Tue May 19, 2009 10:28 am
get rid of your lawn and plant food!!
I was reading this months issue of Countryside magazine and I happened upon a very interesting article entitled, "Edible Estate: Trade you grass lawn for an Edible Garden." In the article were several frightening facts that have caused me to attack my lawn and replace it with a garden. I'm just getting started with my garden but I have high hopes for a lawn-free yard in the near future. (blueberries, strawberries, clover, and roses go in the ground this week- yay!)
Check out these facts!:
--with an acre of garden, you can produce 35- 40% of the food you eat, saving up to $400 annually on groceries
--the average American lawn can produce over 300 pounds of food a year
--an acre of lawn can cost up to $700 a year to maintain
--expenditures in the US for pesticides amount to nearly $2 Billion each year which accounts for over one third of the total spent on pesticides, Globally
--58 Million Americans have lawns and spend $30 Billion per year to maintain them, collectively
--about 70% of American residential water is used for landscaping
--the average lawn needs 10,000 gallons of water each summer
--to irrigate the 45 million lawns in the US requires 200 gallons of water per person per day
--lawn mowers in the US use 800 million gallons of gas each year
--gas powered lawn equipment produces as much as one tenth the smog pollution from all mobil sources
--in one year, a gas powered mower produces as much air pollution as driving 43 new cars 12,000 miles each
-- the pollution emitted from a power mower in one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles
--the EPA reports that over 70 Million pounds of pesticides are applied to lawns each year; this is ten times more per acre than the pesticides used on agricultural crops
--40-60% of the nitrogen in fertilizers applied to lawns ends up in surface and groundwater
--yard waste makes up to over 50% of the nations andfills
--NASA photos show that 32 Million acres of US land is covered by lawns making grass the nations largest irrigated crop
...if we are going to devote our precious natural resources into a crop, shouldn't it at least be edible??
this makes me wonder.... now i am the LAST person to want the government to get involved with our personal rights and freedoms, but we as Americans are extrmely slow to change (even if a little change means saving our very lives!) unless we are forced to change; I wonder if some sort of federal tax on the sale of lawnmowing equipment or even a tax credit for homeowners that replace lawns with gardens would speed up change. (heck, this is extreme but why dont we just tax just owning and maintaining your lawns?!) Can you imagine what the impact of thousands of people replacing their lawns with fruits, veggies, herbs, or even just wildflowers would be ? Just Americans replacing our envirenmentally destructive lawns with a more natural selection of greenery could change our chances of saving the earth from "almost hopeless" to "really hopeful!"
Check out these facts!:
--with an acre of garden, you can produce 35- 40% of the food you eat, saving up to $400 annually on groceries
--the average American lawn can produce over 300 pounds of food a year
--an acre of lawn can cost up to $700 a year to maintain
--expenditures in the US for pesticides amount to nearly $2 Billion each year which accounts for over one third of the total spent on pesticides, Globally
--58 Million Americans have lawns and spend $30 Billion per year to maintain them, collectively
--about 70% of American residential water is used for landscaping
--the average lawn needs 10,000 gallons of water each summer
--to irrigate the 45 million lawns in the US requires 200 gallons of water per person per day
--lawn mowers in the US use 800 million gallons of gas each year
--gas powered lawn equipment produces as much as one tenth the smog pollution from all mobil sources
--in one year, a gas powered mower produces as much air pollution as driving 43 new cars 12,000 miles each
-- the pollution emitted from a power mower in one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles
--the EPA reports that over 70 Million pounds of pesticides are applied to lawns each year; this is ten times more per acre than the pesticides used on agricultural crops
--40-60% of the nitrogen in fertilizers applied to lawns ends up in surface and groundwater
--yard waste makes up to over 50% of the nations andfills
--NASA photos show that 32 Million acres of US land is covered by lawns making grass the nations largest irrigated crop
...if we are going to devote our precious natural resources into a crop, shouldn't it at least be edible??
this makes me wonder.... now i am the LAST person to want the government to get involved with our personal rights and freedoms, but we as Americans are extrmely slow to change (even if a little change means saving our very lives!) unless we are forced to change; I wonder if some sort of federal tax on the sale of lawnmowing equipment or even a tax credit for homeowners that replace lawns with gardens would speed up change. (heck, this is extreme but why dont we just tax just owning and maintaining your lawns?!) Can you imagine what the impact of thousands of people replacing their lawns with fruits, veggies, herbs, or even just wildflowers would be ? Just Americans replacing our envirenmentally destructive lawns with a more natural selection of greenery could change our chances of saving the earth from "almost hopeless" to "really hopeful!"
