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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)

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not noisy or polluting if you use an electric mower. Useless, kind of, although I appreciate not having a literal million insects floating into my house when I open the door (I live in FL) so it keeps those populations in check. Most of the macro bugs know the mower is coming and hop out of the way.

> it keeps those populations in check This is an interesting word choice to use as pollinators approach endangerment. Akin to suggesting that deer hunting season should be extended until there are no longer any deer near roadways in FL.

From what I have heard from science communicators, the bee problem is mostly of commercial bee populations. My backyard definitely has enough.

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

#92

Maybe I have slow growing grass. I mow every three weeks, and I feel like my neighbors do it every two. I thought weekly mowing was something mostly only seen in fictional portrayals of American fathers.

Yeah, weirdly, here in the Canadian “frozen tundra” West of Alberta, there’s about 2-3 months where my grass goes into overdrive and I have to mow it once a week. Seriously considering landscaping to not need to do this. Wife and I have thought to turn the whole front and back yard into other greenery.

Other do better at hosting butterfly caterpillars, bees, etc, which helps feed birds and other wildlife, so I think that’s a great idea that everyone should consider.

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

#93

I don't understand why a lot of people have a lawn in the first place, most don't even use the lawn (besides mowing it on a regular basis hahaha)!

What would you have instead? Seeing greenery is good for mental health.

In my neighborhood, there are quite a few wooded lots, where they just let the trees grow with varying levels of deliberate gardening under the trees. It's quite pleasant.

My neighbors have something like that in their back yard, and prairie grass in the front. My house has a big vegetable garden, some flower gardens, some bushes, and trees. We also have some lawn, but it's un-maintained and only needs to be mowed a couple times during the spring before it goes dormant. It's also about 1/2 weeds. Every year we convert more of it to garden.

Only about 1/5 of the houses have actual managed green lawns.

Contrast with my parents' neighborhood in another state. Every lawn in the entire 'hood is bushy bright green, and the people are out there mowing all the time. Many of their neighbors mow twice a week. One neighbor had a large mature tree cut down because it was shading their grass. Of course you can't see the lawns because all of the streets are lined on both sides with giant cars.

In addition to the visual appearance, there's the noise. A relative of mine went on vacation recently, to a place that was more or less off the grid. His comment was that there were no string trimmers or leaf blowers. A lot of suburban neighborhoods are just a constant racket of equipment.

I get it, it's a culture thing. But it's interesting to see that there are actually lots of possibilities for what to do with the grounds around a detached house.

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

#94

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.

What clover? Would love to do this even though clover is really expensive. I planted some last year but it only half kinda took.

The trick is to do nothing and it will balance out in a year or two :)

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

#95
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's the point? How does that enhance your life?

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

#96

I don't understand why a lot of people have a lawn in the first place, most don't even use the lawn (besides mowing it on a regular basis hahaha)!

What would you have instead? Seeing greenery is good for mental health.

Street trees!

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

#97

I don't understand why a lot of people have a lawn in the first place, most don't even use the lawn (besides mowing it on a regular basis hahaha)!

I'm not most people, but I live on an acre and between myself and my dog, we use almost all of it. Probably half of it has grass, though.

Also, in many locations, the grass is already there when the house is built, but maybe needs some help coming back around the construction areas, so it's not like they're putting a lawn in that wasn't already there. It's just that perhaps now it's a lawn instead of a field because the house is there.

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

#98
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.

The problem with trying to reduce ticks and mosquitoes in unnatural ways is that we often harm the things that eat them too. Since ticks and mosquitoes feed on us and other larger animals, they're the first to rebound their population, while their predators take longer to come back to keep their numbers down.

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

#99

I don't understand why a lot of people have a lawn in the first place, most don't even use the lawn (besides mowing it on a regular basis hahaha)!

What would you have instead? Seeing greenery is good for mental health.

My front garden is full of various different plants, much nicer to look at. Back garden has a lawn which the kids play football and other things on, not very interesting - the squirrels on the fence and power line, and and pheasants which seem to somehow get in are better

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

#100

Only reason I mow is because it reduces the chance of the neighbors cat shitting in my yard. Otherwise I would have a beautiful Meadow.

...You'd have a beautiful meadow, which would attract wildlife, which would shit in your meadow.

Go ahead and let the cat shit in your meadow, everyone's happier that way.

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