I finally got myself out of the house today and into the heat to cut my grass. In all honesty, the only reason I did so was because I fear what my neighbors think: they all have impeccable lawns and spend countless hours outside mowing, watering, trimming, clipping, and poisoning. I wonder if they look at my unkempt, weedy lawn and think: what does she do all day in that house? She can't even take care of her lawn!

Okay, I'm not really that paranoid about what my neighbors think of my yard-keeping skills. After all, they have no idea that mostly I'm sitting inside my house at the computer getting the news out. And rather than share their obsession with a clean cut lawn, I’m actually sort of repelled by it. I hate the sound of lawn mowers, and I think lawns, especially lawns made completely homogenous via insecticides and other poisons, are mainly a complete waste of three valuable resources: land, water and gasoline.

So, I cut the grass with a push mower that doesn't do the job as precisely as a gasoline or electric mower. But so what? It's saving valuable resources, reducing air pollution, and gives me exercise in the process.

Americans' obsession with lawns leads to the burning of about 800 million gallons of gasoline per year in our lawn mowers. Plus, the EPA estimates that gas lawn mowers account for 5% of all emission pollution, due to the fact that in one hour, a conventional gas mower can emit as much global warming pollution as 40 late model cars. See http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm for more info.

Lawns also take up valuable land space that could be used for growing something more valuable and necessary, like food. Thankfully, urban gardens are on the rise and recently the New York Times published an article on the movement of some folks to reclaim front yards as valuable garden space. Of course, many Americans are opposed to anything but a perfectly manicured lawn in the front of the house, but we'd all better consider the idea of growing at least some of our own food. We won't be able to keep trucking in produce from Mexico, Florida and California indefinitely, and we need to think of some other localized options.

As for my lawn, it's not that I don't like having a nice, clean space. I finally did go to the lawn and garden store to purchase a manual "edger" so I can trim the edges of the lawn around the sidewalk, which have become extremely overgrown and untidy. It's just that I really don't want to put too much time, money, energy and resources into growing grass.

Next year, I hope to transform my small, urban front yard into a vegetable and herb garden. In the meantime, I cut the grass with a push mower. While my neighbors send me the message that perfectly manicured lawns are the way to go, and burning fossil fuels is the way to get them, I sweat it out with a push mower, wearing my Ithaca Biodiesel t-shirt, hoping that at least one of them will get the message that we waste too many resources on grass.

Elizabeth Bauchner, Editor and Publisher, Ithaca Community News