I think it’s been pretty well established that lawns are environmentally unfriendly. They require massive amounts of water. Fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides get carried off by rain (or overwatering!) into storm drains and streams and can contaminate wildlife and environments many miles away. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, homeowners in the U.S. use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops.
Worse: According to a 2013 study, “Detection of herbicides in the urine of pet dogs following home lawn chemical application,” the detection of lawn chemicals in the urine of pet dogs was widespread – and that lawn chemicals persisted on the grass for at least 48 hours after application, and even longer under certain environmental conditions. It’s been established that exposure to herbicide-treated lawns has been associated with significantly higher bladder cancer risk in dogs.
And yet: What’s better than playing with a dog, or watching a dog or dogs play by themselves, on a blanket of nice thick green grass? Especially in the heat of summer?
I just read an article in the New York Times (“America’s Killer Lawns”) that provided some helpful ways to make lawns less toxic.
No beautiful lush lawn at my house…
For what it’s worth, I’ve never had a gorgeous lawn – probably because I’ve never engaged the services of a lawn-care company, not used fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides on my grass. I wouldn’t feel good about using any of those things, even though I’ve certainly enjoyed playing or exercising on publics lawns and sports fields that almost surely DO use those chemicals. Every home I’ve lived in as an adult came with an existing crappy lawn, one containing as many weeds as grass species (my husband insists on using air-quotes when discussing our “lawn,” because he doesn’t think the collection of plants that dwell in front of our home constitutes turf in any way). At our last home, we stopped watering our “lawn” during the worst summer of California’s drought, and neither restarted nor, I have to admit, replaced it with alternative landscaping. It looked perfectly Dust Bowl-esque in the summer, just awful.
Like our past homes, our current home came with a front yard featuring lots of grass, as well as lots of other weeds and clover. It’s partially sun-baked and partially deeply shaded. Some species of plants thrive in one location and not in the others. But for the two summers we’ve lived here so far, we have kept it watered and mowed, and both the dogs and I really enjoy it, even if it’s not thick or lush or smooth or even. It’s cooler and softer than anything else outside in the summer! Also, it covers a wide swath of space; if we removed it, I have no idea what we’d plant or how we’d begin to landscape or hardscape it. For now, anyway, it is what it is.
Lately, I’ve been watching videos of a trainer I know working her young puppy on a smooth green carpet of permanently installed artificial turf outside her home and have been coveting a training space like that. But I don’t know that I would ever pull the trigger on an expense like that, either.
What about you? Do you maintain a lawn for your family’s enjoyment? Or do you live lawn-free? If you have given up grass, do you miss it?
We live in AZ and have a beautiful lawn in the summer. We let it go dormant in the winter. I do not use any weed killers in the entire backyard except for a mixture of Vinegar, Dawn Soap, and Salt to kill the weeds in the rocks. We do have to fertilize the lawn once a month in the summer. I don’t let the dogs on the lawn until after it waters at night. I train and compete with my dogs in agility, so the lawn is important to us. The love of my life, Tigger, died in November 2019 at the age of 14 from bladder cancer. She was my first agility dog and I will miss her every day for the rest of my life. Although, I did what I could to keep her away from lawn chemicals, we trained and competed in public parks since she was 6 months old. I hate the idea that everything we loved to do together may have contributed to her death. I will always be heartbroken to live my life without her.
Sorry to hear about your loss 🙁 I don’t use any chemicals to my backyard but I have always wondered what to do when I’m walking my dog and he’s sniffing a neighbor’s yard. You can’t predict when and where they have applied any chemicals. I also train my dog in public parks and didn’t realize that they can pose a risk.
NEVER put chemicals on the lawn….. my motto is “if it’s green – it’s grass” . Just keep it mowed and not manicured.
Dogs first !
I prefer to think of my Midwestern lawn as a “diverse ecosystem”. It looks decently green in the spring and fall, not great in the hot/dry midsummer, but that doesn’t matter! We have more wildlife and insects in our yard than our neighbors do, because much of the “green” is clover, moss and other plants. Even the tiny “weed” flowers feed something! I have never used any noxious chemicals on yard or garden, and we eat organic food. Roundup and the other chemicals are not just affecting dogs; they are known carcinogens for people too!
We have lots of trees, including pines — no lawn! Ferns, mosses, other vegetation. I try to keep my dog away from the golf course and lawn areas that I know have been treated. That said, she loves the golf course pre-season and pre-treatment and it is a fun training area.
We live on an acreage and we avoid using chemicals for the health of the land, wildlife, our water (we have a well), our pets and our health. Once it is mowed it is green unless it has been a very dry summer. A lush lawn is nice and some summers we get enough rain that it thrives but we don’t water it. Sometimes, in the fall, we let the horses in around the house to give it a last trim before winter and a bit of natural fertilization at the same time:)
We live on 1and 3/4 acres in Metro Denver. As a hobby, I show my dogs and breed occassionally for the betterment of my breed and attempt to increase genetic diversity, do all appropriate health checks (hips, patellas, elbows, eyes) and genetic testing. I attended a 4 day Canine Health Symposium at CSU (2008) which was primarily about cancer. Dr. Ron Schultz gave a seminar on his research into vaccines. (He is behind the Vaccine Guidelines). What I learned from many of the top research vets throughout the country and through research/studies, is that lawn herbicides on individual properties are the biggest trigger for cancer, particularly bladder cancer (study was with Scottish Terriers), lymphoma and leukemia. I haven’t used herbicides/pesticides on my lawn for 25 yrs. The dandelions (which only last for about 3 wks) my dogs eat and they are good for the liver and other things. The lawn is Kentucky Blue Grass, taken over by lots of clover and various kinds of weeds. All we do is water and after the dandelions are gone, looking out over the “lawn” when you view it over our 6 ft horsey fence, all you see is a “sea” of green. This makes me happy and reminds me of one of the reasons that I have healthy, happy Norwegian Elkhounds that have longeavity.
This has been a long-standing argument in our house. We are careful what we feed our dogs but when it comes to the lawn my husband thinks chemically treated grass is fine and doesn’t hurt them. I guess it will take one of them getting cancer to convince him. Lord knows I’ve tried.
We live in Northern California where we had several drought years. Our Standard Poodle killed our backyard lawn with his urine. We replaced the lawn with new sod at considerable expense. In no time, it was full of dead spots from urine. I removed the lawn and planted from seed a new type of drought tolerant fescue that does not require mowing. It was beautiful until dead spots starting appearing. I decided to sow the dead spots with White Dutch Clover seeds. Now our lawn is fecue mixed with lots of clover. We use no chemicals or fertilizers and it does not require as much water as the old lawn. The lawn stays green and I don’t worry about my dog rolling in it and eating the grass.
I live south of Buffalo, NY in a residential, suburban community. I do not use any pesticides on my lawn because of my dogs. My neighbors on both sides do, but after doing a favor for one of them (babysat his 2 Yorkies for 6 months) he asked what he could do in return. I asked him to stop having his lawn sprayed, and thank God he did. Still working on the
other neighbor, whose lawn, by the way, looks MUCH worse than mine.
For the first time ever we have a beautiful lawn. We put down sod last fall and it’s like green lush carpeting. The dogs are hysterical to watch as they love it as much as we do, rolling on their backs with big smiles on their faces. We are using pet friendly fertilizers and realize this may not be enough. The plan of attack is to get the weed killers our grass man recommends and put it down right before we leave on vacation, so no one will be on it for a week or more. Will it be enough? Who knows? I’m very aware of everything that goes in our yard, but also realize we can not totally avoid everything. I am trying to balance things the best I can, and pray that will be enough.