Edwin Budding, an Englishman, invented the lawnmower in 1830.

Around the same time, Justus Liebig, a German, invented a chemical fertilizer to encourage longer, thicker grass.

Improving on the Budding design immediately became a challenge for all engineers and inventors. The cast iron Budding Lawnmower was too heavy to be pushed by just one man, so it was modified with an extra handle in front of the machine. The front man pulled while the back man pushed.

W.F. Carnegie bought a Budding lawnmower. But with a swath of 19 inches, it proved inadequate for Carnegie’s 2 1/2-acre lawn. He hired James Shanks, who “improved” the Budding mower by inventing a machine with a 27-inch swath. It was pulled by two men or a pony.

By 1842, Clumber Park, Nottingham­shire, England, modified its newly acquired Budding to cut a 42-inch swath. This machine required a horse led by a boy, with a man attending the machine to direct it.

Presumably, the horse also applied the fertilizer.

The New England Wildflower Society, in its Native Plant News, appealed to Americans to abandon their lawnmowers and swear off the chemical fertilizers. Green, non-native grasses now cover 40 million acres of the U.S.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that almost 70 million pounds of pesticide are used on suburban lawns every year. We use more herbicides per acre of lawn than most farmers use to grow crops. A University of Massachusetts study says many “lawn service companies routinely apply five to seven pounds of pesticides per acre of lawn per year — twice the amount applied to the most pest-plagued of agricultural crops, sweet corn.”

We use 50 percent to 70 percent of our potable water watering our lawns. A 2005 NASA study estimates that we have more than 32,000 acres of irrigated lawn — three times the area of irrigated corn.

Nearly 17 million gallons of gasoline is spilled while re-fueling lawnmowers. This is more than the 1989 Exxon Valdez, considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters in US history.

So what do you do with all these facts and figures? The Society suggests giving up your grass, but not all at once. “Sort areas of your yard into three categories: where you could lose the lawn and not miss it, where you desire a green groundcover, but not necessarily turf grass, for aesthetic reasons; and where a lawn of some sort is useful.”

There are many Pennsylvania natives to consider as replacements for turf grass. If you’ve adopted the “if it’s Saturday morning, it must be time to mow the lawn” mantra, The Society recommends Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica). At Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts, there is a sedge lawn that is cut once a year and according to The Wildflower Society “looks much like standard turf grass the rest of the year.”

Check the images on the internet. You be the judge.

Contact Teresa Futrick at esroyllek@hotmail.com.