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A personal blog. I am an: Award-winning writer. Non-profit entrepreneur. Activist. Religious professional. Foodie. Musician. All around curious soul and Renaissance man.


Thursday, May 15, 2008

I'd Like to Start a Campaign

A classmate said that one day her home was filled with the strong smell of pesticides. Apparently, a neighbor just had their lawn sprayed, fertilized and who knows what else. The fumes carried in the wind across the neighborhood. It is actually rather good news, in a sad and twisted way, that most people don't open their windows but use the heater or A/C.

I was driving to the library of the Josephinum Seminary, and Bruce was mid-song, full-throttle. I had to give him his due, so I drove down some side roads to scream my head off with him for a while. This was in Worthington, OH, with very high-priced homes. I was horrified by what I saw. Every lawn looked the same. Every lawn was filled with thick, identical-colored green grass. Why they even had grass is beyond me, it was so doggone fake they might as well have just installed some plastic imitation grass and be done with it. There was an old lady standing at the curb spraying the sole dandelion on the block (she wasn't wearing any protective gear). There is again some twisted (but somehow good) irony when you consider that none of the kids would ever think to play outside.

I grew up in the country. A nice landscaped lawn is something to behold, but its not natural. Its unhealthy. You need worms and bugs and birds. Natural actually looks good, when you give it a chance. You need fresh green grass to play in and let your dog roll around in. You need some well-worn paths. Get a little dirt on your hands, it won't kill you--as long as its free from pesticides.

I want to start a campaign--a "Natural Lawn" campaign. Maybe have signs up in the yard saying, "The Natural Look". I would like to petition universities, businesses and homes to join me in this. Let nature takes its course. Don't spray your lawn. At the very worst, churn your lawn up and re-seed it every once in a while if you don't like the weeds. But in all honesty, when you mow it, you can hardly tell. It looks a little uneven, but it looks natural and healthy.

I don't want to infringe on anyone's freedoms, but there is no way to guarantee that what you spray on your lawn isn't going to pollute my air, my drinking water and my land. We're all downstream and downwind from each other. There's just no need to hose every square inch of our land with plant and critter-killing chemicals. Fish and frogs are showing strange mutations all over, we're also killing whole scale species because of this--not to mention ourselves, potentially. And for what? To have grass that you can't touch? Air that you can't breathe? Let your toes sink into the green grass, and treat yourself to nature's foot-massage.

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm...... foot massage.

    Go for it Frank! I wonder if OSU Extension could help out? Who else could get on this? I would be happy to help if what I can offer would be beneficial.

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  2. Hmmmm.... I guess now I dont have o feel guilty about my lawn. You should see it--I've got moss growing in my backyard because it's shady. My front yard was littered with dandelions this spring... I have not fertilized my lawn or seeded it, so it really looks crappy when compared to all my neighbors and their nice lawns. I didnt do this to rebel, however; I'm just lazy and hate yard work...

    When I was in Colorado, it was very upsetting to me that people grew lawns. Grass is not a natural plant in the high plains of Denver (or, really, in the mountains). Yet, people would grow it because the image of the American house is to have your bright green lawn. The thing that pissed me off was that Denver is perpetually in drought conditions and these people were watering their lawns!! I REFUSED to water my lawn and all my grass died. It seemed STUPID to me to be watering your lawn when there was a water shortage for PEOPLE.

    If I had continued living out there, I would have done what they call xerascaping... this is a technique where you make use of the native plants of the area for your yard. It includes also having rocks and stuff arranged nicely. Many of my friends (hippie liberals!) xerascaped their yards and it looked quite nice, making use of native plants that didnt need the water grass does.

    I felt like it really was the moral obligation of the people who lived in Denver to xerascape instead of trying to bring the midwest image of home they bought with them to this land... But too many people seemed to think that xerascaping didnt fit their American image of home....

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  3. We love moss.

    Just put a sign in your front yard saying:

    My lawn is maintained by Mother Nature, not Dupont Chemicals

    Its funny (and tragic) watching ariel photos of places like New Mexico (google maps and such). You can see stretches of desert for miles and miles, but then there are some awkward green squares where the cities are.

    It makes no sense that in the freaking DESERT people need green lawns for their plastic flamingos. That's one thing about Americans--we rarely take the time to appreciate the inherent beauty of where we are, but rather try to superimpose something else. Like my sister who as a teenager always wanted to wear summer clothes in the winter.

    So yeah, a "support local vegetation" movement would be another very worthy cause. I'll have to research more about xerascaping, thanks for the tip.

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  4. I am not sure I spelled it right... Okay, here it is from wickipedia.org. It's spelled xeriscape. It specifically refers to using native plants in desert like areas instead of planting (unnatural) grass. It's what those people in New Mexico SHOULD be doing. Colorado is high plains and a different kind of desert in a lot of ways. Everyone should be xeriscaping there.

    Here's an example of my friend from Colorado's yard, which is xeriscaped (it's in his first entry).

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  5. And you're totally preaching to the choir here... I used to get so angry at my neighbors in Colorado, watering their freaking lawns while we were in a drought. You have to live with the plants that thrive in the conditions of the land you're inhabiting instead of trying to "teraform" it to your likeable conditions. If you love the state you moved to, show your love by living with--not against--the land.

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  6. Erin,

    I don't know how to proceed on this. I am not sure I am up for trying a major campaign, but it would be nice. I'm not good at these sorts of things.

    Frank

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