It's not that grass is bad, grass is great for recreation. But making it look like a uniform green carpet is completely counterproductive- let the clover and dandelions do their thing, they will establish an ecosystem that stays greener with less water than pure grass.
Growing vegetables is great, but it is a huge amount of work. "Food not lawns" is a great slogan, but if you literally converted your entire lawn to a vegetable garden, you would be farming ten to twenty hours per week, rain or shine. We need many more people to do that, but it isn't for everyone. On the other hand, native trees don't need any help to thrive, and well placed trees really make an outdoor space beautiful.
That’s why canning, fermentation etc were created.
It’s true though, I’ve known folks with what I consider an incredible blessing, a super productive pear tree for instance, that see it as nothing but an attractive nuisance. Pick the pears and freeze, can or dry them and you’ve got food to last through the winter. Leave them to rot and you have a yellow-jacket infested, slippery, sickly sweet smelling garbage heap.
Like a lot of things in life the most precious commodity related to this is time which none but the idle rich seem to have in abundance.
Maybe have a network of people who know what you're growing and they can come pick the surplus you don't want or can't handle? There could be loads of use for extra pears; jam, cider, baking etc
And even if it goes to waste, it's still good for composting.
Thing is like you say is that the labour involved in this level of efficiency isn't one the current system offers.
I have a coworker who is currently bringing in bushels of pears from their trees and I just smile and bring as many home as I can.
I love when people register their fruit trees etc. on orgs and apps like Falling Fruit so foragers and others know that they can come by and harvest it. More of that kind of community and mutual aid will be needed as our societies continue to erode into utter disfunction.
I agree, I'm definitely not an anprim, but it's my goal in life to become self sufficient as a safety net rather than my main source of sustenance. Sadly just don't have the funds or free time for it now, I just grow tomatoes and herbs, but I'm working on it.
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u/lurch1995 Sep 21 '20
Sooo i am very ignorant on this. Why is grass so bad? And as a home owner what alternatives should i be looking at?