The Era of the American Lawn is Over
Lawns have long been a symbol of order and status in the United States: bright green, carefully trimmed, pesticide-treated, watered into submission. But as Ken Ilgunas writes in his recent New York Times opinion piece, that tidy carpet of turf comes at a cost - wasted resources, lost biodiversity, and a cultural obligation that often feels more like drudgery than joy.
When Ilgunas moved from suburban New York to a village in Scotland, he was struck by the difference. Instead of identical patches of grass, front yards were full of shrubs, trees, flowering weeds, and pollinator life. These spaces weren’t neglected, they were alive. And they required neither pesticides nor hours behind a mower.
A Tale of Two Traditions
Ironically, America’s obsession with lawns traces back to Britain, where aristocrats in the 17th and 18th centuries cultivated grassy expanses as a show of wealth. The idea crossed the Atlantic and was adopted by early elites like Thomas Jefferson, later exploding after World War II when suburban development, cheap gas mowers, and chemical fertilizers made the uniform lawn a middle-class staple.
Today, lawns cover an estimated 40 million acres in the U.S.- about the size of Wisconsin. Yet surveys show many homeowners don’t love them; they simply feel obliged to maintain them. Nearly half of Americans report lawn care makes them feel motivated or happy, but significant numbers describe it as “exhausting,” “frustrating,” or “draining.”
Meanwhile, in places like Drayton, England, campaigns such as No Mow May are reframing expectations of what a yard should look like. There, wildflower lawns, pollinator strips, and garden mosaics are increasingly celebrated, even at Britain’s prestigious Chelsea Flower Show.
The Cost of Perfection
Lawns demand:
Water: Trillions of gallons each year, even in drought-prone regions.
Chemicals: Fertilizers and pesticides that run into waterways and harm wildlife.
Time & Energy: Endless mowing, edging, and upkeep.
And yet for all that investment, lawns give little back. They are ecological “green deserts” that provide almost no food or habitat for birds, pollinators, or other wildlife.
Imagining an Alternative
Groups like Wild Ones and Homegrown National Park are championing another vision: stitching together native gardens, meadows, and small wild patches across the country to create a living, breathing national park in our backyards.
Imagine if even a fraction of America’s lawns were allowed to flower, to host fruit trees, to shelter nesting birds. The biodiversity gains, and the joy of discovery, would be enormous.
A Radical Call to Inaction
The article ends with a simple but powerful reminder: sometimes, the best thing we can do is less. Stop mowing every week. Let clover bloom. Watch robins forage, bees hum, and wildflowers seed themselves in the cracks.
For a culture obsessed with productivity and perfection, it may feel radical to sit back and just let things grow. As Ilgunas and the rewilding movement remind us, sometimes doing less is exactly what our ecosystems and our own well-being need.
📖 Read the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/opinion/lawns-mowing-wildflowers.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare