A Mountain of Orchids

Grass Warfare...

The Wall Street Journal pointed out an interesting phenomenon recently. In “Grass Warfare” (by Gwendolyn Bounds, July 7, 2007; search the title at ), the Journal reports on a trend involving the owners of “organic lawns” going after neighbors who still do things the “unenlightened” way.

Those who employ chemical herbicides and pesticides to keep their lawns pristine are being lobbied in an aggressive campaign by natural lawn enthusiasts who object to the application of synthetic measures. Bounds describes the issue as the “horticultural equivalent of secondhand smoke.” The theory is that using lawn care chemicals affects the surrounding community—not just your patch of heaven.

Organic lawn advocates are trying to guilt their neighbors into a more responsible set of practices. Using signs, neighborhood canvasses, and lots of activism, natural lawn champions are making noise…and raising tensions. Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee is cited as a microcosm of the movement, and despite a well-balanced and researched article, Bounds missed the central irony of the issue: organic, natural lawn-care homeowners actively going after their chemical using neighbors.

Not that long ago it was a very different story. It’s ironic because just a few blocks north of Whitefish Bay, in Bayside, lives Lorrie Otto. Otto has been called the “godmother of natural landscaping;” was the inspiration for Wild Ones, one of the leading proponents of using native plants and creating natural habitat gardens (and yes, replacing lawn monocultures). “…[W]e neaten and bleaken, consistently and relentlessly destroying habitat for almost all life. It’s as if we took off our heads, hung them up, and left them at the nature center,” she has brooded.

Some 30+ years ago, Otto shocked neighbors by taking down dozens of non-native trees and other plants and replacing them, and her lawn, with the lanky flowers and grasses of the prairies. Her yard drew raves from a few quarters, but far more negative reactions from neighbors and village officials, fearful that an uncontrollable plague of weeds was being unleashed. She persevered and the movement has grown.

The natural landscape crusade has had a long and contentious history. It hasn’t all played out in the courts of public opinion. Legal battles between neighbors and with municipalities and their weed ordinances have been a featured news item throughout the saga. Ground was gained slowly and grudgingly.

Plenty has been written about the issue’s pros and cons…and about the American obsession, nay, love affair, with lawns. A perfectly cut, uniformly green, weed-free sward is as much a sign of manliness in some quarters as three-day stubble. What intrigued me in the WSJ piece were the players and how their roles had changed. The attacked is now the attacker. The worm has turned. The issue has come full circle. This is the central irony of the Bounds article.

Return to BotanicalGardening.com home...

_____________________________