Inspiration and Insights from a Lawn Pro

Zack Kline of A.I.R.

Lawns are an ecological disaster. Americans are obsessed with lawns.

To have any hope of mitigating the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, we have to grapple with this contradiction. And by "we," I don't mean just the scientists and policymakers. I mean you and me; those of us obsessing over our backyard disasters.

One of the people on the front lines of this challenge is Zack Kline, owner of A.I.R. (Atmosphere Improvement and Renewal) in Rockville, MD. A.I.R. provides services to homeowners and businesses that include battery-powered mowing and blowing; compost collection; natural, organic lawn care; and installation of robot mowing systems. But Zack sees eco-friendly lawn care as just the start of a far more ambitious goal of sustainable landscaping -- with lawns in the role of extras rather than leads.

Recently I had the opportunity to catch up with Zack over a tour of his yard in suburban Maryland. He was full of insights and inspiration for the rest of us.

Zack discussing tree health in his yard. Photo by Lolly Jewett.

First, a quick refresher on the problem with lawns: they waste tremendous natural resources and poison our ecosystems while stripping habitat from wildlife.

• Across the U.S., grass lawns cover 40 to 50 million acres. That’s the size of New England, and almost as big as all of our national parks combined. We’re adding hundreds of thousands more acres to that total each year.

• Maintaining those emerald carpets consumes nearly three trillion gallons of water, three billion gallons of gasoline and 59 million pounds of pesticides a year.

• Grass lawns are by far the most irrigated crop in the country – more so than corn, soy, or wheat. In most areas of the country, we’re putting more water on our lawns than is replaced by rainfall. This is by definition unsustainable.

• The gasoline we use annually to power lawn mowers and other landscape equipment would run six million passenger cars for a year.

• The pesticides and herbicides we apply to lawns are toxic. Forty percent of the chemicals used by the U.S. lawn care industry are banned in other countries because they’re carcinogenic. Children and pets are most vulnerable. Forty to 50 percent of the fertilizer applied to lawns ends up in surface and groundwater, where it kills aquatic organisms and contaminates drinking water.

• Compared to a healthy forest, shrubland or meadow, lawns provide only a miniscule fraction of the oxygen, water filtration, carbon sequestration, topsoil, wildlife habitat, pollination and pest control we humans need to survive.

Turfgrass has its purposes, such as facilitating picnicking, foot traffic, badminton and doggie business. But we need to flip how we prioritize it in our landscapes. Lawns should be a detail rather than the default. Think doormat vs. wall-to-wall carpeting.

So how do we manage that flip? Zack argues the most important thing we can do is shrink our lawns. For those of us who aren’t ready to take the plunge yet, though, there are ways to defray the damage.

Use battery-powered or robotic equipment. Battery-powered tools waste fewer fossil fuels and kick up less air and noise pollution than their gas-powered counterparts. Zack’s “eureka moment” for forming his business in fact came during a summer job as the designated string-trimmer with a conventional landscaping firm. In exasperation over the cacophony and smog he and his colleagues were causing, he started researching alternatives. A.I.R. began with $5000 winnings from a college business plan competition, which covered the down payment on a truck and a few electric tools.

Next-level in environmental equipment is robots. Imagine a Roomba for your lawn and you’ll have a robot mower. These marvels aren’t just “less bad” for the environment, says Zack. They’re “agronomically good." Instead of slicing off several inches of growth at arbitrary time intervals (once per week, for example), they’re set to operate on an ongoing basis (typically at night) [CORRECTION: it’s best not to run robot mowers at night, because of the harm they might cause to local nocturnal wildlife], making micro-cuts of less than one inch in random patterns. This decreases stress on the grass and minimizes thatch, as the clippings are small enough to break down and help to enrich the soil. The robots weigh less than traditional push or sit-on mowers, reducing soil compaction. They also free up humans to do more useful detail work, such as (ahem) planting more native trees and shrubs.

Zack demonstrates a Husqvarna robot mower. Photo by Lolly Jewett.

Use organic products. A conventional lawn care program focuses on feeding the grass, says Zack, while a natural, organic program focuses on taking care of the soil – its fertility, chemistry and structure – which in turn takes care of the grass. The process of creating a healthy, attractive lawn by organic methods is typically slower than that for traditional applications, and a tolerance for clover is required. But those conditions aside, argues Zack, there’s no reason an organic lawn can’t be as attractive as one dependent on synthetic chemicals.

Cut higher and less frequently. Zack advises setting your mower blade to four inches. Grass at that height outcompetes weeds and helps protect roots from heat and evaporation. On average here in the mid-Atlantic, he says, you should mow once a week in the spring, once every one-to-four weeks in the summer, and once every one-to-two weeks in the fall, depending on the growth rate of the grass. The idea is to follow nature’s schedule rather than your iCalendar.

Water deeply and infrequently. Shallow, frequent watering leads to shallow, drought-vulnerable roots. It’s better to encourage deep growth and resilience. Most of the turfgrass species in our lawns are cool-season plants, meaning they thrive and grow only when temperatures are low. So if there’s a mid-summer drought, Zack says, “Don’t water. Just let it go dormant.” It’ll come back when the heat abates or rains return.

Now let's assume we're ready to make a real difference by reducing our lawn. How do we make that happen?

Start small. Pick a manageable patch of lawn to convert. For example, Zack suggests expanding an existing flower bed and filling the extra space with native plants. Starting small will help you avoid getting overwhelmed. He notes, though, that converting a bit of lawn is often the “camel’s nose under the tent.” Once people see the benefits of native plants, they tend to want to continue the journey. “It opens your mind to other things,” he says. Zack is Exhibit A: from a modest gardening beginning a few years back, his goal has grown to planting at least one of every locally native species in his yard. He also hopes to grow most of his own food and medicinal needs. You may not have the space or bandwidth for a project that ambitious, but you can grow native blueberries, echinacea, mushrooms, hazelnuts, witch hazel, bay leaves, paw paws and hundreds of other delicious and curative plants, even in a container if that's all you’ve got.

Fallen logs that Zack has inoculated with mushroom spores. Photo by Lolly Jewett.

Remove invasive plants. Any benefit to adding native plants will be subverted if you’ve got invasives lurking about. They’ll overtake your new plants and, worse, escape to the wild. Zack continues to manage bamboo and English ivy infestations in his yard, but with persistence and competition from a growing roster of natives (see above), their threat is shrinking.

Take advantage of free offerings. Montgomery County, MD has a number of initiatives to incentivize greener land stewardship. For example, they sponsor a generous rebate program, RainScapes, for homeowners who install rain gardens, conservation landscapes, green roofs, permeable driveways, or rain barrels. Zack has taken advantage of the Tree Montgomery program, which offers free native shade trees to residential and institutional properties. He recently had four ten-foot Tree Montgomery specimens installed. He has also received deliveries of tons of wood chips, gratis, from crews cutting down trees in his neighborhood. They’re happy to offload the byproducts of their work, Zack says, so they don’t have to pay disposal costs. He’s using the chips to convert lawn to paths and planting beds.

A native sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), courtesy of Tree Montgomery. Photo by Lolly Jewett.

Free wood chips smothering grass and improving the soil. The easy way to kill your lawn! Photo by Lolly Jewett.

Learn from others. A few years back, Zack attended a book-signing at a local Busboys & Poets coffee shop. Paul Tukey, until recently the director of environmental stewardship at the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD, was the featured author. The book in question, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, is considered biblical on this topic. Tukey became a valued mentor to Zack. His inscription on the title page of Zack’s copy of the Manual? “Go change the world.”

I’m grateful to Zack and like-minded innovators who are changing the world by helping the rest of us build a more sustainable relationship with nature. If you live in the Rockville, MD area [CLARIFICATION: Montgomery County and surrounding areas] and could use some enlightened professional yard care, be sure to reach out to Zack at AIR.

Snow may remain in the forecast, but the growing chorus of birds tells me winter is waning. This song sounds to me the way almost-spring feels.

If you live in the DC vicinity and could use assistance with sustainable landscaping, visit Bees’ Knees Design. I’d be happy to help you.