Many years ago, I thought that having a lush green lawn was the most important aspect of home ownership, along with a desire for perfection. What I didn’t consider back then, were the numerous negative aspects and after years of managing the process, I eventually determined it wasn’t worth the time and effort nor the negative aspects to the environment.

The regime was comparable to a patient on life-support, requiring chemical therapy, hydration, and around-the-clock care, while providing little to no ecological benefit to the living earth, example: seed it, feed it,  poison it, water it, cut it, bag it, dispose it and repeat, frankly a waste of time.

Something had to change and after doing some reading and consulting with eco-minded landscape professionals, it was confirmed that conventional yard-care was destructive to the eco-system, harmful to people, pets and wildlife. For example: if I poisoned the grubs, birds were likely harmed by eating the grubs and worms, by using chemicals to achieve green grass, storm water runoff and by extension drinking water becomes contaminated.

According to some estimates in the United States, lawns cover 10 to 16 million hectares, (each hectare equals 2.47 acres) which is more than the US combined land used to grow barley, cotton and rice. Imagine converting 50% of these hectares to habitats that can provide benefit for biodiversity. Imagine the money saved from not having to maintain in such an intensive way, the water we would save from not having to irrigate in dry climates, the energy we would personally save from fewer mowers and the time we would save from not having weekends centered around maintenance. And finally, imagine the biodiversity we could cause to blossom by designing our spaces for nature.

Moving towards a direction of reduced impact I implemented new practices, such as, replacing lawn area with native plantings, stopped lawn irrigation, eliminated use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer, began hand raking only and finally planted pollinator supporting trees and plants.

Every yard is a work in progress regardless of methods but, the benefits of a low impact yard include: lower maintenance costs, cleaner air to breath, (no leaf blowers), improved visual appeal with no secondary poisoning to pets, people and wildlife while supporting biodiversity of the living earth, and the satisfaction of helping rather than harming. I am convinced that nature will thrive and our health will improve if we change our approach to land use, I think about that as I consider my choices.

A couple years ago, my husband installed a rain barrel connected to the gutter ner our backyard patio. I was pleased to see the barrel completely filled with each rainfall and felt good knowing I was using water collected for my potted plants and herb garden.  In the summer of 2022 when Medfield faced a fairly severe drought, we decided to install additional barrels to enhance our rainwater collection efforts. We added three connected 50 gallon barrels in an area on the side of our house, hidden from the street by bushes. 

We now have capacity for collecting 200 gallons and have not turned on our hoses once this summer! It was relatively simple to install and we are happy to simply utilize rainfall for watering our plants and trees.

We added rooftop solar to our home as part of the Solarize Medfield Program in 2017.  We had recently replaced our roof and the timing was perfect for us.  Due to the configuration of our roof, we could only install 15 panels which provides about 30% of our electric demand.  We track it closely, and the panels reliably deliver as promised, while the SREC's have been coming in a little higher than estimated.  The financial analysis showed a payback in a little over 8 years.  The installer did an excellent job, and we feel this was a great investment in our home and our environment.  I would highly recommend adding solar.

Emptying the spam folder was easy.  As for the rest of my unread messages, that's another matter.  But now I have more motivation. I never realized this had an environmental impact!

Back when it became clear that many of the tax breaks associated with EVs and solar seemed to be in danger of slipping away (last November for those keeping track) we decided to go (almost) all in with solar panels, a heat pump, and an battery-powered EV. There were a few attractive options, but based on driveability and price, we chose a Hyundai Ioniq 5 (replacing an 11 year old Lexus 350RX). This is a very fine car indeed, with great digital displays, sophisticated camera position, and great mileage (or as we call it 1.6km-age - about 100 mpgE (miles per gallon equivalent)). The two years of free charging at Electrify America stations was a big draw as well. A trip to Ontario proved the reliability of the search functions - "where can I get food and electricity?" You have to take some care in trip planning based on the location of chargers, but I have about half a dozen accounts with various providers (not all are free, of course), and there's a free adapter for Tesla chargers. Cargo capacity is comparable to the Lexus SUV, allowing me to haul our trash and recyclables to the transfer station with ease. 

I've spent way too long pumping gas to go back. Hyundai rules.   

I have been using Blueland handsoap products for a couple of years now.  I purchased a starter kit (4 starter kits actually, 1 for each sink!) and it came with a glass bottle and a pump and a variety of soap tablets.   To mix up a bottle full I simply add water and drop in the tablet.   I love the scents and the convenience.  It makes me happy to know that all that is being delivered to me is a tablet and not a plastic bottle with a heavy, water-based premixed handsoap.    They even have fun scents for holidays which was a fun feature.