More Kansas City homes are embracing native lawns, but local laws still hold gardeners back

The proliferation of traditional grass lawns have brought problems like flooding, river contamination and pests. But the local ordinances and the rules of homeowners’ associations across the Kansas City area practically insist on Euro-style turf.
Abundant wildflowers, tree-lined creeks and tall shrubs and deep-rooted grass that evolved for survival in the Midwest defined the landscape of Kansas and Missouri.

They formed self-sustaining systems that nurtured a rich variety of insects, frogs, buffalo and small mammals.

Then, we planted turf.

Europeans imported the idea of lush, single-species lawns as a status symbol. The aesthetic stuck.

That crowded out the local plants as development stripped away and sold the topsoil and ate up ground with high-maintenance, shallow-rooted bluegrass and fescue.