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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)

#71
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, a…

Plant local flora/grasses that don’t need constant management. The manicured lawns we generally do are full of non-native plants and require more care.

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

#72
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.

Electric mowers are much less noisy. But lawn services don't use them and in my area - central NJ burbs - I would estimate 50% or more hire a lawn service.

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

#73
post #40

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.

I consider clover to be a weed and go to great lengths to eradicate it. People underestimate how many people just want lawns of perfect, green, undifferentiated grass.

What a waste of time, energy, and resources to maintain something so unnatural. Truly a testament to man's hubris against nature.

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

#75
post #31

It also increases angry letters from the HOA by 200%

When these topics are mentioned I remember once how police wanted to give my parents' neighbour a ticket for trash on her property, it was fly tipping. Turned out my parents personally knew the police officer and after being asked "so if I break a glass bottle in your garden, you will give yourself a ticket?". The guy let them go without a ticket... so when this US HOA thing is mentioned in extreme scenarios like someone isn't allowed to grow carrots, they have to have grass or be fined, what is stopping people from passing by a HOA president and throwing random clover or dandelion seeds at their properties at night, or simply if you live around, feeding birds seeds? Would it be possible to seed-pollute their lands to the extreme until they give up on what you grow on your soil?

Kind of a thing like this https://www.treehugger.com/tree-arborist-redondo-beach-mayor...

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

#76
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.

And a waste of time and water and of opportunity cost.

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

#77

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.

Think of it as a “bluenose” law, intended to protect their right-thinking sensibilities.

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

#78
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, a…

And where I live in New England, it will grow to very tall grass, brush, and eventually trees which you really don't want right up to the house because it's a potential fire hazard and you can't easily even walk around the house through it after a while. I don't have most of my property mowed (just basically a band around the house) and I don't apply weed killer/water to it. I do have someone knock the field down with a tractor brush hog once a year so it doesn't transition to forest which it would on its own.

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

#79
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.

I understand lawn mowing, what I don't understand is people mowing tiny bits of grass with powered mowers.

I use a push mower, about once a week (and I leave the clippings on the lawn). It's really enjoyable.

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

#80

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.

We’re planting clover in our park strip to augment the lawn.

We had some naturally move in last year and we really liked it So we’re going to help it out. It was soft, and keeping the lawn green/alive/pretty in the park strip is notoriously water wasteful.

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