Gardening
Michael Pollan, Why Mow?
Michael Pollan’s book, Second Nature, includes a great piece entitled “Why Mow?”, where he explores the American lawn as “a metaphor for our skewed relationship with the land” and places it into historical and psychological context.
Lawns are nature purged of sex or death. No wonder Americans like them so much.
The whole book (buy it) is [...]
New Yorker: Turf War
Elizabeth Kolbert has a great piece entitled Turf War in the New Yorker that sums up the history and hazards of the American Lawn. She mentions an astonishing figure that:
Recently, a NASA-funded study, which used satellite data collected by the Department of Defense, determined that, including golf courses, lawns in the United States cover nearly [...]
Eat City Hall
An amazing statement for a more sustainable food system was just planted at San Francisco city hall. It’s entire front lawn was removed and replaced with a Victory Garden, filled with a variety of edibles, to coincide with the Slow Food Nation conference that is taking place there at the end of August.
The Dark Side of Lawns
Beth Huxta of Organic Gardening magazine writes:
Americans spend so much money and time on their lawns, you’d think we either eat or sell grass. More land in the United States is planted in turf–32 million acres–than in corn. The typical American lawn sucks up 10,000 gallons of supplemental water (non-rainwater) annually.
Her article is full of [...]
Treehugger: Number of the Day: 11
11 — According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average home owner’s gas-powered lawn mower pumps out as much pollution per hour as 11 automobiles do.
Read the whole story at Treehugger.
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