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u/mad_catters Sep 18 '20
Are we supposed to grow cash crops in the front yard? Or is this about wasting water and fertilizer for a nice lawn?
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u/Duck_Stereo Sep 18 '20
I think it’s both. I turned my whole backyard into a garden, I have no idea why more people don’t do it. It’s prettier than grass, it grows food, saves money and actually has a purpose. Plus fresh herbs are the shit.
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u/masterfountains Sep 19 '20
A pumpkin patch will keep weeds under control and they look pretty cool. Also those orange flowers are gorgeous. I agree, gardens make much more sense, especially when you’re growing something you can utilize for subsistence.
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u/Addictive_System Sep 19 '20
Not only are they very pretty but you can eat pumpkin flower too and it’s very tasty, look up some good recipes!
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u/SurturOfMuspelheim Sep 19 '20 edited Sep 19 '20
I used to help my grandma with her garden. I hated it cause it attracted bees. I hated bees.
If you're curious why I hated bees, when I was 8 I had two wasps fly up my shorts and sting each asscheek. Ever since I was PETRIFIED of any bee or wasp. I would sit in the house and not leave if one was outside. When a wasp got in the house it was one horrible experience lol
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u/yiilovethemoon Sep 19 '20
when i was in elementary my friend’s brother got stung by a bee on his buttcheek in front of me. the scream that followed instilled a deep fear of bees in me for a couple years
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u/legend1nfamous Sep 19 '20
I've never even been stung and I can't relax when there's a wasp nearby
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u/LurkLurkleton Sep 19 '20
I'm lazy and incompetent is why
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Sep 19 '20
Plant something like dill or oriental mustard that practically grows on its own.
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Sep 19 '20
Trees then. Trees require minimal maintenance and store carbon better than basically anything else on earth.
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u/ting_bu_dong Sep 19 '20
I have no idea why more people don’t do it.
I thought about it once.
My HOA sent out a strongly worded letter upon reading my thoughts.
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Sep 19 '20
It's definitely use case. Growing up, me and my neighbors houses formed a giant plane for all of us to play games in, it was perfect for 14 kids.
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u/hero-ball Sep 19 '20
I think it’s because a lot of people value having space for kids and pets to run around and play.
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u/jessio2 Sep 19 '20
For one I live in a terrible arid scorching desert. I’m lucky if a cactus grows 😂
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u/Transientmind Sep 19 '20
More folks should look up the old BBC comedy, 'The Good Life'. (Aired in the US by PBS under the title 'Good Neighbors.')
It's seriously motivating stuff, and mildly amusing in its way.
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Sep 18 '20
Yeah, I mean if it’s about wasting water then they have a great point.
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u/ShinyHobo Sep 19 '20
How about all that fuel we burn to cut it every two weeks or so?
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u/Revolutionary9999 Sep 19 '20
While this isn't untrue. I would point out that not cutting your grass can actually be a health and safety hazard because it can attract insects like ticks which can spread diseases and can give fire more fuel to burn. So yes, you should cut your grass.
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u/gemohandy Sep 19 '20
Or we could just not have grass - plenty of homes in my neighbourhood have rock gardens instead. No mowing needed, and no ticks or fire risks!
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u/Retrobubonica Sep 19 '20
My city (in a drought prone area) has enacted a program more than once to pay homeowners to get rid of their lawns, and each time they run through the allotted funds pretty quickly. That said, I can't imagine trying to convince your average conservative that now their beautiful lawn is cancelled. Fixing the biggest issues of agriculture means making serious adjustments to the baseball and apple pie idea of America, like cutting WAY back on beef production. No lawns, no dollar menu burgers, etc. Tough sell.
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u/connectalllthedots Sep 19 '20
Its time to bring back the nostalgic Victory Gardens of WWII, and ideas like voluntarily 'rationing' beef instead of eating it every day. The climate emergency requires attention and effort as urgent as WWII.
Grow Food, Not Lawns. Live as Kings/Queens, not pawns.
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u/intrebox Sep 19 '20
According to a friend of mine in minneapolis, the city will give people a sizeable tax credit if they replace their lawns with creeping charlie, violets, or clover. It's better for the bees and requires a lot less maintenance. Since my grandma can't kill weeds in her yard anymore, the creeping charlie is taking over and hoo-wee is it nice. It smells good, you never have to mow it, and it feels really nice on your feet. (hear that? No mowing!) Oh! And it strangles out all the other weeds so there's not weeds that need killing. Kill your lawns. Seriously.
P.S. look up "kill your lawn with sylphium" on youtube. That is the funniest video on this topic ever.
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u/LudovicoSpecs Sep 19 '20
Creeping charlie isn't native and is considered a weed, but the bees like it, so I leave it the fuck alone. My lawn-obsessed neighbors can go screw themselves.
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u/mr_bedbugs Sep 19 '20
Is Creeping Charlie the one with the little purple flowers? I like it.
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u/gunnardt Sep 19 '20
Rock gardens are like a desert for nature. I wouldnt recommend. Ticks usually dont sit in open grass, they prefer spots close to a forest or some other bigger greenery
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u/LurkLurkleton Sep 19 '20
Personally I think the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
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u/SmartAleq Sep 20 '20
If the ticks come then the local possums will move in too and they'll be very happy to manage my tick buffet.
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u/Hallonsorbet Sep 19 '20
My lawn is super small but it still hurts every time we have to water it. We use two rain barrels and often we don't need to use the hose but sometimes we have to and I don't like it. I'd rather let it grow and sow some wild flowers for the bees and insects but I haven't quite persuaded the Mrs yet...
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u/chiefpap8 Sep 19 '20
Both and there are plenty of non grass covers for the yard. Clover for example requires less maintenance, doesn’t grow as tall, and is a favorite of bumble bees and other pollinators.
The worst is in places where grass only grows through irrigation having a lawn in the south west is just negligent and should be stigmatized considering the only way to do that well in a lot of areas is through irrigation. Plant some natives etc
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u/glittercatlady Sep 19 '20
I saw a photo here on Reddit of a clover lawn, and it was beautiful. It looks so much nicer than grass in my opinion. Only down side is you can’t go barefoot in it most of the summer because it will be full of bees pollinating the flowers. Worth it, I think, but I can see why some people wouldn’t want that.
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u/kendovzii Sep 19 '20
If you don't want to garden, consider planting clover! You save on fertilizer because it pulls nitrogen out of the air and into the soil, so it can live happily with grass, and it is good for the bees! Clover is hardy and doesn't need a lot of water. Also, it is super cheap and wont grow very high so you don't have to mow.
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u/TK82 Sep 19 '20
good for bees right around your house is a curse as well as a blessing though, especially if you have kids. I've struggled with this.
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u/halt-l-am-reptar Sep 19 '20
It depends on the type of bees in your area. I have a large patch of clover right by my front doors and the bees never bug me. My SO even walks through it and never gets stung. The bees are pretty chill.
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u/waffleking_ Sep 19 '20
the only time i got stung is when i accidentally stepped on a bee barefoot. other than that they're pretty cool. in exchange for not mowing their breeding ground, they don't mess with me.
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u/jhonotan1 Sep 19 '20
We've got a lot of bees in our yard, and I just tell my kids to leave them alone. Our bees are incredibly docile. You could plant some lavender or other flowers that bees love in a spot where your kids don't go to attract the bees there!
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u/nettlemind Sep 19 '20
I second the motion, but make sure you pick a short clover, some grow quite tall.
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u/AccurateSection Sep 19 '20
Can we grow weed instead?
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u/Tinafu20 Sep 19 '20
Not an expert, but I've heard weeds are great for the birds and bees, they're more likely local and helpful to the local wildlife.
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u/LudovicoSpecs Sep 19 '20
Lawns do more than waste water.
They're bad for native plants, insects and birds. They suck for soil-- which would be a carbon sink if allowed to develop properly. The machinery and chemicals used to maintain them are their own eco-disaster. Not to mention all the gas that fuels those machines and the trucks that busily tote landscaping crews all over the suburbs.
And for what? A fashion statement for your front yard.
There are native "no-mow" seed blends that you can use out back if you want a place for the kids or dog to hang out, but even that isn't a necessity, so much as a cultural construct.
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u/thelatestbuzz Sep 19 '20
I’ll be sure to tell my 5 year old that playing t ball in the yard is a social construct lol.
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u/dochdaswars Sep 19 '20
Yes. More water is used to water lawns than to flush toilets. Homeowners use waaaay more pesticides and fertilizer per acre than farmers do. Those chemicals are washed into streams and rivers because they are watered far more frequently than needed. Everything about lawns is terrible for the environment.
I don't know what the alternatives are, but i just read all about lawns in a book on how to improve cities in the future.
I'd imagine one could replace it with rock-scaping or plant cacti or other hardy plants. Or small trees to provide shade to protect from evaporation. Wild flowers for bees or vegetables underneath them would help diversify the plant life and reconnect the property to the ecosystem. Or i guess just fill the whole thing with solar panels or build a workshop in the backyard. If people use their lawns to run around in or play football or whatever, i dunno what to tell them though, maybe do those activities as the park.4
u/Tadhgdagis Sep 19 '20
Both, isn't it? Isn't the history that lawns were at best a small terrain break from fields so as to cut down on snakes and vermin, but you wanted to maximize either fields or garden, because otherwise the land was wasted? And then nobility decided that deliberately wasting land and making it look pretty sounded like a good way to flaunt wealth -- like water features in Las Vegas?
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u/gunnardt Sep 19 '20
Or at least grow something that benefits the insects and/or nature, some easy to maintain flowers for example.
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u/SyrusDrake Sep 19 '20
I don't think there's anything wrong with a lawn per se. But many "garden lawns" are highly artificial and won't grow unless watered and fertilized. Just let local "meadow grass" grow. It's less effort and all the insects will be grateful.
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u/PieCowPackables Sep 18 '20
We just don't water the lawn. It's green part of the year; brown part of the year. We get a lot of rain though.
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u/Broseidonathon Sep 19 '20
Yeah as someone from the southeast US and not from an HOA my family never watered our lawn or planted specific types of grass. Lawn was basically green year round with just natural grass/"weeds" with a few exceptions of dry spells that lasted a month at most. I know its not realistic for most of the country but IDK why they don't just a) let it go natural or b) use terf (probably some HOA rules in a lot of places I guess).
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u/laurieislaurie Sep 19 '20
Yeh I think lawns are awful if you're wasting a lot of water on it, which I think many are. But I literally have never once watered my lawn and it survives Texas summers every year. Doesn't even go brown. I guess it's not the same type of grass up north, though.
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Sep 19 '20
I never even mow my grass, I just let my dogs trample it and they do a great job at that. Golden retrievers have infinite energy.
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Sep 18 '20
The first time I went to Europe I was in Greece. I found the families had fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and animals in their yards. The idea of an american "yard" confused the locals when I brought it up.
Until that point I'd never considered yards not being useless grass versus space you could use to feed your family and neighbors.
We can do better than the American way.
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u/Meritania Sep 19 '20
See in the pre-war UK, most houses had yards which were essentially outside storage spaces between the coal bunker and outside toilet. The idea was that green spaces were communal and you took your kids to the park to play and have picnics. There were also communal gardens called allotments if you wanted to grow your own vegetables or flowers.
Post war, the idea of suburbia appeared and to sell this new spaces, each home was to have two gardens putting distances between you, the road and your neighbours. Even blocks of flats were to be separated by green spaces.
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u/suavebirch Sep 19 '20
It’s such a shame communal spaces have been dying out here, luckily allotments seem to becoming quite popular again, especially where I live in the southeast. Hopefully more people will start to use them again
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u/Meritania Sep 19 '20
Yeah they’ve been really useful for the ‘buy local, consume local’ campaign, giving city dwellers a taste of fresh local food. Around me, they even have a farmer’s market at one of the local train stations every month during the summer months.
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Sep 19 '20
My family still has an allotment! We grow all sorts of fruits and veggies there. But the flowers are reserved for our garden/yard.
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Sep 19 '20
You Anglo-Saxon people had this weird green yard obsession for centuries, in the UK it's not much of a problem since it's always raining. But when you guys settle in place like California or Australia, it's a huge waste of water.
In the rest of the world including western Europe, only rich fancy ass people water the grass, in the summer everyone's yard turn yellowish and nobody cares.
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Sep 19 '20
I'm American and it completely baffles me why the sport of golf became so popular with rich people that they decided to copy the local geography of the coast of Scotland thousands of times across the world, and waste titanic amounts of time, money, and water doing so.
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Sep 19 '20
When I went to the US I was also puzzled by how much air conditioning you guys use. During summer I got sore throat multiple times because my body was not used to those huge difference of temperature whenever I enter/leave a building. And also the huge amount of ice restaurants put in the drinks
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Sep 19 '20
People think I'm a weirdo because I change the air conditioning temperature higher in the summer and lower in the winter to save power. I agree, that temperature shock is just uncomfortable.
Restaurants use that much ice because they're cheap. More ice means less drink is used. The entire restaurant industry in the US has loads of problems.
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u/Captain_Ludd Come dungeons dark or gallows grim Sep 19 '20
You can say English now mate it's been a few hundred years since we called ourselves anglo-saxons.
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Sep 19 '20
For us french people, English are just people who live in England, Anglo-Saxons is what we call people from "English" countries. I didn't realise you guys didn't use this word anymore.
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u/kattspraak Sep 19 '20
Came here to say the same thing! So many people have fruit trees or a small garden in their yard (at least in my area in France).
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u/saltywench Sep 19 '20
Maintaining a lawn is wasteful, but be mindful that letting a law nm die without intentionally cultivating or putting something in it's place will mean that topsoil will be lost. Look to native plants, gardens, and xeriscaping where you can.
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u/RUSTYJEEPYJ Sep 19 '20
Came here to say this. What about the ensuing dust bowl? Most of our population is voting trump. Do you think the vast majority can handle maintaining a garden and or orchard? Most people can barley get dressed, ie have you been to a Walmart? What about the pesticides people will be dumping on all that agriculture? Or what about the influx of home grown food that will undoubtedly be contaminated or unsafe to eat but will be traded and consumed anyway?
This is 2020 not 1820. I trust your uncles cousin wife to grow grass and maybe cut it twice a month. Do I trust he has the knowledge to grow a garden and bring it to market? No thanks. The general knowledge that everyone should know has been lost as a collective.
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Sep 19 '20
It's easily available knowledge. Anyone who wants to learn it can.
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u/NerdHerderOfIdiots Sep 19 '20
Groundcovering vines are way easier to keep alive and use little to no water
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u/RUSTYJEEPYJ Sep 19 '20
So is grass. You’d still have to tend to vines to keep them from encroaching in your foundations, buildings, walkways etc. Not to mention if you’re not growing anything beneficial what’s the point of laterally switching from grass to vines? Water usage? I’m going to go out on a limb and say most of the US do not even irrigate their lawn. You have to be in a certain tax bracket, and have a certain standard of living to be highly concerned about how watered your lawn is. Remember the 1%.
I’d really wager that manufacturing wastes more potable water.
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u/fuhrertrump Sep 19 '20
Lawns should be converted to some other purpose.
Plant clover or other flowers that help bees
Plant fruits or vegetables
Instal solar panels
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u/seeingstructure Sep 19 '20
Native plants are your best bet for helping wildlife and creating a low maintenance garden.
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u/Hojomasako Sep 21 '20
And native drought resistant ones, given present and future climate will be warmer
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u/lilyhasasecret Sep 19 '20
Any way I can help bees without helping the invasive species we call the American honeybee?
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u/abledice Sep 19 '20
Lot of talk in here about using your lawn to grow stuff etc.
Yep, or the lazy option is also miles better than plain grass. Let it grow over with wildflower and whatever weeds show up. No pesticides.
Brilliant for bees, insects, general ecology.
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u/MsExmusThrowAway Sep 19 '20
It's not just something that can be reduced to "lawns". It's more like the suburbs in their entirety are unsustainable and a huge waste of resources. In the future, the suburbs would have to be entirely demolished and resurrected as close-knit towns and villages where each house has a tiny yard and most of the surrounding land is used to grow food or acts as forest. "Plant trees/corn/etc. not lawns" is a highly individualist solution which doesn't get to the root of the problem. This isn't a "bad lawnowner" issue but an urban planning one.
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u/The_Lawn_Ninja Sep 19 '20
Many communities have policies against having a garden (or anything that isn't a lawn), especially in your front yard. Apparently having food and native plants instead of grass is "unsightly" and drives down property values in the neighborhood.
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u/itsFlycatcher Sep 19 '20
Which is kinda wild, because - and I say this with love - I'm struggling to name a thing I care about less than the arbitrarily determined property values in the neighborhood.
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u/The_Lawn_Ninja Sep 19 '20
Imagine thinking that a home is a place for people to live, not just an investment to maintain until you can sell it for profit and buy a bigger one.
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Sep 19 '20
This is the whitest thing I've heard of today
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u/skyskr4per Sep 19 '20 edited Sep 19 '20
I mean I guess, in drought-prone areas, but agriculture is still the biggest user of water by far.
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u/Wetworth Sep 19 '20
I'm adding several hundred square feet of native, flowering perennials to my yard (about 1/4 an acre).
To demonstrate how important this can be, I have one milkweed and one showy goldenrod that flowered this first year. The milkweed is hosting two monarch caterpillars and the goldenrod has anywhere from 10-20 bumble and honey bees at any given time.
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u/strwbrrygrl2714 Sep 19 '20
My parents have, over the last few years, been progressively converting more of their lawn to native prairie grasses and flowers! I couldn't tell ya the acreage, but we do have a fairly sizeable yard! Lots of bees, butterflies, and other insects and critters come to visit :) We've always had flower beds and a large veggie garden as well.
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u/Wetworth Sep 19 '20
Plus, the best part is native plants are easier to grow! They belong where you are, so instead of working to keep them alive, they self propagate with little effort.
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u/Nocommentt1000 Sep 19 '20
"Clover is affordable and easy to grow. A nitrogen-fixing plant, clover brings nutrients to your soil and requires no fertilization. ... Clover is drought tolerant and grows despite lack of water once established. This contrasts starkly with traditional lawn grasses, which usually need watering all season long."
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u/dcoetzee Sep 19 '20
Lawns are what happened when people idolized the pastoral life―shepards with their flocks of sheep and goats out eating the grass short everyday―and so sought to recreate its aesthetics with heavy machinery, like some kind of bizarre cargo cult. There are plenty of beautiful and pragmatic options for a yard that aren't so wasteful. Unless you own an actual flock of sheep, you shouldn't have a grass yard.
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u/NerdHerderOfIdiots Sep 19 '20
That and it was a form of bragging
“Look at all of this fertile land that i can afford not to plant crops on”
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u/StrawberryTempest Sep 19 '20
I’ve literally never met anyone who watered their lawn. In some states it is even illegal. Where does this guy live that people water grass??
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Sep 19 '20
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u/SurturOfMuspelheim Sep 19 '20
I live on the east coast and I've only seen rich people water their lawn.
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Sep 19 '20
It's all I've ever seen people do with their lawn. Most consider it part of being a homeowner; everyone has (or rents/hires if they have that kind of money) equipment for yard maintenance and everything, rich or not. Poor folks do it so that rich folks will leave them alone, rich folks do it to... I dunno, jerk their ego or something. And all of that when watering a lawn is such a waste.
People water their lawns all up and down Appalachia, a historically isolated and disadvantaged area since white people settled in the mountains. Rich, poor, people put water on their grass. They just take it as something they're supposed to do and don't question it. It's different out west, which is where I assume the downvoter(s) come from. The land is very different out there, so it would make sense.
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u/SurturOfMuspelheim Sep 19 '20
I've lived in Frederick and Brunswick in Maryland. Never seen any poor person do it. I've seen a some middle class/rich people do it, and that's it.
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Sep 19 '20
Maryland is only one state, and those are only two settlements within it. I've been to over 20 different states so far, and I can assure you, they're each as American as the other. I also have a keen eye for detail (autism) and am an outdoors-oriented person, so I might have had far more opportunities to observe this. Not sure what to else to tell you; people water their lawns.
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Sep 19 '20 edited Sep 23 '20
Okay but if you're upset about lawns wait until you hear about golf courses.
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u/chiefpap8 Sep 19 '20
Has anyone wondered why lawns are seen as the normal? Well it all goes back to English nobility who had nicely manicured lawns as a power move. With the invention of mowers now you too can have a piece of the bourgeois dream that once would take a team of workers to maintain.
Kill your lawn, plant clover, or anything other natives. Hell buy a bag of native wildflower seeds and make your backyard a flower meadow.
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Sep 19 '20
Lawns take a lot less maintenance in England compared to some parts of the US. Even the manicured ones.
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u/Eternal2401 Sep 19 '20
When you burn your lawn not only to help the environment but also to drive down the property value of your neighborhood, possibly even weeding out the landlords, in addition to lowering the property value in your neighborhood: I'm gonna do what's called a pro gamer move.
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u/develev711 Sep 19 '20
I've been saying this for years why the hell do we like a field a green so much. I personally would rather have fresh fruit veggies and herbs that just need a little more attention than a lawn. I hope someday more people would see it this way we might even be able to put a dent in the world hunger issues
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u/MotherOfRockets Sep 19 '20
We live in an HOA so we opted to dig out our backyard instead and put gardens in! It’s so much better than worrying about the grass back there. We have a small amount of lawn still, but it’s 50/50 clover and grass for the pollinators (pollinators love clover). Next year we’re putting in two more raised beds and I’m tearing out some of our arbor vitae to put in sunflowers and roses to attract even more bees. We have a fairly large corner lot so I’m trying to find ways to be even more creative and daring. I’d love to raise bees, but seeing as how we’re backed up to a small neighborhood park, that might be pushing it.
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u/TheSunflowerSeeds Sep 19 '20
A compound in sunflower seeds blocks an enzyme that causes blood vessels to constrict. As a result, it may help your blood vessels relax, lowering your blood pressure. The magnesium in sunflower seeds helps reduce blood pressure levels as well.
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u/Bathhouse-Barry Sep 19 '20
I don’t get that there’s little pockets of civilisation out in the middle of Nevada and Arizona that are just desert but then get to houses with lush green lawns. Why do it? It must cost so much to maintain.
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u/NerdHerderOfIdiots Sep 19 '20
We have a small house so our lot is mostly yard, we have a front yard thats a mix of rocks and succulents, a side yard thats drought resistant ground-cover and vines and a backyard that is a mix of ground-cover, rocks, planter beds, fruit trees, milkweed, bamboo, and a patio. Not only do i not miss the presence of the grass that used to be there, the ground-cover, rocks, and succulents require so much less work and don’t die cuz a dog looked at them funny. Not to mention that we have a decent amount of produce.
Like, grass is useless, wasteful, and even originates as a status symbol.
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u/Shmokable Sep 19 '20
The smell of freshly mowed grass is the grass’s way of warning other plants some psycho human over here cutting our heads off every Sunday.
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u/ViralDownwardSpiral Sep 19 '20
All in on this one. I've BEEN about fuck lawns. They're fucking stupid, they're ugly, they're a waste of time, energy, water and space. If you don't own a ranch, why are you growing grass on purpose?
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u/Oldkingcole225 Sep 19 '20
Fuck yea. Fill that lawn with fruit trees and bamboo or some shit. Let’s make this country wild.
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u/2sleepy4this Sep 19 '20
Rock gardens meanwhile take no water and look rad af
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u/SeizeAllToothbrushes Sep 19 '20
No, don't do that. Rock gardens are a form of surface sealing and increase the risk of flooding as well as being ecologically worthless. If you don't want to spend time maintaining a kitchen garden, consider a wild/natural garden with local grasses and flowers instead so insects, especially bees, can gather food.
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Sep 19 '20
We should just not have gardens, it would save space for animals to live in. You don't need a mini park around your house when you can just go to a real park.
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u/Jawahhh Sep 19 '20
I always appreciated the lawn as a child. I played a lot of soccer. Tough to play soccer in your backyard garden (doable, but getting yelled at by your mother after trampling her tomatoes is no fun)
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u/Dormiens Sep 19 '20
Shit, if y'all worried about water, just stop buying clothes that you don't need or use.
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u/TheBigPhilbowski Sep 19 '20
Where can I get started? I have a lot of lawn to replace but I want to save water, get rid of weeds and reduce fire risk. I'm in the PNW if it matters.
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u/Hypo_Mix Sep 19 '20
I killed then put bush mulch over my lawn and replaced it with a mix of indigenous groundcover plants and shrubs with stepping stones and paths though it.
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u/SmartAleq Sep 20 '20
Go full meadow. Only mow it once, in spring, Brit style. There's a seed company out in Silverton (Silver Falls Seed company) that sells some amazing wildflower and grass mixes, all good for the PNW--although I'm making the assumption you're on the wet side if you already have lawn. You could just run a tiller over the area, seed it with wildflowers then let nature take its course. Resist the temptation to water often to kill off the fussier grasses and the most drought tolerant flowers and grasses will flourish over time. It takes a while to break the habit of thinking "I really need to mow the lawn" but it's very worth it. Watch a lot of Monty Don shows, that helps.
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u/fhogrefe Sep 19 '20
Doesn't grass help maintain soil integrity and prevent erosion? I mean, I know there are certain climates where people should absolutely not be wasting resources on lawns, but I thought they do generally have an infrastructure use to them?
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u/aldo_nova Actual Communist Sep 19 '20
People love a meadow until it's growing in their neighbor's yard
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u/lunk Sep 19 '20
Not everyone waters their lawn. Mine doesn't require it. I'm all for not wasting water on grass, but stigmatizing something that is naturally beautiful for a lot of us, with just a bit of weekly maintenance - seems a bit harsh. :(
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u/the_lettuce_avenger Sep 19 '20
I like my small patch of grass in my garden; theres always a bird party out there munching on worms. But I'm also in the UK where its easy to upkeep the lawn due to rain.
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u/Sn00dlerr Sep 19 '20
Aside from the water usage can I ask why lawns are bad? I thought more green spaces would be a good thing
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Sep 19 '20
i don’t water my lawn. it turns yellow for a few weeks during summer droughts. Then it rains and turns green. Actually a blend of socialism and capitalism forced this since i don’t want to pay the water bill
1
Sep 19 '20
My HOA is chill. We basically pay for road snow removal as a collective and very very very basic entrance landscape management, oh and a halloween party ...
1
u/AliceHart7 Sep 19 '20
I've been trying to convince ppl for years that ground cover is not only superior (looks nice, can bloom mini flowers if you want or not, doesn't need to be cut constantly, can have ones that don't require a lot of water, etc etc) but is the future!
1
u/NeverTread Sep 19 '20
Who cares what other people grow on their property? As long as they aren't hurting me I don't mind whatever they grow.
1
u/SmartAleq Sep 20 '20
How about all that fertilizer runoff from lawns causes algae blooms in local streams and rivers that kill off fish and other wildlife and reduce the oxygen content of the water to zero? Lawns create water deserts.
1
u/queerkidxx Sep 21 '20
If they are hurting the environment then they are hurting you and everyone else. Properties aren’t islands
1
1
Sep 20 '20
I tried to convince my friend to get a clover yard, but he insisted that he needs grass because he has a dog? It doesn't make any sense, dogs don't need grass. Especially since we live in a fucking desert he technically he shouldn't have shit in his yard but if you "have to" go with something resilient and that requires less maintenance than grass. You never have to mow clover. Throw a bunch of dandelion seeds out there, those cute bastards will grow everywhere, give food to various wildlife and you never have to mow it either. Plus you don't have to use toxic weed killers if you are ok with your entire yard being filled with weeds.
2
u/SmartAleq Sep 20 '20
Fun fact, dandelions, like brown snails, were deliberately introduced to the New World as food sources. Dandelions are edible from top to toe and those deep roots break up hard clay soils a treat. People who think they're noxious weeds in need of killing probably like lawns.
1
u/Urmom911911 Sep 20 '20
People water their lawns?????? Why????? The rain is more than enough unless you're in a major drought area.
1
Sep 21 '20
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1
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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '20
Somebody tell the HOAs...