The devastating cost of America’s favorite plant: A guide to the revolution | Make Thing With Hand
2 days ago by ProdigalFrog to c/nolawns
One of my neighbors has a plain grass lawn. And to his credit, he puts in a lot of work into it. I'll see him multiple times a week spending hours maintaining it, buying and spreading mulch, watering, trimming, raking, the works.
But it just looks so boring and unnatural. I can't imagine why he would put in all that time, money, and effort into something so unremarkable.
Well it started as a wealth symbol because the amount of energy, labor, and money it took to maintain a pure grass lawn was immense. No one ever saw a well manicured, pure grass lawn outside of mansions and palatial estates and such.
Then we got push mowers and fertilizer and weed killer and sprinklers - everyone could have their own green carpet!
But yeah, fuck lawns. Might as well just roll out AstroTurf.
More than that, it showcased status as a wealthy person that could afford to hire servants to care for unproductive grass... or, in some cases, afford to have slaves to care for unproductive grass. It's more impressive than just leaving the dirt bare or letting weeds grow wild, it required intensive inputs to maintain.
"Might as well" was meant to indicate that I don't think lawns are different from AstroTurf. Lawns might as well be green concrete.
Right yeah like if all you care about is having a pristine swath of short grass spikey shit in front of your house... you could save a lot of effort if it was just plastic, what's the point of spending hours and hours of labor just so you can have some green stuff that you never touch, never use for any purpose, and I guess just maybe... look at?
As a counter argument, lawns are a resilient, walkable surface that’s pleasant to sit or walk on. It’s great for children and pets. I haven’t come across a lawn alternative that is suitable for the load of dogs and children. But I don’t spray, and I do not use a gasoline mower.
I have my lawn bordered with a mix of native and nonnative ornamental plants and trees, forming about 30% of the available land.
The problem is with lawns that aren't used except to serve abstract purposes, such as signaling status, adhering to socially conditioned ideas of beauty, or holdovers from the colonial impulse to terraform.
For example, I've lived in my home for nearly two decades and have not once seen any neighbor use their front lawn other than to mow it. Many are the same way with their backyards. Blocks and blocks of this type of land use, all over my city. This is what the nolawns movement is about.
My family almost always had a volleyball or badminton net set up. We would be constantly playing there in our teens.
No argument against that. It’s a status symbol for many people.
When's the last time you sat or laid in your lawn?
I lie in my clover yard frequently with my dog. Way less poky than grass.
My definition of lawn includes clover I just don’t want it to be a monoculture. Some of the no lawns people are adamant about not having grass at all and plant thyme and other plants that handle a bit of abuse but not dogs playing ball.
Same here, about 2/3 of our lawn has a fair bit of clover mixed in, though we have a few patches of pure grass that is also very soft (I’ve no idea what it is, came with the house).
There are native grasses too. My clover mix that I made, which i finished off this year so I dont remember what it was, was just a blended native grass and dutch clover. Ive hella violets too that just grow. And, its fun, I realized ive three types of clover in my yard, the white, the purple, and a native yellow!
The one redeeming feature in my eyes is that my dog exclusively loves to shit on grass lawns. Whenever she has diarrhea she seems to choose the most pristine monoculture lawn and dumps all over it in a way that leaves a massive brown stain. It’s rather hilarious.
The joy of people is, no matter which your neighbor has, they will inevitably find a way to make it look bad.
My mom was a well-trained gardener who volunteered hours at the local "extension" (university dept that answers any & all gardening Q's). At some point she converted her big lawn in to a clover lawn, with the benefits being that it could feed pollinators and didn't need to be mowed, since that type of clover only grew to a certain height.
Soon after she passed, the person in charge of the lawn decided to wipe out the clover and reinstall some type of lawn grass. I couldn't believe it. They even explained to me that it was necessary, because mowing a clover lawn could be dangerous due to rocks potentially being kicked up...
Do... do rocks just spontaneously appear in the ground in his world? Like how people used to think frogs came into being
In his defense, I suppose a certain amount of small material (including a few little rocks) would probably accumulate over time, hidden by the clover. So that part's kind of fair, I guess.
Just that, if you don't need to actually mow it, then what matters it? If I had to speculate, I'd guess that he was used to a lifetime of grass lawns, felt a comfort zone there, and was always a bit uneasy about the clover lawn. And yet, didn't feel up to arguing that with a certified Master Gardener while she was still alive.
But how would grass avoid rocks?
By magic, of course!
That's the rock fairy bro. That or if there are already rocks they, you know, breed and stuff.
He's probably had some experience with moles. They're so small but they'll fuck up all your landscaping. And they do bring small rocks up with their mounds sometimes.
In a certain part of France, yeah, kinda. Not just rocks either. Unexploded ordinance from WWI and WWII resurfaces every spring when they plow the fields.
Of course not mowing the clover, and not plowing or cultivating the field solves both of these problems.
my small yard is 80% clover. My son has a beaten pathway through the part he uses, and I just fucking weed wack the whole yard. Its small, and I do it in parts based on need. I leave it higher than everyone else, and I LOVE IT.
I did step on a bee the other day though, felt pretty bad about it, I wasnt looking where I was going. My neighbor likes to mow my yard so I rushed to block off my section so he couldnt cross into my yard as soon as I heard his stupid mower start.
The red line is the devide. Their brown dust, and my lush green.
The only difference is I leave mine higher and dont mow, they mow every two weeks as low as the blades can go.
bonus bun in the garden bed:
Thanks for the shares!
I do recall the clover lawn looking a bit patchy like yours, with some grass and whatever else mixing amongst the clover. I suppose that was partly what annoyed the later caretaker, as there's something of a tradition in American suburbia (or suburban hell) to have flat, featureless, green lawns, something which might go back to traditional 'English turf,' I suppose.
Nice, similar story (my partner also just stepped on a bee in our clover yard). We've been less intentional, we just don't treat the yard at all and the clover has been taking over for the past 5 years. Pollinators are so happy and so is my garden.
Man i found this bloke on YouTube the other week.
His videos are great, there's a mix of short and long form content.
Deserves so many more subscribers then he has too
I really wish people would include the channel name in the post. I'm very reluctant to click on a YT link if I don't know what channel it is.
Make Thing With Hand
I just recognised the guy and the style of thumbnail
Same! Love his videos.
@slrpnk.net
What is No Lawns?
A community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation. Rain gardens, xeriscaping, strolling gardens, native plants, and much more! (from official Reddit r/NoLawns)
Have questions or don't know where to begin?
Where can you find the official No Lawns socials?
Rules
- Be Civil
- Don't dox yourself
- Stay on Topic
- Don't break instance or Lemmy rules
go to feed...
@slrpnk.net
What is No Lawns?
A community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation. Rain gardens, xeriscaping, strolling gardens, native plants, and much more! (from official Reddit r/NoLawns)
Have questions or don't know where to begin?
Where can you find the official No Lawns socials?
Rules
- Be Civil
- Don't dox yourself
- Stay on Topic
- Don't break instance or Lemmy rules
go to feed...
I've never understood the obsession with the plain grass lawn. Even aside from ecological reasons, I'd rather have native plants just because they look better.
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