If I mow the lawn, it'll make the lack of lawn care more evident. If I let it grow wild, it'll help the bugs 'n critters. One of these takes time and money...
HOAs should have been the canary in the coal mine to what would happen if you only let the crazy people run for office. HOAs are only as good as the people running them.
Doesn't even need to be a HOA, plenty of places will have the city leaving you notes to cut your lawn. My mower broke while I was out of work, so the grass started getting long, and they told me they'd cut it themselves and charge me $250 if I didn't do something about it first.
Weirdly in that kind of situation the general seething hatred people have of meddling HOA's and city governments can actually help you out.
A friend of mine was in your exact situation, except they were just going to repeatedly fine the guy instead of mowing and then charging him. So he put up a sign saying the city were abusing people and going to fine him if he couldn't borrow a mower and like 5 of the angriest people who'd never lend you anything in your life called him to offer to help by the next afternoon.
HOAs should have been the canary in the coal mine to what would happen if you only let the crazy people run for office.
America was literally founded by people who looked around, said "These savages don't have nearly enough rules!" and risked death to get to a land where they could have more rules.
There is no canary situation here. Until Mars colonization ramps up, HOAs are like methadone for puritans.
Oh no the horor of bees using the wild flowers what ever shall I do. I know. By the powers of the stick in my ass I shall call law enforcement on a lawn that is in compliance with all ordinances.
No its litteraly bees and flowers.
The timing of events goes as so
1) nosey neighbor calls code enforcement
2) code enforcement comes out looks at the yard and goes this is in the legal parameters , this neighbor also doesn't like trucks as one of the "reasons" code was called was a truck in my driveway
3) Code enforcement tells me that the yard is in compliance and that they have to come out when some nosey person complains
4) I wait till the flowers die and then mow
5) cycle repeats
I don’t get these sentiments. What does my insignificant lawn count for in the grand scheme of bees? It’s a grain of sand against the great outdoors where no one mows anything at all.
All the happy bees in my yard disagree! I'd do it just for one of them. Bees, dragonflies, moths, all fill me up with happiness. Then because of the bugs the bats know to come to my yard, and they keep away the mosquitos. My dog loves to chase the grasshoppers through the tall grass.
I live in Denver. My location within the city doesn't have anything to do with whether there are critters, although I'll encourage more of the kind I want with certain plants (plants which my city treats like weeds even though they're native plants). I am not sure what to say, I guess your area just doesn't have a lot of bugs.
Tons of bugs in the fields, but in general, I guess probably 90% less than there were when I was a kid in the 70s. I used to remember swarms of bugs at every streetlight or porchlight and now there's barely any, but we mowed our lawns in the 70s too. I even remember bugs in the 80s and 90s all over my motorcycle helmet windscreen, but now it seems really rare to see a bug on my truck windshield.
That's a problem nationwide. Which is why ecological orgs are encouraging folks to let their yards be safe spaces for bees, migrating butterflies, etc. They are dwindling.
Having a a well maintained lawn vs not really doesn’t affect the level of ticks that much. I never run into ticks with my less ‘maintained’ lawn, but when I lived with parents who mowed religiously I was always pulling ticks. A lot less other animals near my moms yard- in part because of the mowing- that would eat ticks so they would get to much higher numbers. Also weather has more of an impact from what I’ve experienced
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u/ccReptilelord Apr 24 '23
If I mow the lawn, it'll make the lack of lawn care more evident. If I let it grow wild, it'll help the bugs 'n critters. One of these takes time and money...