Low-grow (even no-mow) lawns tested by city

The Plain Dealer
January 01, 2008
By Michael Scott
Plain Dealer Reporter

Don`t toss out your Toro or fire the landscapers just yet, but get ready for the next thing in green living by next summer: Low-mow (even no-mow) lawns.

Yep, the green revolution is sowing seeds of environmental change even among the lush, green grasses of suburbia.

Low-mow -- and its even more ecologically minded brother, no-mow -- refer to limited-growth grass seed mixes. The seeds grow into lawns that need less water, need no fertilizers or weed killer and stay reasonably short, 6 to 8 inches, even if mowed only once a month or less.

They`re already taking root in Cleveland.

The Cleveland Botanical Garden and several city departments are testing a handful of low-growth grass mixes -- some already available, while others are new mixes developed at the garden. The grasses would be planted initially only in city-owned vacant lots.

Five mixes sprouted with mixed results when planted in pilot strips last summer in front of the Botanical Garden`s East Boulevard building. The most promising blend topped off between 6 and 8 inches high when being cut only once a month.

Other Northeast Ohio lawns probably grew that much in a single week this past summer when the rains came.

Supporters say that`s what will make these low-mow grasses an increasingly popular option, even though some disdain their small flowers, and most varieties look shaggier than well-manicured yards.

"The perfect American lawn is going through a volatile period in its history," said Case Western Reserve University environmental history professor Ted Steinberg of Shaker Heights. "Of course, I`m the guy who thinks any lawn maintenance is a waste of time."

Steinberg, author of "American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn," said there is "an anti-perfect lawn revolution under way in Canada. " He said more than 120 cities there have enacted limits on the use of pesticides on yards, for example.

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