Life and Death, and the Suburban Lawn

I’m coming out of the first significant asthma flare I’ve had in well over a year and I want to give special thanks to those of you who generated Maryland ideas over the last several days. I hope to organize those into a reader-friendly format in the near future. Thanks for being there while I was treading water.

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Today I have a bit of a face-off for you. In Oakland Mills, we have Yards Alive!

Yards Alive: Saturday, May 25, 2-5 pm

Join us for an in-person, self guided yard tour in Oakland Mills. Stop by each yard to see how these homeowners are replacing their turf grass for sustainable gardens. Homeowners/tour guides will be present to answer questions.

Map to be shared closer to the date.

Meanwhile, over in Ellicott City, It’s Kill Your Lawn!*

Kill Your Lawn: Friday, May 17th, 7:30 pm

What is Kill Your Lawn? Kill Your Lawn is a series created by Joey Santore, Al Scorch, and Empty Quarter Studios where they comically search for lawns to kill and replace with native gardens that benefit the environment. In October 2023, the duo visited Maryland and chose Howard EcoWorks and St. Peter's Episcopal to feature in one of their episodes, with St Peter's hosting the new garden that would be installed, and EcoWorks staff and crew implementing the project.

This was a massive undertaking replacing 1,700 square-foot of turf grass into a conservation landscape featuring native plants that will benefit the local ecosystem! To celebrate the release of the episode airing in May 2024, the collaborative journey between EcoWorks & St. Peters, and the new garden, come celebrate with us. It will be a fun way to learn about local environmental initiatives and to enjoy the community.

Now we get to the heart of the matter. It seems to me that both events are centered around the same concept: turf lawns are bad for the environment and we can be more eco-friendly by planting native plants instead. But the names couldn’t be more different.

Yards Alive!

Kill Your Lawn!

See what I mean?

So here’s my question for the day: do the names make a difference to you? They do to me and they probably shouldn’t, I guess. I just have an aversion to anything with “Kill!” in the title. On the other hand, one might conceivably visualize “Yards Alive!” as the title of a horror film.

How can local environmental groups capture our attention and influence our behavior? Are differing approaches possibly targeted to different age groups?

Will yards filled with native plants make me sicker than turf lawns? (We’re talking pollen, here.)

What do you think?

Village Green/Town² Comments

*Event has already taken place but you can check out the event page for additional information.

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