What Exactly Is A Freedom Lawn?

 

There seems to be a lot of discussion on the social media pages I subscribe to about "freedom lawns".  I've yet to fully see such a thing defined, but I take it to be an area where the "lawn" is allowed the freedom to be what it becomes; unfettered by the "control" of the property owners with minimal management other than the removal of the most aggressive nonnative/invasive species, and no inputs such as additional water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Of course, not everyone seems to have the same definition, but all of the ones that I see come pretty close to this. 

If the ecological movement to create "living landscapes" has degenerated to this, the movement has lost... Benign neglect can never equal a purposeful planting. It's just never gong to be close to equivalent, unless perhaps you are not starting from a typical suburban lawn setting and have the advantage of beginning with a landscape that is already mostly natural.  Above, is a photo of a corner of my yard - my "freedom lawn" per se.  I have left a few out-of-the-way corners alone when they harbor the host plants of butterflies I have purposely planned for.  The peppergrass (Lepidium virginicum) emerging in this photograph is the host plant for checkered whites. I also leave a bit of pellitory (Parietaria floridana) for the red admirals and cudweed (Gamochaeta pennsylavanica) for the painted ladies, but all of this "neglect" is purposeful.  Most of the lawn I have been required to keep by edict of my landlords is a sea of nonnatives and mostly useless native plants.  Every place that I have disturbed the soil in to do a planting has generated more of these.  My "lawn" is not the freedom loving, All-American setting that will "trump" the lawns of my neighbors. It is a sad disgrace that can never achieve the ecological potential of a purposely planted one.

I have written extensively in the past about such topics, but the need to reinforce such things never seems to dissipate.  A pollinator garden is not native flowers and a meadow is not the same as a "freedom lawn".  Meadows in nature are a complex assemblage of native grasses and wildflowers that work together in a landscape. They are not individual parts, but parts of an interacting system where each has a role not quite matched by the other parts.  These native grasses provide structure, can serve as hosts for a wide number of grass skippers, and food for a number of seed-eating songbirds. The wildflowers are nectar sources, but also seed sources for those same songbirds, By adding diversity of flower types, blooming seasons, and plant heights we create the structural diversity that is absolutely important in trying to duplicate a natural system. We don't need to totally mimic what we might find in nature, just mimic the type of structural diversity found in it. 

We also need to purposely plant those species that will give us the "biggest bang for our buck".  Not all plants are created equal in terms of the roles they will play in a landscape - native or otherwise.  Just because something like dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) is native and attracts some pollinators doesn't mean that a different Eupatorium species has the same/equal value - the others are much better at attracting pollinators. Nearly every native wildflower is better. Of course, nearly every flowering plant attracts some type of pollinator.  One would be hard pressed to find one that is completely wind pollinated - except for most grasses. It's a question of quality - how many pollinator species seek it out, not whether something does. In this world we live in, we do not have the luxury of not maximizing the impact of our landscaping decisions.  To me, this means that we must purposely plant the species that will have the greatest impact not simply allow whatever appears to prosper.  Each plant that is inferior in providing for our goals takes space away from those that would. We do not choose simply on aesthetics - whether it's "pretty" and we don't simply sit back and let "nature" decide on what develops.  We have betrayed "nature" in most of our suburban developments and it is ready to get back at us for our laziness and neglect.

Freedom to do whatever we want should never be equated with the freedom to abrogate our responsibility to the planet and the rest of the earth's living creatures. Freedom comes with great responsibilities.    Embrace them and plant with a purpose. Weed that way also.  

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