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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’

#221

Post by pm215 »

alistairSH wrote: post #183
pm215 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is simpler in the sense that there is not really any thought required. I have to mow my small lawn every three weeks or so, true, but I know how to do that, because it's the same thing everybody does and you grow up watching your parents mow the lawn. It requires no judgement skills, and no gardening skills -- just run the mower over all the grass, and you're done. I would actually potentially be interested in hav…

Depending on where you live, you could start with introducing clover into your yard. It grows well in most of the US, tends to be more drought tolerant than many grasses, is easier on the soil (requires less soil treatment), and flowers nicely part of the season, which is great for bees and other pollinators. It will co-exist with grasses, so you don't need to do anything beyond tossing seed in the early spring and l…

I'm in the UK. My lawn is about 1/3 clover already, as it happens, just by natural process of it being stuff that grows better in the conditions on that part of the lawn. I don't consider that to be not-a-lawn, it's fairly normal I think, and the management is no different to the grass. (My 'lawn' overall is about 1/3 grass, 1/3 mostly-clover, 1/3 mostly-moss: the grass grows well on the sunny side, the moss beats out everything else on the side that's almost perpetually in shade by the south-side fence, and the clover wins in the middle-zone between them.)

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

#222

Post by Dowwie »

2017 Freakonomics podcast about the American obsession with lawns: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-stupid-obsession-lawns/

I've been replacing grass with mulched gardens consisting of perennials such as russian sage, black-eyed susans, catmint, various bushes..

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

#223

Post by jonstewart »

Alex3917 wrote: post #144
jonstewart wrote: post #142

I’m fortunate enough to have recently purchased a 38 acre property in the Midwest, a little hollow with small hills and a spring-fed creek. About 30 acres are woods and the remainder is open, most of it unmowed with lots of native wildflowers and grasses, part of it low and swampy and part high and dry. It was amazing spending the summer there and learning about other butterflies than Monarchs (though we had plenty o…

> Japanese barberry runs rampant in the woods, though. That will take some effort to get rid of. Careful, it has more ticks than anything else, and the first time you get bitten you’re not going outside for 21 days.

Yeah, we're Lyme Disease Central. We're militant about DEET, footwear, and taking showers when we come inside. I really hope some kind of vaccine comes out soon, though.

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

#224

Post by Kye »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #120
MattRix wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. If you have a grass that matches where you live and don’t mind your lawn occasionally being brown, none of that is needed.

It was interesting watching people complain about the grass not growing on The Walking Dead. Little do they know, that's normal. Especially when it never seems to rain on the show. It can jump after rain, but it stays short and brown for months in an especially dry year.

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

#225

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #114
crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because your world depends on them.

Get back to me when you can actually show that my world depends on a variety of insects contained within a single square mile.

Culture matters. You don't exist in a void. You, anyone you live with, anyone who sees your yard, and anyone who hears your views on it all carry a personal culture.

You are responsible for yours and who it infects. Is yours a sustainable one? If not, you're likely programming the world to die off.

It's not only about you. It's about the ripple effects of you and a greater understanding of responsibility in the face of culture as a force to reckon with.

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

#226

Post by cptskippy »

folkrav wrote: post #182
cptskippy wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess maybe that's a regional thing. In the southeast US, lawn care is a year round battle against weeds and invasive species. Without weeding and chemicals, grass can easily be choked out in one growing season. Mowing the actual lawn is a very small part of the regiment. It's particularly difficult with the mild Winters we have had of late because it's almost as if spring goes from December to May now. Sods like B…

Might have to do with the grass type? One thing that shocked me when I went to Florida was how coarse (larger strands and way stiffer) the grass was compared to where I live (Canada). I eventually learned it's simply a different type to deal with climate differences. I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable with everything plant, but it wouldn't sound odd to me if I learned that it could also mean different care. Up her…

> Might have to do with the grass type? One thing that shocked me when I went to Florida was how coarse (larger strands and way stiffer) the grass was compared to where I live (Canada).

Grass types are a reflection of the climate and vary dramatically due to factors such as sun, growing season, and soil composition. In Florida the soil composition is mostly sand, and they receive a lot of year round sun so the predominant grass is St. Augustine because it thrives and produces thick turf that chokes out weeds.

St. Augustine is also very similar to Crab Grass, which is considered a weed in many places, like Georgia. And it is easily killed by all but a few herbicides (e.g. MSM). So while St. Augustine is great in Florida, doesn't work well in Georgia where the soil composition promotes more aggressive weeds, and the tree canopy inhibits St. Augustine's growth.

In other words, Florida grass is Georgia weeds.

> Up here it's mostly weeding, adding soil where needed and reseeding every spring, mowing it every couple of weeks, and watering once in a while. Maybe 2-3 rounds of chemicals a year if you want that healthy deep green lawn look.

In the south your yard can grow 4-6 inches a week and during the growing season you sometimes have to mow as frequently as every 5 days. The mowing season in Georgia is from March to November for grasses that go dormant, it's year round for those that don't.

Weeding is a year-round chore and many people opt for year round weed services that spray for weeds on a monthly basis if not more frequently. Pre-emergent weed control is put down in February or March, and other herbicides are used through out the spring and summer.

Fertilizer is only done a couple times a year and varies depending on the type of grass.

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

#228

Post by amyjess »

When I was giving serious thought to moving to Vegas, one thing I thought was super cool was that nobody had lawns, just patches of gravel, some scraggly desert underbrush, and maybe a palm tree or two.

I love single-family houses but hate lawns, so that was one thing I was looking forward to about moving. Alas, it never happened. The main reason I was expecting to have to move evaporated, and I love my city enough that I don't want to move unless I have to, even despite lawns.

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

#229

Post by jonstewart »

digitalsushi wrote: post #147
jonstewart wrote: post #142

I’m fortunate enough to have recently purchased a 38 acre property in the Midwest, a little hollow with small hills and a spring-fed creek. About 30 acres are woods and the remainder is open, most of it unmowed with lots of native wildflowers and grasses, part of it low and swampy and part high and dry. It was amazing spending the summer there and learning about other butterflies than Monarchs (though we had plenty o…

Matthias Wandel on youtube has a video of a DIY woodworking project for building a wild parsnip harvester that doesn't require touching the plant, for the purposes of manually eradicating it.

Neat! I never knew about poison parsnip until a few years ago when I developed a burn on my arm a few days after flyfishing on a small stream on the 4th of July. It was pretty small all things considered, but very painful and took weeks to heal.

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

#230

Post by kingdomcome50 »

huebomont wrote: post #220
dhimes wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you think it is unreasonable to want to surround oneself with like-minded individuals? I am not trying to imply the opposite isn't _also_ reasonable.
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