| | | | | Cory Suter calls his sheep back to the trailer after finishing a job in Herndon, Va. (Photo by Allison Robbert) | | Sisyphus pushed a boulder for eternity. I had to mow my friend's lawn. Every summer, before heading to the beach, we'd have to make sure his grass was cut. The seemingly infinite carpet of spiky St. Augustine grass seemed to grow almost as fast as we could mow it. If only I had known about the amazing grazing solution pioneered millennia ago: "Lamb mowers." This week, I wrote about how suburbanites are trading in their lawn mowers for sheep.
| | | |  | | "Lawn mowers" were once synonymous with hoofed livestock: goats, sheep, horses and other herbivores For centuries, famous lawns have relied on grazing to keep up appearances, from New York's Central Park to the White House. And fire-prone communities in Europe and the United States have used sheep and goats to keep down fire risk. Suburbia is the next frontier. Lamb Mowers, billed as the country's only sheep-led lawn care service, is munching its way to success. The small business in Northern Virginia employs more than a dozen sheep to mow, weed and fertilize suburban lawns across the region. The modest animals are changing hearts and minds, and perhaps pointing Americans toward a different relationship with their grass. The nature of lawns Americans grow more grass than almost any other plant. An estimated 1.9 percent of the surface of the continental United States is covered in turf grass, according to a 2005 NASA analysis of satellite images, including residential and commercial lawns, golf courses and similar landscapes. Together, they would comprise the largest irrigated crop in the United States, three times bigger than corn. All this comes at a steep cost: The average homeowner spends about 70 hours a year on lawn and garden care, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey. Maintenance costs about $300 to $500 per year, according to estimates by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Nebraska Extension service. |  | | (Video: John Farrell/The Washington Post) | | Can sheep replace the lawn mower? Cory Suter, the self-described "Chief Shepherd" of Lamb Mowers, began releasing his flock of babydoll Southdown sheep to graze on nuisance plants such as poison ivy and multiflora rose on his permaculture farm in Northern Virginia since 2016. When he realized a market probably existed in the suburbs, he bought a trailer, loaded up about 15 sheep, and opened for business. People were soon booking regular two-hour, $195 visits for "weed and feed." The sheep clip the grass tops and munch weeds, while leaving pellets that dissolve into rich fertilizer in the first rain or watering. For bigger jobs, Lamb Mowers offered a 24-hour "Sheep-over" for $250, a price he says is competitive with comparable fossil-fuel-powered lawn services. Why sheep? Sheep are lawn care experts. They are more gentle grazers than goats or horses, clipping grass tops and nibbling weeds homeowners would like removed. They leave about four inches of the blade: just the right height, says Michigan State University Extension, to maximize root growth and shade out weeds. Any lower, as some lawn companies mow, and the grass will grow even faster to reach the sun, necessitating more mowing. "Sheep love the sweet tips of grass, and biodiverse diets like the weeds in your yard" including bittercress, chickweed and onion grass, says Suter, who grew up farming on a Mennonite homestead in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. "That's a perfect buffet for our sheep." |  | | A sheep walks up to the front steps of the home of a Lamb Mowers client. (Photo by Allison Robbert) | | The joy of sheep The biggest benefit, however, may be the joy sheep bring to everyone around them. Between April and June each year, the University of California at Davis brings 25 sheep to graze the university's grounds. They're part of a study measuring the sheep's impact on everything from soil and biodiversity to students' mental health, and the university's Nature Rx program exploring how contact with nature improves human health. A study about sheep's mowing abilities has evolved into one about well-being. "Students ride their bikes by and sit with sheep, or after exams, [the sheep] calm them down and make them happy," says Haven Kiers, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of California at Davis. Click below to learn more. |  | | And did you know I read all your emails? Be part of the Climate Coach community. Write with what you'd like to see in this newsletter: climatecoach@washpost.com. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. See you on Thursday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | |
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