Procrastination or eco-gardening? What I learned about doing more for the environment by doing less in your yard

I moved to Issaquah last year, and with the move into a new house, I found myself responsible for a half-acre yard that I did not feel prepared to handle.

As an illustration – over the prior few years I’d had a patio and about 100 square feet of grass to maintain. When leaves fell on the patio the first year, I left them there. I didn’t see a problem, so the next year I did the same. And then the next year. After 4 years, the decomposed leaves had become a layer of slime on the wood so slippery that half the deck was a slip-and-fall danger zone. Naturally, I solved this by never again using that half of the deck.

So I was intimidated – to say the least – to take on a much larger yard. And when I found myself getting mailing adverts every few weeks for yardwork services, the list of what I presumably needed to be doing only seemed to grow: seeding, thatching, aerating, fertilizing, mowing, edging, trimming, weeding, removing debris, leaf blowing, tree maintenance, and blackberry & ivy removal.

Then, as spring came this year, I stumbled upon some recommendations that doing less in the yard could be more than procrastination – it could be a positive move for the environment. Too good to be true? I’ll let you judge for yourself.

Take this for what it is: a novice’s summary of what a variety of sources have to say about the “yardwork to-do list.” I’ve linked the experts where they can say it far better than I can.


Mowing the lawn

A typical landscaper or home & garden blog will say: mow your lawn once a week during growing season and every two weeks when it isn’t growing season. These sources give the same advice that I ignore from my hairdresser twice a year: do frequent light trims to keep the grass uniform and healthy.

However, recent movements have asked: what if we don’t? Mowing the lawn less saves on the consumption of water, fertilizer, and gas to power the mower. And best of all, the grass that grows long becomes food that fills your yard with pollinators – bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds – who have been decreasing in population in the past decades due to disease and pesticide use.

If you don’t have an HOA or governmental authority to set rules about your lawn height, it may be a stylistic choice. I love the story of Horticulturist Kelly Norris, who treats his yard as a prairie

If you do have regulations to abide by, you still may be able to help attract the pollinators with just a bit less mowing. Paul Koch, an associate professor and turf grass extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin, explains that "Just raising your mowing height to four or four-and-a-half inches really keeps the majority of flowering plants intact."

Raking the leaves

I grew up raking the leaves into a pile to be picked up with the yard waste. (And to be fair, one of the best parts of fall is jumping into that leaf pile!)

But the latest recommendation from many organizations is actually not to rake leaves. “Leaf litter” as it is called, will ultimately break down in the yard without causing any harm. It feeds the growth of grass and plants, keeps the moisture in the soil, and even acts as food and shelter for insects which in turn become food for birds and the rest of the food chain.

If the leaves cover around half of the yard, most sources recommend to run them over with the mower to chop them into smaller pieces that will break down faster. If leaves fall so thickly that they entirely cover the grass, it is recommended to remove around half of them to get back to that half coverage level – the half that are removed can still be chopped up by a mower and used as mulch.

(With the money I save not buying a lawnmower – maybe I’ll buy a trampoline for my fall jumping needs.)

 

What to plant

Plant natives! Native plants are already adapted to our local climate and as a result, they require less of everything: less water, fertilizer, pesticides, and less of your time. I’ll point you to the experts:

 

So what will I actually do in my yard?

Although I won’t be mowing, raking, fertilizing, or using pesticides – and I even found justification not to clear out dead vegetation from my yard (because birds use it to build nests!) – unfortunately the research that I did couldn’t get me out of all the yard work. Here are the things I’m still stuck with:

  • Fighting the invasives – I have a ton of blackberries and English Ivy to reckon with – yikes.

  • Trimming the hedge – It has grown about 2 feet this spring, so if I wait much longer it will be taller than my ladder can reach!

  • Trimming the trees – Any limbs that threaten the power lines or the roof of the house need to go.

  • Help expand the habitat – (Okay this one is pure fun) Putting out birdhouses, bat houses, and shallow dishes of water for insects and birds during the hot parts of summer will all help bring critters that will be the highlight of my yard-watching and keep the backyard ecosystem going. Read more here about making your yard a wildlife habitat

 

A Pacific Rhododendron in bloom this May – native to the PNW

 
 

A Japanese Maple. Not so native, these plants stem from Japan but are well suited to Seattle due to the climate similarities to Japan. Currently being overrun by an invasive of some sort.

 
 

My backyard “prairie”

 
Melanie Dunn