Is your yard carbon neutral?

Well I have started my weekly ritual - mowing the lawn. I have had different feelings about mowing the lawn over the years - from 'not again' to 'it's nice to be outside for a little relaxing time'. The start of my weekly ritual was coincidental with an article I recently read. The article was on whether your yard is carbon neutral.

The debate goes back to whether having grass or having a bed/garden is environmentally better. Don't people say that gras takes more time to maintain than plants or a garden?

Let's think about it in another way.
Which contributes less towards global warming - grass or garden/plant bed?
Is having grass actually a carbon sink?

To maintain a typical lawn, you have to do the following:
- Mow it weekly.
- Fertilize it 2-3 times per year.
- Trim or 'weed whack' weekly.
- Dethatch, aerate, and overseed which may be done with a gas-powered unit.
- Blow leaves in the fall.
- Water
- Apply herbicides for weed control

With the mowing, trimming and watering, along with the energy it takes to produce the fertilizer and herbicides, it is easy to conceive that having grass may not actually prove to be a carbon sink. With the energy use or carbon dioxide produced in taking care of the lawn, it may be more than the actual grass uses for photosynthesis.

How can you minimize your lawn care foot print:
- Use a manual, 'old fashioned' mower
- Keep grass length at about 4 inches - reduces water needs and chokes out weeds
- Use organic fertilizers that minimize nitrogen content
- Manually rake leaves, spread organic fertilizer and overseed with rotary or drop-spreader, manually dethatch and aerate
- Increase your garden size or bed sizes with native plants
- Pull weeds manually or let some of them grow
- If the older generations did things manually then we can too

To maintain a bed/garden:
- Plant a plant - locally grown food will save transport costs of shipping tomatoes from across the country native species of woody plants can be a carbon sink and be abel to handle local weather conditions.
- Mulch - save on watering and decrease weeds, lessening the need for herbicides.
- Perhaps fertilize and water (depending on the plant) - use organic fertilizers or soil mixes to promote plant growth.
- Clean the beds - use manual rakes to minimize the use of trimmers and blowers.