Kirsten Coates knows what it's like to spend a lot of time mowing.
She used to live on a 2-hectare block before moving to a property 1/20th that size in Yackandandah, in Victoria's north-east.
The move meant she wouldn't need to mow anywhere near as often. But when she started rejuvenating the garden she realised she wanted to go further.
"I got really passionate about reducing my lawn and increasing the garden, and the other things that are actually meant to be in our lands," she said.
So she did just that, shrinking the lawn space to make way for 30 trees.
The idea was to increase biodiversity and native species on the property, and to reduce emissions.
"The biggest thing I've noticed is just the return of animals and birds and reptiles and insects to my garden," she enthused.
"I went down this huge rabbit hole of what does not having a lawn actually mean and what does it look like. And it looks like a paradise."
The case for the environment
You don't have to look far to find Australians passionate about maintaining their grass and feeling it under their toes.
It's a point of pride for many neighbourhoods, and some local governments even hold competitions for "best lawn".
All the same, Ms Coates is not alone in her quest to reduce the hold the lawn and the lawnmower have on our gardens and cultural life.
Community and local government group Gardens for Wildlife encourages landowners to reshape their properties to better co-exist with native species.
They describe the lawn on their website as "like 'enemy territory' that wildlife have to cross to get to safety."
No Mow May is a movement in the northern hemisphere encouraging people to stop mowing for a month to allow flowers to grow for pollinators.
Honorary professor in environmental science at the University of Newcastle and former president of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, Howard Bridgman, says people like Ms Coates have the right idea.
He published a study back in 2000 — which he is quick to point out is a long time ago in academic terms — working with the CSIRO to assess lawnmower emissions.
"Basically, what we discovered was the petrol driven mowers were a rather important source on a fairly minor scale of emissions of different types of pollutants," he explained.
Since then, electric mowers have become a lot more common. He says they make a huge difference when it comes to emissions, but they can still create dust particles that cause respiratory problems.
His advice is to reduce lawn size and use an electric mower — and not too often.
He mows every fortnight.
"I know there are people who are passionate and they will go out and water the lawns regularly and want to have nice, lush, green growth, et cetera," he said.
"It looks very, very nice. But that does create theoretical problems in terms of too much mowing, in terms of the emissions. And also it does affect water levels."
For the love of lawns
But for Suzie Shearer, director of Coolabah Turf in Echuca, the lawn is associated with healthy living.
"I cannot for a moment imagine living in a world without green space — whether it's in my own backyard, at the local park, or for sports field," she said.
She says lawns are a great way to get kids "ditching screen time for green time".
Ms Shearer points to the type of turf and the height of the lawn as important factors when determining how often you need to mow, but gives every week to ten days as a rough estimate.
She says customer discussions get heated, as lawns can be a sensitive topic.
"I've seen husbands and wives coming in to choose a new turf type nearly get divorced over lawn height," she said.
Kirsten Coates concedes the lawn can be a "very emotive issue", as shown by some of the reactions she's encountered.
"In fact, I haven't got rid of all of my lawn," she admits.
"I have a new granddaughter and I want her to have a little patch to play on. And it's nice to have a place to sit and look at the garden, actually, so I haven't got rid of my lawn totally."
Even so, she has no regrets about the lawn she's discarded.
"My bird life has just exploded. It's given me more leisure time. It's given me less sort of stress about keeping my lawn alive in drought times.
"It's a win-win situation."
