Suburban lawns? Boring: Homeowners find new ways to dress up the American dream

Lawns, the very soul of traditional suburban life, are getting squeezed out by rain gardens, expanded displays of shrubs and native plants, and pools, patios and decks.

They are also shrinking because of the economy -- home builders are cutting the size of lots to make homes more affordable.

“Lawns have been part of the American dream. I own a house, and of course I own a lawn,” said John Moe, owner of Pangaea Design, a Minneapolis landscaping company. “But now, people are just getting rid of lawns that don’t need to be there.”

Lawns were once the king of landscaping -- the blank canvas on which contractors placed their homes and gardens. Lawns in America cover an area equal in size to the state of Wisconsin.

But today, lawns are under attack. Environmentalists say they pollute. Landscapers find them boring. Homeowners want more variety.

Jack Dorcey, owner of Landscape Design Studios in White Bear Lake, said demand for the traditional expanse of grass around a McMansion is falling. “People do not necessarily want a football field,” Dorcey said.

The assumptions of landscapers have changed, Moe said. “Twenty years ago, builders would just put the house here, put gardens there, and say everything else is the lawn,” Moe said. “Now we say, ‘Everything else is a garden.’ ”

One reason is a growing realization that while lawns may look green, they don’t act green.

They are usually maintained with chemicals that poison rivers and with fertilizers that super-charge algae growth in nearby lakes. Lawn mowers pollute -- one hour of use spews roughly the same pollution as a 100-mile ride in a typical car, according to one study.

And don’t even ask about water. Water departments would be more accurately described as civic lawn-sprinkling systems; about 72 percent of water used every July in Woodbury, for example, goes for irrigation, mostly of lawns.

That’s why homeowners are looking for alternatives, Moe said.

“Ask yourself: Do you have a lawn where you don’t need it?” he said. “I am not saying this because I am a tree-hugger -- it just makes sense.”

Lawns are giving way to gardens of native plants. “We are seeing more prairie plantings and rain gardens,” said Colleen Moran, landscape design director for Gertens Greenhouses in Inver Grove Heights.

She even created a “dry creek bed” in her yard -- replacing grass with river rock over a pond liner, to guide rainwater into a rain garden.

Homeowners also are digging up their lawns for another reason -- privacy.

“You don’t want to have grass right to your property line and have seven neighbors looking into your back yard,” Dorcey said.

By replacing lawns with plantings of trees, shrubs and flowering plants, he said, “you are creating a sense of space.” Homeowners are adding property-line berms or “island plantings” in new sections of their former lawns.

In the Twin Cities area, the vanishing turf phenomenon can be seen in the popularity of detached town homes, said Mike Swanson, Minnesota Division vice president of Rottlund Homes and 2009 president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities.

Detached town homes are single-family units on small lots, often maintained by a town home association.

Swanson predicted that home lots in the future would shrink further.

“It’s just economics,” Swanson said. “There will be a demand for a smaller home. And there is less energy used in a smaller home -- which makes it a greener home.”

Lawns also are shrinking across the country, said Stephen Melman, spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders.

He said one key reason was homebuyers leaving the wide-open spaces of the exurbs for urban lots that are smaller and closer to their workplaces.

The relentless drive away from anything requiring maintenance is also making lawns shrink. “People like maintenance-free anything,” Melman said.

Landscapers in touch with consumer preferences notice a change in the way people talk about their lawns.

The reverence is fading. Moran said homeowners increasingly speak of their lawns not as an asset, but as a hassle.

“People say, ‘That is a lot of lawn.’ What else can we do with this space?” Moran said.

Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433.

KEEP YOUR LAWN GREEN

Your lawn can be more environmentally green if you heed these tips from experts:

--Don’t overwater. Timed sprinkler systems -- which water grass regardless of soil conditions -- can waste phenomenal amounts of water. Only water grass when it needs it.

--Keep the grass about 3 inches long. This will cut consumption of water and fertilizer and will make root systems stronger.

--Opt for organic weed killers and fertilizers.

--Try to minimize runoff, which washes chemicals into nearby rivers and lakes. Consider installing rain gardens or rain barrels.

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Copyright (c) 2010, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.