Mary and I were fussing over our “lawn” yesterday. We are required by the city to mow our yard and keep it presentable, as defined by bourgeois expectations, but we’re subverting that. We don’t use any chemicals on it, and we’ve been sowing clover to replace the turf grass. Mary has been most dedicated to replacing the boring stuff with more interesting stuff: she’s got pots of milkweed and other native flora, and yesterday she put me to work tearing up the ‘bad’ grass so she could spend the day transplanting. She’s at work today, and left me with orders to water the new plants.
We have a fenced backyard that would probably be judged criminal, because it’s covered with ‘weeds’ that are a foot or two tall. It’s also full of berry plants. We’re all about feeding the pollinators and birds. This past fall we managed to avoid raking up most of the leaves — leaf litter is an important habitat for overwintering invertebrates.
This video expresses sentiments I share.
You do realize that a thriving population of invertebrates is a necessary prerequisite for vigorous and diverse population of spiders, right? Spiders don’t flourish on endless beds of turf grass.
Earlier this week, the neighbour fired up his lawn mower at 6:15 in the morning. Of course we are in the middle of a heatwave, but if it’s to hot to mow, grass isn’t growing anyway!
This guys garden is an ecological nightmare and seriously ugly. Very German.
Native grasses? Do you know the species and any uses of them by your local Indigenous People(s)?
My wife, in particular would approve. I do too but I don’t count as I just “help” by lugging things around, digging holes occasionally. In the 7 years since we moved here, she’s converted our yard (front and back) to mostly natives. It’s a beauty in my opinion. Not only to the invertebrates love it but the birds and the little lizards love it too. When we first moved in we had a few types of birds, in particular wild turkeys which are not native. Now we have more than a dozen regular visitors to the garden.
Speaking of native grasses: I may have mentioned this before but according to the Marin naturalist the summer time browning of the hills in California is because the grasses are not native. They were brought in with feed seed by Europeanj settlers and spread. The native grasses stayed green all summer because they are long-rooted to reach the deep, damp soils. The native grasses are still around as she pointed some out in a garden at a friends home.
I 100% agree, I live in an area with wells and I watch my neighbors with over manicured lawns:
* Hire a fertilizer company to spread chemicals
* Install lawn watering systems and water their lawn almost daily
* Hire a lawn mowing company to cut the lawn because it grows more having been chemicalled and watered; and the cycle repeats.
I don’t want to have to drink water with lawn chemicals and I don’t want truck after truck plying the streets to pollute the air and ground water.
Our yard has a network of PVC pipes and built-in sprinklers that we have never used. There is a local company that had to come by every fall and blow out the pipes, or they’d rupture at the first freeze. We didn’t hire them. I’m sure there are lot of leaky pvc pipes there, but we’ve never tested them by pushing the button in our garage.
I have seen a similar sentiment over at the “Crime Pays but Botany doesn’t” YouTube channel.
I am not quite that motivated. I planted a pecan tree in the front yard and began an expanding circle of mulch around it. Slowly decreasing the amount of grass. Not zero yet but working on it.
… yesterday she put me to work tearing up the ‘bad’ grass …
Sounds like the knees are much improved!
Ordinarily I’d wholeheartedly agree with the leaf raking argument. But, BUT this presents a few problems for us. We have large, mature trees in and around us, including a magnificent pin oak in our back yard with >100 feet of spread. This means that we have a lot of leaves in a relatively small back yard, dominated by the oak leaves. The major problem that presents for us is ticks, which seem to be just about everywhere around here (mid-Michigan). We also have two large dogs, both of whom are on the monthly flea and tick meds. This however does not prevent ticks from biting them, and potentially transmitting tick-borne diseases. Now, we don’t really care what grows in our yard (except poison ivy), as long as it doesn’t mind getting mowed periodically.
I only learned about these US “lawn laws” recently from YouTube. The excellent Climate Town channel covered it at https://youtu.be/KLYMjPNppRQ?si=mzGCgKM1MALn1hVJ, while the related topic of Residents’ Associations (also not much of a thing here in the UK) was the subject of a John Oliver segment.
In our front yard, the flower garden, veggy & herb beds, and raspberry rows are slowly encroaching on the grass. The side (we’re on an end lot) has been all raspberry rows for like 30 years; I only mow the aisles to keep them walkable. The back has two large trees, and we’ve basically let most it revert to a forest floor aesthetic (well, the part that’s not occupied by the koi ponds).
The lawnmower has been a battery machine ever since Black & Decker’s first model came out in 1991 (mostly because, at the time, I was heartily sick of dealing with greasy temperamental two-stroke engines).
In many scarizona neighborhoods the front is not lawn, but colored gravel and the tarantulas and other critters roam freely. Phoenix in their infinite stupidity still has some dished green lawns that are flooded with water regularly to keep them from dying.
But, of course that’s because scarizona has an endless supply of water (sarcasm much).
@11
There are a bunch of YouTube videos about harvesting water for street landscaping. One guy in Tucson is doing a lot of work in this area. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-MZ9smE0A&t=2337s
As the various continents have many plant lineages adapted to dry conditions, I would have assumed plant growers could suppy households with a wide array for plants in arid climates.
@12 dschultz mentioned water harvesting in Tucson.
I reply: That is admirable and good to hear. However, I am afraid that is overshadowed by all the data centers sucking up what is left of the colorado river water and what I mention below.
@13 birgerjohansson mentioned: I would have assumed plant growers could suppy households with a wide array for plants in arid climates.
I reply: You are correct that they could and do supply arid climate plants. However, in scarizona, where we, at least, take xeriscaping seriously by permanently shutting off the drip irrigation in 2023, too many people moving from other wetter climates insist on planting lush lawns and thirsty trees and plants and watering them profusely.
And, don’t get me started about the massive amounts of water and dangerous chemicals tRUMPs golf courses use!
You’d love our garden- Sue’s garden- which is wild as wild can be. I had to use the strimmer a few days ago, just to get a path to the washing line and make enough space for the washing to blow about a bit. I apologised to the burnet and scarlet tiger moths that were taking notes about my infractions.
Wikipedia – Trombiculidae
Ohio State University – Chiggers Fact Sheet
University of Missouri – Chiggers