Renowned Entomologist Says ‘Get Rid of Your Lawn’

Post by OGWhales » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 6:17 PM UTC

_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…

Post by nogabebop23 » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

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…

Post by merpnderp » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 6:27 PM UTC

jhedwards wrote: post #271

merpnderp wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about the generation that first started having lawns and how they came from farm country and knew all about having native/weed "lawns". The hay fever, the bugs and parasites, the snakes, all this drove them to appreciate a nice fresh lawn your kids could roll around on and enjoy. It's gonna be a hard sell to get people to enjoy something their grandparents overwhelmingly knew to be inferior.

I agree with this to an extent because I love yards, but you're talking about the generation that smoked indoors and drove without seat belts. Moving forward a bit, my mother grew up thinking margarine and canned goods were better than fresh food (convenient, cheap, and doesn't go bad!). We have the benefit of better science and a bit of hindsight and can see how the move to lawns has caused pollution on a massive sc…

Post by colechristensen » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

digitalsushi wrote: post #151

colechristensen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by DennisP » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

cr0sh wrote: post #240

_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…

> Chunk out a four by four foot section and grow some sugar peas and tell me it wasn't a thousand times more rewarding than a lawn. If you have an HOA - there might be a bit of problem...