A Path

I decided to spend my September freebie (see Parameter # 5: we each get to make one plastic purchase per month) on seeds for the garden. It seemed fitting that if I were going to buy something in plastic, it would be something that would ultimately make a positive environmental contribution.

Slowly over the last few years (ever since my lawn mower bit the dust) I have been converting our front lawn to flower beds. I killed the grass by getting 50 or 60 cast-off burlap bags from a local coffee roaster and spreading them out over the lawn. When the grass was dead, I started planting other stuff.

The usual argument made in favor of the un-lawn is that grass -- America's most commonly-grown crop -- devours fertilizers and water. We've never used fertilizers on our lawn, and we let it go dormant in the summer, so it really wasn't using resources. But today, instead of a monoculture, the front yard is a riot of species. The soil, teeming with critters micro and macro, is healthier than that of the typical American grass lawn. Many different plants live here, attracting beneficial spiders and insects, including pollinators, and the wild birds that eat them. Biodiversity is important, even in the city, and our little garden space is making its contribution to the health of our bioregion. Plus it's a lot more interesting to look at than grass.

Over the years, however, I've discovered that a garden path is a useful thing. I've tried making them from pea gravel, from bark dust, and from straw, but in this climate those all get quickly taken over by weeds. So I've turned back to grass as the most viable material for path-making.

Now, typical lawn grass grows so quickly in Portland's wet, warmish springs that it has to be mowed twice a week, a fact I bitterly resented in my lawn days of old. So I've taken to making paths of an alternative called Enviro-lawn, which is comprised of a mixture of fescue, ryegrass, yarrow, clover and small wildflowers. It makes a lush, slightly meadowy carpet that grows slowly. I've made two successful paths with it, and now I want to make more. So I spent my September free pass on a plastic bag of Enviro-lawn seed.


I bought some plants, too, and of course they came in plastic pots -- but the folks at the nursery said they would take them back and reuse them if I returned the empties, so I did.