Many Americans consider lawns synonymous with success, comfort, and community. (1) They have often become ubiquitous, perhaps without due consideration. (2) Neat lawns are enforced in a variety of ways, including zoning codes and home-owners associations. (3) Nonetheless, they cause a great deal of environmental problems, including “dramatic potable water consumption, high energy costs from water use, increased water and air pollution, and loss of biodiversity.” (4)  

Luckily, awareness of lawns’ negative impact is on the rise. (5) One facet of response is to reform Homeowners’ agreements and zoning codes. Another is participating in the growing permaculture movement. As with any change, not all people experience this progress in the same way. While it promises an idyllic solution to a portion of our current environmental challenges, the permaculture movement causes a rift in our culture. The rift must be overcome if we are to move forward. 

 

The permaculture movement involves working with the land and pre-existing ecosystems to increase biodiversity, productivity, and environmental wellness. (6) Many have hailed this movement as a potential savior of much of America’s land, as lawns are currently the country’s biggest irrigated crop. (7) Unfortunately, the movement also causes a greater socioeconomic rift between people who have the luxury to take advantage of the publicized, commercialized version of the movement and those who either find its tenets self-evident or will not have the luxury to invest in the solution. (8) Instead of a constructive improvement on a common way of life, traditional knowledge has sometimes been appropriated for capital and used to justify buying more high-value land. (9) Some go so far as to say the movement “demoniz[es] small peasant [farmers]” (10) as it extolls those who will pay for the solution. (11)   

One solution to this rift is to consider the possible colonizing effects of a permaculture movement within the current economic structure and adapt to minimize them. For example, people can offer permaculture knowledge freely instead of charging large fees. They can give proper deference to cultural knowledge they draw from, instead of presenting the information as purely their own.  

 

Another constructive solution is to give more people the option of improving their existing situation by removing legal barriers. There is growing support for lawn rewilding, (12) and legally binding zoning ordinances and homeowners’ associations rules will likely follow suit. Either communities can advocate with their municipalities to change the prevailing zoning laws, or individuals can apply for variances or conditional use permits to alter their own properties. (13) Homeowners’ associations often make their rules at will and can change their lawn requirements by vote. (14) General availability of knowledge related to permaculture and rewilding, combined with the freedom to carry out a project, could have a major impact on the American landscape and biodiversity. 

There are obstacles to overcoming the mythos of the American lawn, beyond the immediate legal obstacles. The rift in socioeconomic status related to lawns is also related to the American Dream mythos, and the idea of success, and homeownership. (15) There are huge racial disparities in American homeownership and access to lawns. (16) Destroying lawns lowers property value in a neighborhood, no doubt because of prevailing biases and ideas. (17)                                                                    

Following World War II, the federal government allocated funding to help veterans and families achieve homeownership. (18) These policies were deeply discriminatory in implementation, for the most part benefitting only white families. (19) The lawn was quickly adapted as a symbol of power and freedom from either the monochrome of the city or the dirt and crops of agrarian homes. (20) Lawns of plants grown for no reason besides beauty and sport had been a European power symbol even back to medieval castles, and were modernized into a common feature of many American lawns as a show of abundance. (21) The history of lawns shows the roots of ties between the value increase they confer on a property (22) and racial bias. 

People without lawns of their own can participate in so-called “guerrilla permaculture.” (23) This term is loosely defined, but generally entails the pursuit of alternative gardening for nourishment and reclamation of unused land, for example by using “seed bombs” (24) on empty lots. (25) It sometimes intends to disrupt the concept of land ownership entirely. (26)

Attempting to align landowners with lawns and people without access to gardens (and perhaps an intent to disrupt land ownership altogether) muddies the waters of permaculture. Cultural divides are not easily overcome, even in pursuit of a solution to a major environmental issue. The permaculture movement bears many loose definitions and associations. Still, the basics of the idea may appeal to everyone if they are made legally accessible and convenient. If all participants proceed with caution and communication, permaculture and rewilding may be made more broadly accessible, with benefits for all participants.