Go green, go wild, let your lawn go
We should all be looking at our lifestyles to see how we might become greener, in terms of protecting the environment and in particular cutting down on harmful gas emissions. When Lord Stern talks about people cutting out meat to save the planet (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece) this is what he is really getting at – fundamentally looking at every aspect of our lives in a different way. We need to spot check through the green lens things we have previously taken for granted.
This is daunting, but probably easier to make a start on, and make a significant difference, than we might expect. Take lawns. They are almost the mark of civilised British, suburban life. A neatly manicured lawn says a lot about the inhabitants of the house. But it takes a lot of work, and energy, to maintain and has no positive environmental benefit.
Ah, you say, but we are green with our lawn, we put the cuttings into a big green bin and every 2 weeks or so the council come and take it away for . . . something.
Well they in part take it away to meet targets for the amount of green collection they do, and for little real environmental benefit. Then there is the environmental cost of the collections.
Just let your lawn grow, and seed it with wild flowers. Cut it back about twice a year and place the cuttings on to your own compost heap in the garden. You’ll have a good supply of compost for the vegetables you have started growing (you have, haven’t you?), wild life will prefer the lawn and flowers helping them to flourish and there will be less consumption of CO2 emitting fuels. In time you’ll come to prefer the wild to the manicured look, and have more time to enjoy it instead of cutting it.
Making greener choices in your life is easier to start than you might have assumed. Go green, go wild, let your lawn go.
