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Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

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Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#51

Post by amanaplanacanal »

vidarh wrote: post #41
nemo44x wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad approach to life. My advice is to either learn to love things that have to be done (and frequently like mowing) or pay someone to do it. Life’s too short. Lawn is really fascinating when you get into it.

Or affect change to not need it. My advice is to not have a lawn, and instead culture semi-wild patches of flowers by only weeding what is unattractive. No mowing for me, and no high maintenance manicured flower beds, and lots of bees.

Yep. Bought a house last summer, in process of getting rid of the lawn. Less noise, less work, less chemicals.

I mean what would I do with it? Play croquet?

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#52

Post by driverdan »

binarymax wrote: post #29
chockchocschoir wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in the US nor speak English natively, but are you referring to neighbors around you as "the city"? And what does "blue law" mean in this context, as it seems to mean "Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world." but that doesn't fit the context. It can't actuall…

Hard to believe, but it is real: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936029 I’ve lived in this house for 5 years now, and the first time it happened I couldn’t believe it myself. You are right in that I incorrectly referred to it as a “blue law”. But it is an ordinance.

If you live in the city they will eventually come and mow it for you. The fines and fees will be added to your taxes. I had it happen to me when I owned a house in Rochester.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#54

Post by maguirre »

candiddevmike wrote: post #24

Also stop using herbicide and plant some clover. My neighbors hate me but I (and the bees, bunnies, and other critters) love my almost white lawn in July. It smells great, and the clover keeps the grass healthy.

Do you have a picture of what it looks like in full display? I have been thinking of trying clover on mine.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#55

Post by masklinn »

binarymax wrote: post #29
chockchocschoir wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in the US nor speak English natively, but are you referring to neighbors around you as "the city"? And what does "blue law" mean in this context, as it seems to mean "Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world." but that doesn't fit the context. It can't actuall…

Hard to believe, but it is real: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936029 I’ve lived in this house for 5 years now, and the first time it happened I couldn’t believe it myself. You are right in that I incorrectly referred to it as a “blue law”. But it is an ordinance.

> You are right in that I incorrectly referred to it as a “blue law”. But it is an ordinance.

Mayhaps the mis-reference was due to most cool-season lawns being buegrasses?

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#56

Post by vidarh »

masklinn wrote: post #37
vidarh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My local London borough was short on cash last year, and while that was a shame, the fact that one of the things they cut down on was mowing the parks was fantastic . While I get some people want short grass in parks for e.g. ball games, I wish they'd keep leaving larger parts of the parks mowed less often - the parks had far more flowers and far more bees etc. than usual.

TBF one of the issues with long grass is they also favour ticks: ticks need a relatively wet environment, short grass prevent moisture retention which is an issue for all sorts of good critters... but also for ticks.

I'm in London. Everywhere is a relatively wet environment almost all the time.

And my local borough at least have plenty of high moisture wooded areas whether or not the grass is cut short, so allowing more of the open grassland to grow out would not make a material change.

Ticks are uncommon here (EDIT: Here being in my borough; there are definitely parts of England where it's more of a concern - and if I had a dog or if I was wandering around more in the woods, I'd still check for ticks, just in case) - some have been found in adjacent boroughs e.g. in Richmond Park, but that's thought to be due to to a high population of deer, but even there the proportion of infected ticks is tiny.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#57

Post by joshu »

teawrecks wrote: post #15
joshu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this attitude, generally, is why we're never going to solve climate change

"It seems they created lawns of unsustainable crops that allegedly had aesthetic appeal, and then proceeded to maintain these crops until they ran out resources and all went extinct." -some alien archeologist in 1000 years

less that specifically and more the general attitude

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#58

Post by lazide »

rand_5738 wrote: post #35
chockchocschoir wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in the US nor speak English natively, but are you referring to neighbors around you as "the city"? And what does "blue law" mean in this context, as it seems to mean "Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world." but that doesn't fit the context. It can't actuall…

It’s actually illegal in some areas. Tall grass is considered by some to be a public health issue, as it’s more likely to be home to rodents and snakes.

Also certain kinds of nasty insects like ticks, chiggers, no-see ‘ums, etc.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#59

Post by cableshaft »

popol12 wrote: post #28

Lawn mowing is among the top most useless energy wasting human activities. It's noisy (of course nobody syncs with neighbours to mow so you can be sure to hear mowing noise every day), polluting, and so fucking useless.

As someone who tends to be a super inconsistent lawnmower and often goes 3+ weeks in between mowing, I'm not sure I totally agree.

Leaving the lawn to grow out for more than three weeks makes it pretty unusable, especially for our dogs, with giant weeds (with spikes that hurt the dogs' legs) and thistle bushes and whatnot, and when you do mow it takes 2-3 times as long and the mower tends to get clogged up a bunch, and you need to extra careful about not hitting a rabbit or other nest, which might have been built in your yard because the weeds got so deep.

When I do mow I do try to leave some patches of clover for bees, though, and let some thistle plants grow in a few clumps.

I do wish people wouldn't obsessively mow and poison their lawns with weed killer to keep their lawns only consisting of grass, though. Nothing wrong with dandelions and clover and the occasional thistle.

As for polluting, I use a plug-in electric mower, so it doesn't really pollute much. I do wish electric mowers were the norm.

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