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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’

#91

Post by viburnum »

01100011 wrote: post #85

Californians, please plant natives. See laspilitas.com or the Theodore Payne foundation for more info. You can have a beautiful yard that requires zero water(and watering it can often cause harm) in summer yet feeds insects and smells amazing.

Natives are also great because when you go out into the woods you can recognize plants from your garden!

Sadly, garden souls are often in much worse shape than what natives need (usually very compacted and lacking in organic matter). Some native plants are native to moist soils and would require more water than a (non-invasive) plant from the Mediterranean, for example. But native plants are tremendous fun and there are ton of resources available to help you find the right plant for the right spot.

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

#92

Post by onion2k »

swebs wrote: post #82
onion2k wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying we like lawns because our cave-dwelling ancestors saw them as good hunting ground is fine, but to extend that to saying that's a reason why we should have them is not. We can ignore that particular primal urge if giving up lawns is good for the environment. The same goes for every other "primal instinct" - we've evolved to the point where we can make a conscious decision about what we do regardless of what our…

You can't consciously decide what you find visually appealing.

No, but you can consciously decide whether or not to act on finding something appealing. That's the point here - our ancient evolutionary instincts are real, but we have also evolved the ability to think rationally so we can ignore those urges if we want to. Consequently whenever someone argues "we do that because we evolved from cave people" the correct response is "but we're not cave people any more, and why are you ignoring the thousands of years of evolution that have happens since we left the caves?"

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

#94

Post by stinos »

vanderZwan wrote: post #79
_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 to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. The irony is that people think a lawn is easier to maintain because it looks simpler

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 local farmer once put it: you might just as well have concrete and paint it green. Same looks but cheaper and no maintainance.

We on the other hand make hay. Meaning depending on the year, we spend several hours once or twice a year to cut the meadow (by scythe, but that's just because I like that). And then some more time to turn the hay and bale it to produce something which is then worth some money. And yields vivid fauna&flora (we also never cut everything every year, some random parts can stay till the next year). Still I get neighbours telling me 'wow that's a lot of work you put in there'. At first I thought they were joking but theye are not: I really have to do the math for them to make them realize several hours every month is way more work than what I do (and that's not even talking about the money spent). I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time. Or they see a scythe and think it's extremely hard work.

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

#95

Post by mamon »

jws wrote: post #8
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #2

I’d love to see my “progressive” city end setback laws, which require me to keep 15 ft of either grass or dirt in front of my house.

Setback laws are usually about not building a structure too close to a lot line. On the front, a minimal setback keeps the street from becoming a canyon. Larger setbacks are more of a look and feel thing for a neighborhood. Front setbacks may also be governed by adjacent houses to encourage all the fronts to line up. It’s tidier that way.

Old towns in southern Europe (Spain, Italy) were deliberately built so that streets become "canyons" - they are very narrow, and buildings are tightly packed. It helps make 100+ degrees temperatures in summer bearable.

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

#96

Post by lostlogin »

vosper wrote: post #73
Jedd wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... would be to cut out bovine meat. The somewhat ludicrous figure provided at that link - of 15,415 litres of water per kilogram of meat - is oft' cited by vegetarians and vegans, but doesn't bear scrutiny. CAFOs are undeniably bad for everyone (the land, the animals, and the consumers) and while they doubtless skew the stats, those grossly artificial environments are clearly not locking up 15 tonnes of water per…

> But the whole 'using water' claim is muddied. The water the animal drinks passes through it and into the ground. Yes, it's not like the water is destroyed. It may be diverted from directly flowing into a river, sure, and perhaps goes straight back to the atmosphere rather than into the sea via evaporation, exhalation, and transpiration... but it's not gone .

What the cow returns trashes streams as it’s high in nitrates. It’s incredibly damaging. New Zealand is a great example of this and the huge expansion of our dairy industry has done huge harm.

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

#97

Post by hvidgaard »

vanderZwan wrote: post #79
_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 to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. The irony is that people think a lawn is easier to maintain because it looks simpler

If you buy a robot lawn mower, it is.

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

#98

Post by zo1 »

Jedd wrote: post #52
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…

> ... would be to cut out bovine meat. The somewhat ludicrous figure provided at that link - of 15,415 litres of water per kilogram of meat - is oft' cited by vegetarians and vegans, but doesn't bear scrutiny. CAFOs are undeniably bad for everyone (the land, the animals, and the consumers) and while they doubtless skew the stats, those grossly artificial environments are clearly not locking up 15 tonnes of water per…

>"But the whole 'using water' claim is muddied."

I agree, most of our water is technically "reused". However, one minor caveat is that if it goes down the drain then it most likely gets mixed-in with sewage and thus needs to be treated before being released. Which can definitely be some sort of resource burden.

Edit: Formatting.

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

#99

Post by RHSeeger »

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,…

My lawn (not large) was devastated this year by red thread. By the middle of the summer, the entire thing was turning brown. It was really disappointing.

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

#100

Post by mcv »

rbirkby wrote: post #49
philosopher1234 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate why that is?

A friend once explained that boys are like dogs. They need exercising twice a day. A back yard and a ball are sufficient for that. A paved area is more likely than lawn to provide yet more trips to ER.

I wish I could get my son to exercise twice a day. He hates going outside. He prefers his exercise running around in Minecraft, and if he does get it in real life, it's jumping around the living room.
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