An article in Scientific American highlights the environmental cost of lawns.
“The well-manicured lawn behind King’s College Chapel at the University of Cambridge predated the American Revolution. Then, in 2019, an ecologically minded head gardener secured permission to tear up a portion of the grass and plant a meadow in its place. Before long it bloomed with poppies, buttercups and Queen Anne’s lace.
“King’s College botanist Cicely A.M. Marshall surveyed the site before and after its makeover. She and her colleagues found that, compared with their numbers in the remaining lawn, plants, bats, spiders, true bugs and other invertebrates had flourished in the meadow. And without the need for much mowing or any fertilizer, the meadow’s upkeep led to 99 percent less greenhouse gas emissions per hectare than the lawn.”
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE – Biodiversity flourishes in historic lawn turned wildflower meadow