In Defense of Lawns - Episode 4

    My implications in these short episodes is that lawns are simple and easy to grow. A good portion of this point comes from the context I am working in - Buffalo and the WNY region. Temperatures are moderate here. Lawns don’t need artificial irrigation. They can naturally protect themselves from the normal droughts of summer by going dormant for six weeks. They are green the rest of the year and the snow cover is of short enough duration that the grass isn’t suffocated (disease problems can emerge when snow cover lasts for months at a time). 
    There is a certain caution to much of the advise and intellectualization that surrounds the lawn. How lawns are to be cared for and what they need differ with their climate and environment. “The Buffalo Climate,” while much negativity is made from it, is generally easy for our (cool-season) turf grasses to survive in. But many of the ‘prevailing wisdoms’ about lawn care come from other climates trying to grow the same grass plant into the same lawn in entirely different conditions. The back of fertilizer bags and lawn care websites are meant to standardize all knowing into a few universal recommendations and directions.
     It is difficult to grow lawns in Scottsdale, Arizona. But it is a different problem. Both lawns need the same thing to grow, but here, for the most part, they already have everything they need.