But now that global warming has created an almost biblical sense of guilt over carbon emissions, North America’s lawn fixation seems downright reckless. Lawns suck up plenty of resources, especially for something so ultimately useless.

Personal carbon emissions from home energy use and driving do not make up the bulk of personal carbon emissions, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based environmental group. They estimate 60 per cent of personal carbon emissions result from the products we buy. For instance, that packet of wildflowers spread around the rusted bike rack in the back of your apartment building may give you a happy hippie feeling, but the seeds traveled from California on a truck. That one purchase alone outweighs all the carbon emissions you saved by riding your bike to work instead of taking a car. And that’s not even taking into account the copious amounts of water and pesticides required by our obsession with green grass.

For the real "green" thumbs, the alternatives look much friendlier.

Community gardens

Keeping up appearances isn’t a concern for Bonnie Ogden and her fellow residents of Bay Vista, a condo building in the Queen Mary Park neighbourhood. Sick of mowing, weeding, fertilizing and cutting their grass for purely aesthetic reasons, the Bay Vista residents decided this year they’d exchange their front and back lawns for vegetable and low-maintenance plant gardens.

"The board would hire a big company to come and mow the grass, whether it was growing or not," Ogden says with a laugh. "We decided this is bogus. We’re changing our concept."

The building joined a handful of other groups across the city starting up gardens though the Community Garden Network of Edmonton and Area (CGN). This four-year-old nonprofit provides support for the creation of new gardens, including set-up materials, growing tips and networking contacts.

Bay Vista went one step further than simply planting their garden: they entrenched environmentally-friendly practices into the condo mandate. A communal compost heap will turn waste from resident’s homes into fertilizer, and the condo has also put a strict ban on pesticides. That comes as a huge relief for resident Gloria Lockie, who’s allergic to dandelion-killer 2,4-D. Before Ogden and her crew took over, Lockie was forced out of her apartment for three days while the lawn-care company sprayed for weeds.

Ogden doesn’t understand why more condos and apartment buildings don’t offer gardens and other alternatives, given the space and resources lawns gobble up and the desire on the part of residents for an outdoor hobby.

"What’s the point in coming home and just sitting in your apartment wishing you had a garden?" she asks. "We said, ‘Let’s make it happen.’"

Local plants

Buying or cultivating native plants is just as important for earth-minded Edmontonians as buying local food. Biodiversity isn’t something many of us think of when we’re planting, but the present monoculture of Kentucky Blue grass doesn’t support a healthy ecosystem.

Patsy Cotterill, a botanist and member of the Edmonton Naturalization Group, tore up both her front and back lawn to make way for native plants and trees. "It was a hell of a job," she says with a hint of exasperation. "It’s been four years and the garden is still far from looking nice."

Cotterill preserves local species by transplanting plants from areas that developers are paving over. She also buys native plants from Bedrock Seeds, a local nursery and seed supply company. Her lawn now boasts Buck Bush, saved from a St. Albert woodland, native juniper, tall native grasses, Scots Pine and only a small strip of grass between her lawn and that of her neighbours.

Cotterill realizes that not everyone has her ambition (or her amount of available space); she recommends that green-minded novice gardeners try planting native scrubs like the Saskatoon Berry, which require less care and look good year-round.

That said, she warns, even the least ambitious garden requires plenty of experimentation and time. But that’s part of the fun. After all, as Cotterill remarks, "Everything doesn’t have to be perfect."

- The fertilizer industry accounts for six per cent of Canada’s natural gas consumption.

(Canadian Fertilizer Institute)

- Only one per cent of pesticides actually reaches the target plant, the rest are released into the environment. These chemicals are linked to hormone disruption and damage to reproductive and immune systems in both people and animals.

(The World Wildlife Foundation)

- Canadians use 1,600 cubic metres of water per person each year, Of the 29 countries in the OECD, only the United States consumes more.

(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)