Chapter 1: Why are grassy lawns harmful to the environment?
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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Mariel. I grew up in a suburb of New York City, and our neighborhood was the definition of post-war development. Lots of houses in the same style, evenly spaced, with bright green manicured lawns. And the lawns were good to us.
Chapter 2: What alternatives to lawns can reduce environmental impact?
My brother and I, we played barefoot in the sprinklers. We drove around in our little electric red Jeep. We tossed the ball to our dog, who was big and blonde and full of energy. What I'm saying is, grassy lawns, they have their appeal.
But the reality is that we do, let's be honest, have a lot more lawn than we actually use. A lot of it is basically just kind of like for the look, right? It's kind of like aesthetic.
This is Celia Yopi-Schepsen, a science reporter at Harvest Public Media and the host of their environmental podcast, Up From Dust.
If you add up all this manicured grass turf that we've got in the U.S. at this point, it actually adds up to an area that's bigger than the state of Georgia.
Yeah, it's a lot of lawn. And it's a problem because the things we do to keep these lawns tidy and green tax our environment. We put down fertilizer and weed killer. We use our drinking water supplies to run sprinklers. We burn fossil fuels in our lawnmowers. What if we did things differently?
NPR is dedicating this week to stories and conversations about how communities are moving forward on climate solutions despite the political roadblocks, especially at the federal level. One way people are doing that is by replacing their lawns with native plants.
Because if you grow plants that are native to your area, you're not going to have to water them very often, except during long, dry spells.
And you certainly are not going to have to fertilize them, and you're obviously not going to be running a mower over gorgeous flowers. Plus, you'll be helping the wildlife. And we know wildlife in our country does need help. North America has lost a quarter of its birds. The U.S. has lost like an estimated one-fifth of its butterflies at this point.
So you can do a solid for the environment by ditching even just some of your lawn and replacing it with a wildlife-friendly garden.
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Chapter 3: How can I start a native plant garden?
In fact, the experts recommend that you start small. That's actually what my dad did in the yard of the house I grew up in. He started a native plant garden along the fence, and it is the best part of the space, with its fluttering butterflies and massive sunflower stalks that reach toward the sky. On this episode of Life Kit, how to help the planet by starting a native plant garden.
Celia is going to walk us through how to actually kill that patch of grass, where to find plants, and what to expect as your garden grows. Celia, can we walk through some of the fears or reservations that folks might have around this? I feel like a common one is what are the neighbors going to think, right, if I replace my manicured front lawn with a patch of wildflowers?
Those are really legit questions, right? I mean, first of all, lawn culture is real. Like, we love a tidy green lawn. And I feel like for a lot of us, lawns feel like a safe way to keep property values up in our neighborhoods, right? Like, it's something, it's a look that we trust.
But on the flip side, your neighbors may be like totally into attracting wildlife and like they may see your gardens and love it. Someone who knows a lot about this is Paula Diaz. She is a master gardener in Kansas City. She helps people turn their yards into wildlife spaces by adding native plant gardens.
One of my neighbors, we were just talking, and she says, your yard is so full of life. That's it. It's the life. There's always a bird that's singing or frogs that are croaking.
Like a Disney movie.
Yeah, I know, right?
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Chapter 4: What should I consider before replacing my lawn?
Like, as far as I know, the birds don't actually come and land on Paula's hand when she calls them. But nevertheless, like, she's got a lot of birds and bees and frogs and things, which also her grandchildren love. But that neighbor, you know, who said that to her, like, started planting native plants, too, and so have several other of her neighbors.
Another fear I think folks might have is what kind of wildlife is going to show up? Like maybe I'm rolling out the red carpet for butterflies and birds, but I'm actually going to end up with ticks.
I have talked to people who are feeling like, well, I want to do a native plant flower bed, but I don't really want spiders to show up. Or I want to make sure snakes won't be around. And it doesn't really work that way. So for some people... Getting into wildlife-friendly gardening may mean also kind of working on some of our aversions to these things. These are ultimately beneficial animals.
But I do want to get into ticks specifically, which no one likes ticks. Ticks are legitimately a very big concern because they can make us really sick. So the question is, like, if you ditch some lawn in favor of a flower bed, does that mean you're going to have more ticks around? And scientists are looking into that.
So far, the research that I've seen, it suggests that flower gardens don't really increase ticks. The real factor here is if you're living basically where ticks want to live. Like,
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Chapter 5: How do I kill grass to make space for my garden?
If you're living right at the edge of the woods, woods have a lot of ticks. They're going to crawl into your yard, whether it's lawn or flower beds.
Takeaway one. A native plant garden doesn't have to look overgrown. It can look pretty and intentional, something your neighbors will appreciate. Also, so far, the research suggests that gardens are no more likely than traditional lawns to attract ticks. So let's say I am ready to get rid of some of my lawn. How might I start?
The first great tip that I have from experts is like, maybe don't do the whole lawn. Like people can get really enthusiastic about this, but like just kill a bit of grass and make like one flower bed to start. So I talked to Stacia Stelk. She leads Deep Roots KC, which is a group that educates the public on how and why to ditch lawns for native plants.
And she does not go around telling people like, hey, jump in there and do everything at once.
It can be overwhelming to take on an expansive garden for any gardener, but especially for a first-timer or learning gardener. And as you get more comfortable with your existing garden, there's always room to expand.
Well, walk me through how you would kill a bit of grass to create one flower bed.
First things first, like you got to pick a spot. Like where are you going to kill some grass?
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Chapter 6: What are the best practices for selecting native plants?
And maybe you think it would look really nice to have a flower bed along the walkway to my front door or along a fence. Or I want to throw out like the idea of doing it around a tree. So like maybe you've already got this nice oak tree in your yard and you could replace the grass around it with a flower bed. And that's like a legit thing.
Like that approach is called a soft landing because actually there's all these like butterfly caterpillars and things in the tree. And when they finish eating oak leaves, they're going to come down and they're going to look for a place to make their chrysalis and they need someplace safe to away from lawnmowers and such. So you're creating a safe space for them.
Once you've got your spot, you're going to go ahead and kill the grass. And that sounds intimidating, but there's actually lots of options. And some of them are easier than others. Some work faster than others. So an easy approach is layer cardboard and mulch just right on top of that grass. You're going to cut off the sunlight. And so without sunlight, the grass is going to die.
It could take like six weeks or so, but it's going to die. Another option is you could lay out black plastic on it.
Chapter 7: How can I save money while creating a native garden?
That blocks the light. It also blocks the rain. You can also rent a sod cutter or dig it out by shovel. Some people spray herbicide. Every approach is going to have pros and cons. Obviously, digging it out with a shovel, that's fast. That's instant gratification. It's also a lot of labor. It takes a lot of muscle that I don't have. But putting down cardboard on it, that's easy.
On the other hand, you're going to have to wait longer until that grass is dead.
Takeaway two, time to kill some grass. First, you want to pick a spot. Remember, you don't have to do this all at once, and it's not all or nothing anyway. Do you have a tree? How about a small patch underneath it to create a soft landing for caterpillars? Next to a fence is great too, or along a walkway. Once you pick a spot, you have some options.
Chapter 8: What maintenance is required for a native plant garden?
You could layer cardboard and mulch to starve the grass of sunlight. You could also do that with black plastic tarp. Alternatively, you could use a sod cutter or dig the grass out with a shovel. That's much faster, but it takes more muscle. And the site of the garden does matter here.
If you're working under a tree, for instance, you won't want to use a sod cutter because you could damage the tree roots. Coming up, what to do after you've killed your lawn. All right, so the grass is dead, RIP. Can I start planting?
Yes. Now you get to the fun part of designing the bed. You're going to pick the flowers, the bushes. You know, what do you want it to look like? This is when you're going to do some dreaming. Like, look out your window. You know, what do you imagine would be pretty to look out and see every day? You could go full on like cottagecore and do big drifts of pastel colors.
Or maybe you want something that feels like a prairie and it's swaying in the wind and has tall grasses and bright, cheerful sunflowers. It's kind of up to you. You could do like a woodland look so that you're walking in your yard, you feel like it's in the woods with an oak tree and like some short, pretty woodland flowers underneath it.
That sounds so nice.
Yeah, it can be an expression of who you are. And once you have that vision, then you'll also need some details like about the spot that you've picked, right? So is it in full sun? What's your soil like? Is it sandy? Is it like clay? Are you looking for tall plants or like really short ground covers? You're kind of like putting together a shopping list of like your specifications, I guess.
Then you're going to go online and look for a native plant guide that's specific to your region. You're going to want native plants from your region because obviously like wildlife friendly plants are totally different if you're in Arizona versus New York, right? They're not the same plants.
Mm-hmm.
And that's like the whole point, right?
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