Homeowners love a beautiful yard that they can call their own little slice of green.  And why not, we all need a little oudoor getaway to refresh the spirit once in a while and the closer to home the better.  But traditional methods used to keep your grass green and your flowers blooming are extremely detrimental to the environment in many different ways.  There's now a ban on aesthetic pesticide use in Toronto which is good news.  Pesticides don't only kill pests but also kill insects that help your garden or lawn to thrive.  Like earthworms that aerate your soil, lady-bugs, lacewings, and hover-flies that feed on aphids, mites, whiteflies and other insect pests. 

First of all, I don't recommend growing and maintaining a lawn at all, especially if you live downtown and barely have a yard anyway.  Consider replacing your lawn with a rock garden interspersed with native plants and flowers.  The rocks keep the moisture in the ground and reduce the need for watering, the native plants thrive with minimal effort in their native soils and the lack of grass means no mowing. 

If you do want a lawn, there are many ways to maintain one with less impact on the environment.  First of all, buy a push mower!  Gas powered lawn tools like mowers, leaf-blowers and weed-wackers are the dirtiest-burning, least-feul-efficient encarnations of the combustion engine in existance!  Don't use them!  Buy a push mower, clippers and a rake.  And using these hand tools is better for your lawn because they cut the grass by shearing it not by tearing it like gas powered tools. 

If you're growing a lawn, ask your local gardening center what type of grass is native to your area. Native grasses are well adapted to your area's growing conditions and grow with the least effort and maintenance.  They reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

I don't recommend wasting clean drining water to water your lawn and garden.  Buy a rain barrel and collect rainwater for these purposes.  There are dire shortages of clean drinking water in many parts of the world and we're using ours to water our lawn and gardens and to clean our sidewalks!?  Let's collect rainwater and buy brooms instead.

Make Pesticide use unnecessary by choosing non-toxic alternatives.  Insecticidal soaps and integrated pest control techniques instead of chemical spray to control pests on plants.  (Also see 'Natural Pest Control') Pull weeds by hand instead of using herbicides.