Lawns have plants, of course! Most of them in the Midwest and Great Lakes tend to have a mix of species like Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue. We at Rethinking Lawns want to know what happens when we introduce different plants into our lawns, especially native ones.
In theory, increasing plant diversity means improving ecosystems and the services they provide. Multiple species means multiple types of root systems, flowering times, soil improvements, and climate variation tolerance. For example, if there’s a drought, plants used to no water will thrive, even if some others die back.
The thing is, we expect a lot of things out of our current lawns. Height, uniformity, coverage, seasonality, ease of installation, and stable maintenance all are a given with existing lawns. If we’re trying out new plants, we need to decide which of these traits are important, and which we’re willing to let go of. While we can negotiate on uniformity, groundcover is vital for keeping weeds out.
Rethinking Lawns 