Plant Science & Conservation
Garden Stories
How scientists are rethinking lawns—and how you can, too
For many homeowners, a long, hot summer means mow the lawn, water, repeat. It’s a cycle that feels inevitable if you don’t want a brown, unruly patch of land.
Conservation scientist Becky Barak, Ph.D., is looking to change that assumption. By studying alternatives to traditional turfgrass, she and her collaborators are hoping to offer a “menu of options” for greener lawns that not only look good and stand up well against the Chicago area's moody seasons, but also have positive ecological implications.
Dr. Becky Barak
Brian Lovejoy (left), Ph.D. student with Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden; Rose Menzies (center), graduate student at the University of Michigan-Flint; and Tyler Peters (right), research assistant at the University of Michigan-Flint, work on research with the experimental plots.
Former lawn alternatives research assistant and graduate student Alison Branz studies soil from the experimental plots in the soil lab at the Garden’s Plant Science Center.
The buzz around sustainable lawn alternatives has been growing. For Dr. Barak, a scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, it’s important to find options that are sustainable and fit homeowners’ needs. “There isn’t a lot of data behind alternative choices for lawns,” Barak said. “We can help by hopefully showing which of these alternatives function best for different ecosystem services. People are already talking about lawn alternatives; now, we can give them the tools to know which lawn alternatives might match with their goals."
The study kicked off in 2021 as a collaboration between Barak; Rebecca Tonietto, Ph.D., an expert on pollinator conservation and associate professor at the University of Michigan-Flint; Lauren Umek, Ph.D., an urban ecologist with the Chicago Park District; and Liz Anna Kozik, Ph.D., an artist, historian, naturalist, and current research coordinator on this project. They began planting experimental plots in 2021 at Chicago’s Marquette Park and Marian R. Byrnes Park with the help of a grant from the Eppley Foundation for Research. In 2022, Barak received a Biota Award from the Walder Foundation; this award, which is given to early-career researchers who are working on biodiversity restoration, allowed the study to expand.
In summer 2022 the team planted a collection of eight experimental plots at the Chicago Botanic Garden, each with different mixes of grasses—and flowers. Traditional turfgrass is the control. The alternatives include fine fescue as a grass alternative, two microclover plots (microclover alone and seeded into grass), a sedge lawn, two short-growing meadow mixes (a low-diversity option and a high-diversity option with more species), and a prairie plot that grows slightly taller. The meadow and prairie plots include flowering plants, in addition to grasses and sedges. A new site at Uptown Coastal Natural Area with the Chicago Park District is planted with a range of different grasses and sedges grown from both seeds and plugs to test implementation and maintenance of lawn alternatives.
Plots at the Garden will grow for three years. Barak, along with graduate students and other researchers, will collect data on the plots and switch out species if they discover something isn’t working. The goal is to understand both the ecological impact and how to keep each option looking good.
“Thirty to sixty percent of potable water in the U.S. goes to lawns,” Barak said. “Out west, they’re banning or limiting watering, providing subsidies for alternatives… In [the Chicago] area, we don’t think as much about water conservation, but we could and we should.”
Many of the alternatives include native species. Those plants have deeper root systems than traditional turfgrass, which means they can more effectively absorb stormwater. Not only does this prevent water runoff and flooding, but it allows the plants to better sustain themselves during a drought, so they require less watering. It’s a useful trait for a place like Chicago, where periods of heavy rain can quickly transform into long, hot dry spells.
The team will also judge how well each option benefits the environment. Pollinator observations will determine how supportive each plot is to bees and other pollinator species. Soil samples will test for carbon storage; more carbon absorption means healthier soil, not to mention more carbon removed from the air. The team will also monitor plant cover in each plot, watching which species do well and spread. “When you look at regular grass, there’s not a lot of bare ground,” Barak said. “We’re thinking about that too.”
Since the alternatives in this study are better suited to Chicago’s climate and habitats, they’re better able to thrive independently. This means less mowing, less water use, and fewer chemical treatments—plus an increase in aesthetically pleasing guests like butterflies. There’s a lot to look forward to.
“Traditional grass lawns dominate the cities, suburbs, and exurbs of our country, which makes the potential impact of this work enormous,” said Kay Havens, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden. “Each converted lawn uses fewer resources while increasing insect and bird habitat, carbon sequestration, and more. It is hard to imagine just how beneficial this switch could be.”
Multiple students in the joint graduate program in plant biology and conservation through Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden have served as research assistants working on the experimental plots, and to date, two students have written their masters theses on data collected with this project.
Barak’s research has garnered excitement not just from conservation scientists, but from horticulture, collections, and natural areas staff at the Garden, who offered advice on growing methods and plant options and helped with the practical issues of preparing and caring for the garden plots. Working with interpretation and design allowed for signage—featuring Kozik’s art—that explains the goals of the experiment and the layout of the plots. While much of the communication on this topic appeals to homeowners, this study partners with horticulturists and land managers that could implement the new ideas on public lands, allowing the impact of the study to scale up quickly. Partnering with the Chicago Park District also means the results can be implemented directly on a large scale.
Visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden can see the experimental plots growing just south of the Mitsuzo and Kyoko Shida Evaluation Garden. Barak’s team will be looking for public feedback: “What people like, what they don’t like, what they can see potentially using or would like to have in a park near their house,” Barak said. “[This research is] only helpful to the extent that it’s used!”
Visit Rethinking Lawns
—a website designed by Kozik in collaboration with Barak, Tonietto, and Umek—to learn more.
Illustration courtesy of Liz Anna Kozik. View a larger version.