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Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

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

#211

Post by stinos »

biztos wrote: post #195
stinos wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. In what lawn-owners treat as mowing season, more than half of the year here, they spend several hours a month with motorized devices keeping the grass trimmed. Meaning they also pay for the device and the energy to keep it running. And the trimmings are usually wasted. So all in all: pretty expensive thing, that lawn. And to stay on topic: pretty much dead as far as nature is considered as well. Almost like a l…

I agree it's probably better and more fun and maybe less "work" to have a garden or wild plants than a lawn, but: > you might just as well have concrete and paint it green No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet, and your kids and dogs would be having a whole lot less fun playing in the yard. > Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time.…

No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet

Should have made this more clear perhaps, but I only put in that farmer's concrete quote (which I don't agree with for the reasons you mention) for the biodiversity aspect not everything else grass-related :)

A lot of people find lawn-mowing relaxing.

Yes but that is true for me as well so doesn't really explain why more than one neighbour made a similar comment about me spending more time mowing than they do while in reality it's the opposite, by far. Maybe it's just coincidence (N=3) and/or maybe they were just making conversation or so.

probably better

Considering the biological side, it's way beyond 'probably'. For example [1] gives a rather high-level overview and [2] goes into (one of) the more specific aspects. [3] also talks about the history/future bits.

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19092 [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071... [3] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/148.full

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

#212

Post by gbrown »

dhimes wrote: post #206
dbingham wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going for a perfectly maintained look to wild plantings, then yeah, that's a a lot of work. We've replaced our lawn with wild savanna, and it's zero work. We just let it go. It looks totally wild, and I'm happy with that. (Getting it in place - removing the invasives, improving the soil, planting trees, and spreading native wildflower and grass seeds was a lot of work - but since its established its very li…

Oh- so you're that neighbor. It's not just a change in your aesthetics that's needed. If you live in a community then it's prudent to get community buy-in. Especially if you have kids. Community reputation means a lot more than some people realize. Source: I've been on both sides of this one.

People are way too uptight about lawns

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

#213

Post by vanderZwan »

dhimes wrote: post #206
dbingham wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going for a perfectly maintained look to wild plantings, then yeah, that's a a lot of work. We've replaced our lawn with wild savanna, and it's zero work. We just let it go. It looks totally wild, and I'm happy with that. (Getting it in place - removing the invasives, improving the soil, planting trees, and spreading native wildflower and grass seeds was a lot of work - but since its established its very li…

Oh- so you're that neighbor. It's not just a change in your aesthetics that's needed. If you live in a community then it's prudent to get community buy-in. Especially if you have kids. Community reputation means a lot more than some people realize. Source: I've been on both sides of this one.

Yeah, at the root of this all is a cultural issue more than anything else. Funny enough my mom has let her garden grow wild for years and neighbors have been telling her they love how lush it is from the start, yet somehow don't quite dare to let their own garden free (and before anyone asks, I'm pretty sure it's not a backhanded compliment).

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

#214

Post by vitaflo »

lr4444lr wrote: post #163
_qwfv wrote: post #25

Getting rid of our lawn and growing other stuff has been amazingly fulfilling. I have fresh produce most of the year, I've got honeybees and bumblebees and mason bees coming around. I have to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. Everything from fruit trees to berries, flowers to vegetables, herbs to herbal teas like chamomile. Strongly recommend looking at what will grow in your…

I have both a lawn, and a perimeter where I grow flowers, edibles, and trees. I am happy that you find your conversion satisfying, but there is no conceivable way I am going to believe the careful weeding, deadheading, variable watering, pruning, shading, trellising, etc. is less maintenance than simply running the mower and edger once a week at MOST, and relying on an automated sprinkler system. (Maybe a 2x/year wee…

We have over 2000 sq ft of perennial gardens on our property. I don't think it's more work than mowing our lawn. Outside of mulching every few years, and getting the garden ready in spring and deadheading in the fall, there isn't much to do the rest of the summer. Yes there's some maintenance, but it's much less than the hour and a half every week I spend mowing my lawn.

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

#215

Post by diviaki »

Spring to spring I had set off to grow edible stuff but it's been such a hassle with the need for irrigation and weeding and pesticides and then it failed to produce anything substantial. Until I met with deep mulch gardening. The method I follow requires years to build up a healthy, thick layer of soil, but that's fine. Hardly any weeding and no watering, no pesticides, just collect and spread leaf litter others dumped nearby, make it 60 cm thick in autumn, enjoy winter, plant during spring and it just works. I plan to convert more lawn.

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

#216

Post by rtkwe »

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…

The article isn't even about water usage! It's about lawns being terrible habitats for insects...

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

#217

Post by neurobashing »

EricE wrote: post #124

Get rid of HOA’s first :/

Came here to say this. The one thing I am getting from the bulk of the comments is, not a lot of people with an active HOA that is fully committed to not just yards, but a very specific "look and feel".

If you're curious about it: we have a nicely sloped back yard but one small part is 1)shrouded by the fence and 2)a tad lower/steeper than the rest, and so it's a mudhole where nothing will grow.

Our HOA is constantly angry about it, as our back yard now doesn't have the required square feet of grass coverage.

Similarly, others have problems getting grass growing in front yards because of house position, slope, and other factors. Constant harassment from the HOA that amounts to "why aren't you spending hundreds of dollars a year constantly re-sodding your tiny patch of townhouse front yard".

My experience is common around here, FWIW. I have friends in different nearby neighborhoods with the same kind of snooping, nitpicking "fix it or we'll put a lien on your house" stuff.

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

#218

Post by rtkwe »

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.

You don't have to just let the entire forest in to follow the advice in the article. There are a lot of low ground cover type plants that would do wonders for the insect population and you could still cut back any actual trees.

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

#219

Post by rtkwe »

ivanhoe wrote: post #133

And don't clean fallen leaves in the autumn...

> Another tip: Leave leaf litter in place. The dead plant material is an important part of healthy soil and offers protection for insects during the winter, Berenbaum said.

They say exactly that in the article.

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

#220

Post by huebomont »

dhimes wrote: post #206
dbingham wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going for a perfectly maintained look to wild plantings, then yeah, that's a a lot of work. We've replaced our lawn with wild savanna, and it's zero work. We just let it go. It looks totally wild, and I'm happy with that. (Getting it in place - removing the invasives, improving the soil, planting trees, and spreading native wildflower and grass seeds was a lot of work - but since its established its very li…

Oh- so you're that neighbor. It's not just a change in your aesthetics that's needed. If you live in a community then it's prudent to get community buy-in. Especially if you have kids. Community reputation means a lot more than some people realize. Source: I've been on both sides of this one.

those people who want a community of only people who think the same way as they do should move out far enough that they don't have neighbors.
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