By Rachel Gray, iVillage.com
Recently, I was lucky enough to catch a screening of Gimme Green, a documentary about Americans' obsession with their lawns. The film takes a look at the impact excessive watering and toxic pesticides have on our environment -- and our wallets -- as people strive to grow the greenest lawn in the neighborhood.
Did you know that this country spends over 40 BILLION dollars on lawn care? Yup, and as directors Isaac Brown and Eric Flagg point out, that makes our nation's largest irrigated crop...the lawn. Yikes!
The film is funny and a little alarming - watch the trailer to see for yourself. I bet it gets you thinking about your own green spaces.
You can maintain a lush lawn without any of the guilt by going organic in your gardening, controlling weeds without pesticides and uncovering common misconceptions about lawn care.
After all, shouldn't we be as concerned with keeping ourselves and our planet as healthy as we're keeping our lawns?
Rachel Gray, Associate Producer
iVillage.com
http://housecalls.ivillage.com/home/
Food Not Lawns is a national network of grass-roots non-profits, dedicated to converting lawns to gardens. I'm involved in the Kansas City chapter - http://www.FoodNotLawnsKC.org - if your petro-chemical lawn care investment is getting you down, check out Food Not Lawns.