with most of the other yards on my street.  It rarely changed except when it turned ugly yellow when it needed fertilizing, when it turned brown because it needed water, or when it grew about 5-6 inches every week and needed mowing.  It was more of a constant chore than a thing of beauty to simply appreciate and curiously observe.  But in about 2-3 months my new garden will have completely transformed and grown up.  The beds will all be filled in and the neat critters it attracts will keep on coming!  These changes are exciting to watch.  

Below are the before and after pictures of how my front lawn was transformed - the first photo is of the intermediate stage of lawn transformation and the one below it is of the same yard without any lawn two weeks later, with over 20 different species of Texas native, medicinal, and/or edible plants, most of them perrennial:

Note: The eggplant growing in the front and the planter around the side and back of the lawn.

Note: The lawn has been totally removed and replaced by paths and beds of native/edible plants.

Since planting this new garden, neighbors walking by have commented that it smells so good and have asked how they could do the same thing.  At night I sit in my chair and listen to the sounds of frogs croaking and crickets chirping, which were sounds that were not heard before.  I’ve noted three individual frogs living in the garden already (and the garden was only planted one week ago!).  During the day I’ve noticed big black native bumblebees harvesting nectar from the salvia gregii and mexican sage and have seen a hummingbird stop by every day around noon to gather some nectar from the same flowers.  At night the pineapple sage smells amazing.  Yesterday I had a bit of an upset stomach and was able to go out to get some lemongrass to make tea, which calmed my stomach within an hour.  So far, I think the benefits of this garden are immeasurable!  

Compared to a lawn, the garden is more beautiful, interesting, smells better, is more useful, uses less water and fertilizer, provides habitat for urban wildlife and beneficial insects, provides a sense of calm and a place for reflection, and just makes good sense as something simple we can do in our own yard to benefit the health of our planet.  

I still haven’t fully internalized this perspective, though gardening is how I practice pushing myself to manifest a few of the ideas I’ve come up with in life.  The nice thing about growing vegetables and other plants is that not only do they grow and you can eat them and the world is a better place because there’s more of the critters we love that can live in our yards (ladybugs, hummingbirds, bumblebees, salamanders, frogs…!), its also a relatively concrete activity.  Gardening quite literally grounds us.  After a stressful period working on some cerebral task for hours, the physical activity of gardening and its simple, constant, creative work is like a healing salve for back aches, head aches, and heart aches for the world.  Its not always easy to motivate to get out and get my hands dirty, but once I’m immersed and I’ve dug up a bed, the visions of corn patches interspersed with flowering bean vines and enormous clusters of basil, eggplant and dill start trickling into my mind.  Its not just in my mind though that the visions come.  I feel them in my hands, I see them in my eyes, I smell the basil, and fresh dill in my memory all over my body.  Its more of a holistic kind of motivation!  I haven’t been motivated in this way by a lot of other potential projects - there’s something I love and appreciate about gardening that’s tangible and approachable.  Especially if mistakes are allowed.  Plus there is just a little commitment involved - its not some multi-year project where other people totally depend on you.  Its only a 90 day commitment with corn or tomatoes, 30-45 for lettuce or spinach.  That’s not a long-term commitment.  Plus it can be more like an experiment if it is still knowledge you are after.

This knowledge based culture we live in is tough to overcome.  And our culture becomes more mind-centered all the time.  It seems like many people are losing their attention spans and becoming less patient.  We so easily become hungry for more yet feel increasingly empty the more we have.  But it seems like creating a garden can be a remedy to the challenge of doing something concrete with at least some of the knowledge we might acquire.  Perhaps there is also a subtle element of faith ingrained in acting on any knowledge we have gathered, since a person has to have some faith that even if their project is a flop, it will have been worth the effort and time spent just taking the steps to be there attempting to create something out of nothing. Other, more complicated projects might take time and careful planning.  Things like working towards social justice, or just fixing the garage door can be overwhelming to think about, even if you might intellectually understand how these tasks could be worked on.  The lovely thing about gardening is that it can be a practice that teaches us a great deal of lessons regarding life, work, and knowledge.  Taking small steps, working gradually for something, keeping our need for instant gratification in check, connecting with the natural world that is all around us, and slowing down are all lessons I’ve had to practice understanding on a deeper, de-rationalized, more bodily-experienced level.  I couldn’t say that I have internalized these lessons, but gardening seems to keep reminding me what something like going slow, feeling quiet, or simply engaging the moment can be like.  Little by little we learn.

The San Francisco parks and recreation department funds and manages around 40 community gardens, while Austin only has a loose knit group of 12 gardens. And this number is shrinking.

Check out Karen Bank’s (The Sustainable Food Center) editorial on community gardens at the Statesman Online:

Banks: What’s so livable about a city without community gardens?

However, the physical landscape at our city hall, composed entirely of native Texas plants, is nothing to scoff at. Stop by sometime and check out the beautiful design.

Follow the progress of the garden at the Slow Food Nation blog.

Arron and I will both be attending and blogging the conference at the end of August. Stay tuned.

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