lawns

Ripping out lawns could have unintended consequences

In L.A., replacing grass with drought-tolerant plants could change the city’s temperature.

Climate change leaves trees out to dry

We’re OK with the drought killing your lawn — but, c’mon, the trees, too?

How many guinea pigs does it take to mow your lawn?

The average American lawn is one-fifth of an acre, or 8,712 square feet. That’s a lot of passes with your push reel mower. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just hire some goats, cows, or guinea pigs to take care of it for you? Movoto.com, a real estate company, is helping you plan your […]

City officials are waging a war on gardens

We've heard one too many stories in which people decide to use their yards to grow some fresh vegetables, only to have city officials come down hard on them, forcing them to tear out their food or bulldozing the gardens themselves.

Houstonians want walkable neighborhoods

Car-centric Houston tends to be one of our go-to examples for everything that can go wrong with a city, ever. But we may not be able to use the city as a whipping boy much longer. According to a new survey, Houstonians are seeing the light on walkable and transit-accessible neighborhoods. More than half of […]

Government spends $40 million mowing lawns of empty homes

The U.S. government owns 200,000 foreclosed homes. And to keep those empty homes looking spiffy for would-be buyers, the government has to keep up appearances — including the appearance of the lawn. As a result, we taxpayers are forking over $40 million for lawn-mowing at these uninhabited houses.

Lawns are evil

Going rogue: USDA may have just opened the GMO floodgates

Did the USDA just open the floodgates to unlimited, unregulated planting of new genetically engineered crops? It sure looks that way.

DuPont herbicide may have caused mysterious tree plague

Millions of dollars worth of spruce and pine trees across the country have mysteriously withered and died in the past few months. The likely culprit is an herbicide marketed as a way to control lawn pests like dandelions.

The herbicide is Imprelis, a new product from DuPont. It was supposed to be better for the environment than its predecessors and has been sold at a premium to professional landscapers. DuPont claims it "may not have been mixed properly or was applied with other herbicides." Landscapers just want to know if they're going to have to pay to replace the trees that died on their watch.