ECOLOGICAL LAWN CARE

Image Gallery Ryegrass greens a field somewhere in Arkansas.

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LAWN CARE

There is no substitute for grass as recreational surface for play areas, parklands and ball fields. It is infinitely superior to concrete, and even Astroturf. As a low foreground feature or a distant carpet of green, lawns are a vital aesthetic component of almost any landscape design. They also play a positive environmental role by moderating temperatures and purifying air.

But there is a dark side to this verdant love affair. By 1984, the United States applied more synthetic chemical fertilizers on its lawns than India applied on all its food crops. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 65 million pounds of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides were applied around homes and gardens, with another 165 million pounds used on industrial, commercial and government landscapes-much of this on the nation's lawns, a playfields, parks and cemeteries. Other studies indicate that urban and suburban residents are now subjected to more pesticide exposure than their rural counterparts, in spite of the heavy use of pesticides in agricultural areas.

All in all, lawn management by both homeowners and professionals is now a leading cause of environmental contamination. To keep from poisoning our love affair with grass, it may behoove us to practice a different, more healthful kind of lawn care instead.

To most academic or professional turf managers, the idea of ecological, or organic, lawn care is heresy. After all, a synthetic-based turf management program typically includes four or more applications of a strong, high-nitrogen fertilizer and 10 or more doses of various pesticides--a money-intensive regimen. Yet before World War 11, splendid lawns (and gardens) were kept without the heavy synthetic chemical inputs taken as gospel today. Many of the classic lawns and gardens of England, for example, are more than three or four centuries old and still as pure and lush as green velvet.

Happily, more and more people are again growing lovely lawns ecologically. Examples? Since Irwin Brawley turned to organic vegetable-raising techniques, he has maintained the 100 acres of lawns at North Carolina's Davidson College without using any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides-for over 15 years. This includes the school's heavily used athletic fields.

Golfers have to make reservations ahead of time at the popular Sagamore-Hampton Golf Club in southern New Hampshire. There is hardly a more demanding turf than a golf green, yet general manager Peter Luff has maintained all of Sagamore-Hampton's lawn areas organically since the mid-'6os.

After four years of studying turf management at the University of Rhode Island, Michael Merrier started up "a small version of Chemlawn" in 1972. Seven years later, he became convinced that his turf management program was creating serious problems:severe thatch buildup and a need for ever greater inputs just to maintain reasonable health. He switched. Today, Merner maintains over 100 acres of turf organically and guarantees that they will remain free of disease and insect problems.

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