What do people living in Boston, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles have in common? From coast to coast, prairie to desert, people love their lawns.  

If only there was a study that dug deeper, like examining differences in fertilization and irrigation practices.  

Don't scoff, the authors of a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences assure us that with 80 percent of Americans living in urban or suburban neighborhoods, understanding urban lawn care is vital to sustainability planning.


If aliens looked at our lawns, they would find we are all in agreement. Urban and suburban areas are more similar to each other than to adjacent native ecosystems. From top: Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix. Credit: US Geological Survey / Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies




Irrigation practices are driven by climate but fertilization is for the rich. Credit: Matt Howe (irrigation), Bochkarev Photography (fertilizer)


