Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#151

Post by digitalsushi » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:15 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #14

jws wrote: post #5

The article seems sloppy. It’s just grass with pesticides. I take care of about two acres of lawns across a few properties for a few decades. I’ve never put pesticides on the lawns. Herbicides, sure, sometimes lots of herbicides, but all very much plant specific. I suppose some places must use pesticides, but here in the middle of the US grass just sort of uses sun, water, nitrogen, and some other stuff and grows. Al…

My family never put anything on the, eh, 3 acres of grass I regularly had to mow as a kid. It wasn't perfect, nobody cared. There were dandelions, there was some clover. If you can bear to tolerate the fact that your lawn isn't going to look like a putting green, you can do literally nothing but cut it and perhaps water it if your climate requires and be done with it. If there are plants you don't want in your lawn,…

Some homeowner associations have rules about what can be grown on a property. Some (many? I'm not in a HOA) require it be a traditional lawn. Some people try to do alternative lawns like native bushes, or even raised bed gardens, and then have legal push back to turn it back into a lawn. I think it sucks.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#152

Post by astura » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #76

Pfhreak wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, interesting. I have a kid and I'm grateful we gave up our lawn. She plants in the spring, harvests, cooks, and preserves with us. She's excited to make pickles, jam, squash, pumpkins, corn, etc from things she's grown and tended to. She even got to pick out some of the flowers and make her own little square. Watching her step out to grab some blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries is one of the best feelings…

Where does she play ball games, set up a paddling pool, and wrestle? I'd agree if you have a house big enough to have a playroom, and have open space close by, it's probably easy enough. Our lawn is kinda a tiny, tiny, wildflower meadow, ie it's not cut much. The bees love the Clover.

The park? That's where I did those activities as a kid.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#153

Post by foxhop » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

I'm covering half my lawn with leaves, woodchips, and hugelkulture. I also have many editable perennials like strawberries and raspberries taking over a large portion of my old hillside lawn.

I'm building systems which hold and sequester large amounts of both water and carbon.

We should start a movement, I have an awesome domain name for the project, if anyone wants to join up, (unturf.com)

I'm using less and less gas each year on the remaining sparse lawn. Next year I plan to use my battery powered weed whacker for the majority of my lawn work (Christmas gift).

My long term goal is no use of gas to maintain my property, and I'm well on track.

For free woodchips, checkout CHIPDROP, it's amazing and growing.

On my 3/4 acre hillside plot I have a thriving baby orchard of 4 years with about 13 apple trees, 6 peach trees, 5 plum trees. My kids love it.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#154

Post by bluGill » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:17 PM UTC

shartshooter wrote: post #27

Why do lawns even factor into the equation when the reality is that industry, farms, etc. own the majority of all water usage? I live in a desert area and hate seeing lawns watered in the middle of the summer but its impact seems trivial. Agriculture is a major user of ground and surface water in the United States, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the Nation's consumptive water use and over 90 percent in ma…

Lawns use far more fertilizer than agriculture per unit area. Many small suburban laws get as much chemicals as a farmer will put on many acres. The farmer is a businessman, excess fertilizer is wasted money off the bottom line, thus the farmer tries to apply only what is needed, and keep it on the field not run off into a stream (this is a very hard problem, I'm not claiming farmers are fully successful, but they make an effort and research shows they are doing okay). The suburban lawn gets excess chemical with no thought about will it run off.

Note that the suburban lawn does not need chemicals. If you want green colored lawn you need them. If you want green as in good for the environment a lawn without chemical input does fairly well, but it won't look as nice.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#155

Post by givinguflac » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:17 PM UTC

harshaw wrote: post #149

I need to have a lawn to separate the forest from the house. If you don't the forest encroaches and then you eventually have trees that fall on the house (think new england ice storms). I also need to cut back the trees to make sure there is enough light for the solar panels. I don't need a super green lawn but I need something that gets mowed.

I think you’ve wholly missed the point

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#156

Post by alex_duf » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

foxhop wrote: post #153

I'm covering half my lawn with leaves, woodchips, and hugelkulture. I also have many editable perennials like strawberries and raspberries taking over a large portion of my old hillside lawn. I'm building systems which hold and sequester large amounts of both water and carbon. We should start a movement, I have an awesome domain name for the project, if anyone wants to join up, (unturf.com) I'm using less and less ga…

I'd like to know more about how you're achieving that. Any pointers or plans to write up what you've done?

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#157

Post by bluGill » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:19 PM UTC

winrid wrote: post #67

When I was in China there were certain places where they made jokes about how Americans are so rich they use their lawns just to make their home look pretty (they were growing stuff).

That is in fact the purpose of lawns: to show you are rich enough to not surround your house with food gardens. The poor had to plant food anyplace they had legal rights to soil, the rich can plant non-food to show off.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#158

Post by bluGill » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:22 PM UTC

harimau777 wrote: post #110

Are there environmentally friendly alternatives to the traditional grass lawn if one uses their lawn for sports, BBQ, and play? Maybe just allowing grass to grow more naturally rather than using pesticides and removing weeds?

Just cut the grass with a manual reel lawn mower. No added chemicals - including water.

Note, if you lawn has a wetland or stream do not cut closer than 1 meter to the wetland, the uncut lawn will filter runoff for the wetland/stream and keep everything healthier.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#159

Post by hvidgaard » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

MattRix wrote: post #116

hvidgaard wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy a robot lawn mower, it is.

Maintaining a lawn is more than just mowing it. There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. The mowing is the easiest part, at least for my relatively small lawn.

Let's say we have a super well maintained lawn here in Denmark. You would have to do the following once every season:

  * Aerate/seed (realistically not necessary to do every year). 
  * Fertilize.
  * Pull weeds (mostly dandelions).

For a normal house that amounts to at most one weekends work.

Compared to a well established bed of flowers, which every season at the very least needs:

  * Fertilize
  * Trim plants that begin taking over.

For a garden with flower beds the size of the typical lawn I'd say there is at least the same amount of work required. And you need to have quite a bit more knowledge for it to be easy, compared to a lawn anyway.

For a vegetable garden there is significantly more work involved.

  * Germinate
  * Ready the soil
  * Work in manure
  * Plant / transplant
  * Keep weeds down.
  * Some plants need a trellis.
  * Mulch.
    * Keep weeds down where the mulch failed.
  * Continuously maintain the vegetables health to ensure good harvest.
  * Harvest
  * Clean up the beds
  * Plant green manure
  * Plan next year, rotate crops ect.

There is realistically something to do every single week.

If you live a place where it rains enough for the grass to make it on it's own, it's the path of least resistance only bested by a concrete slab, or perhaps tiled that you spray to kill weeds.

Re: Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

#160

Post by fireflash38 » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

krageon wrote: post #122

rubidium wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be a parent. Set rules and consequences. Outside time or no Minecraft seems like a no brainer. Interact and get him to join you in things you like doing outside. He’ll probably hate it for 1 month or 1 year, but it’s your responsibility.

If you're involved as a parent, sure. Just for the love of god do not just throw your kid outside saying "play outside", because that sucks. I'm speaking from experience.

It sucks for sure, but it can also give you plenty of fuel for creativity & imagination. I would at least throw them outside with some tools & toys.