At first glance, some people might consider this a rather trivial item, compared to other issues such as large-scale land procurement through eminent domain or promotion of renewable energy. But the reality is that landscaping and maintaining residential, commercial, and public green spaces are major economic and environmental forces. This is particularly true of lawns—the open spaces we cover mostly with domesticated exotic grasses.

 

In a 2015 article entitled “The American Lawn is now the largest single ‘Crop’ in the U.S.”, The WorldPost (1) cited an analysis conducted by NASA (2) that revealed that

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the area covered by lawns in the United States is about 65,000 square miles, or an area about the size of Texas.

 

Also noted in the article was the sizable amount of water needed to maintain a well-manicured lawn. Much of this water is from potable sources, either as delivered directly from water utilities or drawn from drinking water aquifers and surface waters. It is estimated that in some regions 50-75% of residential water consumption is dedicated to lawn irrigation.

 

IBISWorld in a March 2017 report (3) noted that the overall landscaping service industry in the U.S., which includes lawn mowing, pruning, planting, spraying, fertilization and professional Landscaping design services (but excludes plant nurseries), is an $83 billion/year industry which provides over 1,000,000 jobs.

 

In Florida alone, researchers with the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) reported $10.71 billion in total sales in 2015 for the environmental horticulture industry with nearly 110,000 jobs. This included nursery and greenhouse producers, landscape service firms, horticultural product retailers and wholesalers, and allied horticultural product manufacturers and service providers.

 

Of the total sales, $2.75 billion was associated with nurseries, with $4.43 billion attributable to landscaping services. The remainder was distributed among ancillary products (e.g. fertilizers, equipment, pesticides) and services. Of the nursery sales, about 15.5% were native plants. These numbers confirm the important economic contributions of the Landscaping Industry. So, what is the comparative status of the native plant component of this industry, and what is its future?

 

Two of the major advantages of native landscaping are reduced maintenance costs and water conservation. Let’s consider water conservation first. In drought stricken areas such as California and much of the western U.S., water use is a most critical issue, and measures are being implemented to encourage the replacement of manicured lawns with native plants which require less water—what are known as native xeriphytes. This has led to the development of the practice of xeriscaping, which has been encouraged in many states with large or expanding populations such as California and Arizona.

 

However, in places such as Florida and much of the southeastern United States, it might be thought that the abundance of water would make water conservation less critical. But this is not necessarily true. While Florida, with its 55” year annual rainfall, certainly has more access to freshwater than Southern California, this water is under constant threat from salt water intrusion and from pollution associated with an increasing population and the State’s sizable investment in conventional agriculture. Much of Florida’s water comes from huge underground stores associated with an expansive porous lime rock network known as the Floridan Aquifer. Initially this aquifer seemed to be inexhaustible, but with increasing demands and dramatic changes in water management that directed much of Florida’s waters to coastal saltwater, it became clear that the water within the Floridan Aquifer was vulnerable to excessive withdrawal. In recent years, it has been necessary for Florida’s Water Management Districts to ration water for lawn irrigation. (During Florida’s winter, which is its dry season, it is not difficult to determine who is not abiding by the rationing mandates, for they have green lawns.) To protect the aquifer, Florida, like California and other western states, has encouraged the use of native plants in landscaping, in recognition that native landscaping requires considerably less irrigation as compared to conventional turf.

 

But the appeal of native landscaping regarding water conservation is boosted by the money that can be saved related to maintenance. While lawns and exotic landscaping are presently popular, the truth is, they are comparatively expensive to maintain. The average monthly cost in Florida for contracted maintenance of a typical residential lawn is about $200/month—more if pest and weed control and fertilization are included. This cost does not account for the price of irrigation water if it is purchased from local utilities. It is not unusual that fees for utility supplied water used for lawn irrigation to fall between $50-100/month, and this can be even higher if sewer charges are tied into water consumption rates.

 

A residence landscaped in native vegetation will typically not require maintenance irrigation water, nor will it need to be mowed on a regular basis. Some maintenance may be necessary to manage excessive growth, seeding, mulching and removal of invasive species on a seasonal basis, but this can usually be done at considerably lower cost when compared to lawn maintenance. In summary, a typical homeowner could well realize a savings of $2,000-$4,000/year by converting their landscaping and lawn from conventional turf and exotic species, to native landscaping.

 

It would be reasonable to ask what the impact would be upon lawn maintenance service companies as the popularity of native plant landscaping increases? An economist would remind us that the money saved from lower lawn maintenance and water costs will be used in other segments of the economy, and those segments would respond to this increased demand with new jobs. In other word there might be an economic shift, but not a net loss. They would also tell us that a growing Native Plant Landscaping Industry will itself create new types of jobs related to design, installation, seeding, and maintenance of native landscaping—virtually all of which will be in the U.S. It is typically considered healthy to allow consumers to determine how their money is spent, recognizing they will eventually move towards lowest cost when all other factors are similar. Lower cost options usually align with improved economic stability.    

 

Another issue associated with conventional landscaping maintenance is the introduction of pollutants associated with the application of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. These are often not used with native landscaping, and if they are used they are applied at much lower rates. Of course, pesticides and herbicides can be toxic to humans, wildlife, insect pollinators and pets, and recent data indicating that herbicides such as glyphosate may be more toxic than initially reported (5). This is cause for concern for homeowner who use glyphosate (for example Round-Up) on a regular basis.

 

It is encouraging that in Florida, California and many other states, the use of native plants for landscaping is becoming more prevalent. In Florida, the efforts of organizations such as the Florida Native Plant Society or FNPS (www.fnps.org), the Florida Association of Native Nurseries or FANN (www.floridanativenurseries.org) and others have been successful in promoting and  encouraging native landscaping. Similar nationwide efforts have been taken by groups such as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (www.wildflower.org), the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org).

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Because of these efforts, it is not unusual for governmental entities to now include requirements for the use of native landscaping as part of their Development Codes or Comprehensive Plans. For example, the City of Sanibel on Florida’s Southwest Coast requires 70% native vegetation for landscaping of new developments (6). In addition, much of the landscaping along new state roadways in Florida is invested in native plants such as Muhly grass, sand cord grass, cabbage palms, sunshine mimosa, wildflowers and coontie, while just a few years ago exotics such as oleander and Bahia grass were more prevalent.