BRYAN DOBSON IS IN

his backyard, planting the seeds of a revolution. Well, more like the seedlings. Dobson, an avid gardener and yard aficionado, is actually nestling into the soil plugs of St. Augustine, a bristly, deep-green grass he lovingly calls his "favorite." While lawn care may seem like the most wholesome activity imaginable, in the eyes of Dobson's Cibolo, Tex., homeowners association, these little green tufts are pure contraband. The association bans St. Augustine, so the lawns are covered with matching carpets of Bermuda grass, best known as the go-to for golf-course greens. But Dobson has other plans.

St. Augustine "greens up faster and holds its color longer," says the job-safety contractor, and it has a knack for thriving in shady spots like the ones beneath his prized crepe myrtles. So he's tucking the plugs away on the edges of his lawn, where they will mount a sneak attack: "It'll grow about 10 feet a year into the Bermuda," Dobson says with a chuckle. Before long, the takeover will be complete, and the St. Augustine will enjoy total lawn domination.

What drives the mild-mannered Dobson to turn outlaw, upsetting his neighbors and risking the ire (and possibly the fines) of his homeowners association? The quest for the perfect lawn, of course. After years of being trampled on as homeowners swooned over flashy trends like in-ground fire pits and outdoor kitchens, the lawn is once again front and center. The renewed love affair makes sense, given that lawns are literally the foundation of the deluxe "outdoor rooms" that have been hot in recent years. There's also the old-fashioned curb appeal of an immaculately groomed yard. In a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, nearly half of buyers said they'd pay more for a house with professional landscaping.

Indeed, a record 91 million households participated in some type of do-it-yourself lawn and garden care in 2005, no surprise when you consider the finding of one recent study that there are 40 million acres of lawn in the U.S. The $35 billion lawn- and garden-care industry also looks green and healthy; industry king Scotts Miracle-Gro, whose products include fertilizer and weed and insect killers, has seen sales jump more than 50% in the past five years, while a recent survey found that a remarkable one in four American households planned to hire or continue using a lawn-care or landscaping service.

But today's lawn is a far cry from your father's simple suburban oasis, or even lawns of just a few years ago. As Dobson can attest, homeowners face an increasing array of thorny issues, and not just over what variety of grass to plant. To begin with, the environmental movement has hit the yard, forcing people to balance new trends like organic lawns and native grasses with that old craving for a flawless carpet of green. Homeowners or the services they hire must also contend with weed-killer and pesticide regulations, which range from outright product bans to requirements that neighbors be alerted before chemicals are used. Water conservation is an issue too, with more areas imposing, and enforcing, strict lawn-watering guidelines; violators in states like Florida have gotten slapped with fines of as much as $500.

If that's not enough to worry about, homeowners are also scratching their heads over the best products to put on and roll over their beloved grass. For serious turf aficionados, the hot toys are professional-grade lawn tractors that can pivot 360 degrees, while gadget freaks are agog over RoboMowers, automatic mowers that work like the Roomba vacuum. Of course, before you can cut it, it has to grow. Enter products like "soil conditioner" and color-enhanced mulch (are we at the garden store or the beauty parlor?). If it's grubs or beetles that plague you, try one of some three dozen pest-control products sold by home-improvement stores, or go with all-natural options like canola oil bug killer. Desperate? Grab the turf dye we won't tell.

Of course, America's lawn obsession is not a new phenomenon. It began in the Leave It to Beaver era, when TV and magazines were flooded with images of suburbia and its rows of identical, perfectly manicured lawns. A new national ritual sprang up as people across the county celebrated the weekend by firing up the lawnmower and hitting the yard. Over the ensuing decades, more families flocked to the sprawling suburbs, and lawns evolved from a basic square of grass to an elaborate landscape, complete with details like decorative hedges and flowerbeds. By the 1970s, the neighbor's kid and his small push mower could barely keep up, and the professional lawn-care business took off.

Today's lawn fanatics are taking their passion to new heights. Kevin Nash's house in Germantown, Wis., has become a local landmark. The real estate agent has taken to mowing patterns in his lawn, with stripes one week, checks the next. He mows every four days, often stopping to jump off his tractor and attack a stray weed by hand. In between, you'll find him "out there picking, clipping, pruning you betcha." He's also organized an annual "powerwash party" in his subdivision, where the neighbors get together to wash and wax their mowers. Nash spends about $700 a year maintaining his three-quarters of an acre, but to him it's worth it. "Some people go to bars, some people go dancing," he says. "I have my lawn."

WHILE NASH IS

happy to stick with conventional lawn care, the increasing influence of environmentalism is changing the way many people think about their lawns, driving them to look for alternatives to the old routine of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Ted Steinberg, author of "American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn," puts it this way: "Does it really make sense to buy your groceries at Whole Foods and then come home and dump a bunch of weed-and-feed on your lawn?" The concern, of course, is that those chemicals get washed into rivers and streams, or closer to home, end up tracked into the house.

For the past two decades, Michael Wilcock has put nothing but organic products on his Woodmont, Conn., lawn. Once a big user of chemicals, Wilcock made the switch after losing two dogs to cancer, a tragedy he suspects may have been related to the pesticides and fertilizer he used. Now, rather than spraying weed killer, the engineering manager pulls dandelions by hand and orders fertilizer from a specialty organic supplier. At first, his grass was patchy and sparse, he says, "but I was patient, and I worked a little harder." These days Wilcock's lawn is the envy of the neighborhood and a two-time winner of the local "Freedom Lawn Contest," a competition that celebrates organic yards.

The organic lawn-care movement transcends individual homeowners. Some counties in states like Michigan and Minnesota have banned the use of phosphorus, a common fertilizer ingredient blamed for overstimulating weed and algae growth in lakes and rivers. Some areas in New York mandate that homeowners or their lawn-care helpers notify neighbors whenever they use pesticide sprays. Demand for all-natural products has snowballed, giving birth to organic-only retailers like Gardens Alive!, which offers everything from kelp-based plant food to a weed killer made from corn gluten. Lawn-care giant Scotts has gotten into the game with the launch of the Miracle-Gro Organic Choice line. And even lawn services, which once did nothing but spread chemicals, are now offering organic options.

But going green isn't cheap. To begin with, lawn-care companies charge about 25% more for organic services. With the increased environmental focus, the companies have to spend more to keep up with chemical bans and notification laws. In New York's Ulster County, tighter pesticide restrictions prompted one company to stop servicing the area. Even if you plan to get out there yourself, all-natural products are pricier than their chemical-packed counterparts. A 20-pound bag of WOW! Supreme, for instance, a natural fertilizer and weed deterrent, is $29 from Gardens Alive!, while 15 pounds of Scotts's popular Turf Builder weed-and-feed is just $11.

Despite their name, "green" lawns can be anything but. Although all-natural products can be effective in the long term, few contest that they require more time and effort to show results. Organic fertilizers ultimately make for the healthiest lawns, says Paul Tukey, founder of SafeLawns.org, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting natural lawn care, "but the actual green-up may not be as quick as you'd like." And while good organic fertilizer is easy to find, effective natural weed killers are few and far between. Vic Yeandel, chief marketing officer for TruGreen, says that's a big reason the company's organic service hasn't found many takers. "When people find out there's no weed control, they decide they want to go another way," he says. Homeowners who want to stay green have a choice yank weeds or, as Steinberg puts it, "embrace the less-than-perfect lawn."

For some homeowners, being more eco-friendly means opting for lawns that require less maintenance. Hearty native grasses like Blue Grama or Switchgrass may not have the traditional lush green look, but they generally thrive without fertilizers and pesticides. Then there are the so-called ornamental grasses, with tongue-twisting names like Silver Feather Maiden Hair and Big Daddy Big Bluestem. These species look more like bushes than typical grass, but their tall stalks and unusual colors are catching on with homeowners who seek a more natural look not to mention a break from the mower.

CONCERN FOR THE environment hasn't put much of a dent in the $11 billion lawn-care business. Indeed, fertilization and pest control are still the bread and butter of most lawn companies, which sell annual packages that include five to 10 visits at $50 or more a pop, with extras like grub killer or aeration available for additional fees. But even after they invest hundreds (or thousands) of dollars with these companies, what homeowners end up with may be a far cry from the golf-course green of their dreams. Lawn-maintenance services were No. 57 out of 3,000 on the Better Business Bureau's list of worst offenders last year, with 3,019 complaints, more than twice as many as five years earlier. TruGreen Limited Partnership, which operates TruGreen ChemLawn, recently settled a lawsuit in New Jersey alleging that it billed consumers for unauthorized services and failed to respond to complaints. A TruGreen spokesperson says the company followed up with the customers involved and that they were satisfied with the resolution.

Such problems wouldn't surprise Kenny and Joanna Cross. When the Hagerstown, Md., couple signed up for Scotts's LawnService last spring, the company assured them that after a yearlong treatment program they'd have a lush, weed-free yard. But the couple says that after the company's final visit, their lawn looked no better than it had at the beginning of the year. It was so unsightly, says Joanna, that even her friend's little daughter asked what was wrong with it. To add insult to injury, they say the company continued charging them for more services and ignored their repeated calls to cancel. It took a two-page e-mail, including a threat to take their complaint to the local newspaper, to get the company to stop the new bills. A Scotts spokesperson says the company tries to "resolve all issues to the customer's satisfaction" and that this one was resolved "within a reasonable time frame."

Do-it-yourselfers might not fare much better, especially those who want their lawns to look like the ones they see in product ads, says author Steinberg. "Grass is cheap and easy to maintain," he says. "When you want the outfield of Fenway Park in your backyard, that's tricky and expensive." Many people go after that perfectly manicured look by mowing their grass extra short, which only makes it more prone to disease and less able to hold water. Cropped grass also allows more sunlight to get to the soil, encouraging those pesky weeds. All of these things send homeowners running to the store to buy more lawn products, further damaging the soil through overtreatment, says Steinberg.

After spending untold hours watering, fertilizing and mowing his Bermuda grass, Raymond Tam was fed up. He ripped up his backyard and replanted it with Cody Buffalograss, a hearty native grass. His new backyard requires little water and no mowing, and his three young children love it: "The tall grass gives them somewhere to hide," says the Temple City, Calif., computer programmer. Not everyone is a fan of the wild look. "My wife refuses to let me put the Cody in the front yard, where the neighbors would see it," he sighs.

Still, the lawn of the future may go even further afield. Jacksonville, Fla.-based Tour Turf is making a splash with FieldTurf, an artificial grass that the company designed for residential use, especially in areas where water restrictions make growing the real stuff all but impossible. Then there's Xeriscaping, which combines hearty turf grasses and native plants to create a green yard that doesn't require much watering. If even that sounds like too much hassle, you could always dump out a few bags of gravel and call it a day. And when the neighbors look askance, just tell them it's the latest thing: zero-scaping.