Seeing the Yard for the Grass

By SAM KEAN

J. Michael Dixon always had a more hands-off view of the lawn than did his wife, Jane.

Every spring they would discuss it. "I'd say, 'Look at all these wildflowers,'" says Mr. Dixon, a psychology professor at Hazard County Community and Technical College, in Hazard, Ky. "Nature should not be interfered with."

Mrs. Dixon would...