The Lawn Athiest

Spring is here and talk of global warming continues to heat up while the subject of organic lawn care is a hot one. Even if you have never gardened you have probably pushed a lawn mower at some point in your life and you certainly walk on lawns, play on lawns and watch children play on lawns on a regular basis.

I have never been a gardener and I have never been into taking care of my lawn. The first house that I purchased, after all 3 of my children were born, had a perfect rectangular backyard that could facilitate play. That was the main reason that I purchased the house.

The landscaping around the house was immaculate and diverse with many spectacular plants that bloomed at different points throughout the year. The man who owned the house before us loved horticulture and was passionate about the care of the plants and their botanical names. I remember feeling like I was sleepwalking as he took me on a tour around the house to extrapolate endlessly on the virtues and care of each plant. I was simply looking at the backyard as a potential sandlot for the neighborhood kids to play in.

After we closed on the house I found plenty of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the garage. No wonder the plants looked so good! I didn’t use them much, not because of some philosophical commitment to the environment but simply because I viewed my yard as a play ground. The bare spots and brown grass were simply evidence of the hours of exercise, team building and imagination that my kids and the neighborhood kids were experiencing on my lawn.

It reminded me of my own childhood when everyone’s lawn was imperfect because every kid in the neighborhood was running across them all the time. We would have games of hide and seek that would incorporate 8 to 10 lawns on our neighborhood and nobody seemed to complain about the paths that we wore into their lawns.

In 1999 my wife and I decided to purchase a new house in an upscale private golf course community. I hated leaving our old house but it was small and we needed more room.

I remember moving in and noticing the spacious yards, with immaculate lawns and no kids playing on them. I immediately installed the basketball hoop and the swing set but the yard did not have the quaint appeal or the manpower to host the robust pickup games that my kids participated in at our old house.

The yard at the new house was much bigger, with over an acre of lawn to maintain. While most of my neighbors hired lawn care professionals my wife and I took care of our own lawn and landscaping. It certainly didn’t have the weed less green of the neighboring lawns but it worked fine for playing pass with my kids or kicking a soccer ball with them at night when I got home.

That spring a friend convinced me that I should try organic compost on my lawn. It seemed like a good thing to do so I had a local company deliver a truck load and dump it in my driveway and I began the long process of spreading it by hand. This took a long time as I would spread it one section at a time between work and playing with the kids. The lawn greened up very quickly in those sections. The problem was that the homeowner’s association had strict timelines for piles of anything that were left around a house. I received my notification and a visit from the community representative warning me to get the compost spread or face fines. I got the rest of the compost spread but I never ordered more because it would simply take too long and I could barely afford the homeowners association fees let alone the fines!

A couple of years after the compost experience I was hired by the same friend who recommended the compost, to produce a television show based on a magazine that he had started years before. Suddenly I was surrounded by these crazy, passionate people who talk about plants and plant care the way that I talk about kids. I barely understood anything they said but they were always entertaining to be around.

What fascinated me was how little I picked up in regard to horticulture. I still can’t tell a daffodil from a daisy and my eyes glaze over when some starts waxing poetic over the many derivatives of a particular plant species.

The only things that really connected with me were the times when the show covered an organic solution or practice in plant care, landscaping and lawn care. It just made sense to me that elements that the earth had used for millions of years to rejuvenate itself and keep itself in balance would still work today without leaving a negative footprint.

After producing 46 episodes of the show and having it air on HGTV my friend decided to write a book on organic lawn care. Months into writing the book he came into my office and said, “There should be a non-profit organization to teach people how to take care of their lawns organically and give them the educational and product resources that they need to do it.” I thought to myself, “Wow, he’s asking me for feedback on a horticultural idea. Maybe I’ve been transported to some parallel, opposite dimension.”

My gut reaction was, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Over a year later, I am the Director of Development for SafeLawns.org. Our website is up and running and we are having great success in attracting attention to organic lawn care and building SafeLawns.org into a trusted resource to help anyone make a transition that is good for kids, pets and the environment.

I would like to personally invite you to visit SafeLawns.org. It will be well worth your time. Whether you are a horticultural nut or just an average lawn mower you will find the answer to your questions and find out that organic lawn care is possible and easier than you think.

If SafeLawns.org is successful maybe we’ll see groups of kids playing in neighborhoods and wearing brown paths into lawns again. If you don’t like that maybe you’ll feel good that kids could play on your lawn and still be safe while the environment will enjoy another step of protection because of your actions.