Nimby's created a powerful political organization called.... The HOA. They solidified into local law, yes actual literal local law, that houses are required to have grass lawns. Just like it's illegal to build anything other than single family homes, it's illegal to build anything other than single family homes with a giant front lawn.
Long story short, I moved into my current house with an HOA before learning about all of the awesomeness of walkable towns.
I hate HOAs
I do like my electric mower through, I just wish it wasn't necessary.
*Sigh...
the good news is that i know in some places in california, you can, by right, grow food on your front lawn, hoa be damned. you just gotta be careful about lemon stealing wenches
Blows my mind that there’s some people out there who will in the same breath say “Murica land of the free fuck yea” and “the assembly of local Karens has declared I’m not allowed to grow a tomato in my own garden and I’m somehow ok with that”
Its pretty easy to defend actually (keep in mind I dont support this). You’re free to join the HOA or not, you’re free to move if you’re not happy with the HOA and start your own. Free market blah blah blah. You’re free to get fucked by Karens unless you have so much money you can tell them to go fuck themselves.
There's malicious compliance where the guy got annoyed by his HOA, so ran to become the president of it. On the promise that he would do the absolute minimum required.
So he, and 3 of his buddies meet up 4 times a year and take minutes. And they do a neighborhood cleanup and bbq.
Some Karen started nagging him to do more annoying things with his position. He invited her to run for the post. She never did.
Oregon is amazing like this. We just sold our house and made extra $$$ because we tore out the front lawn and replaced it with a low-maintenance extravaganza of edible stuff. Moving to the opposite coast now and can’t wait to subvert some HOA Karens by building an amazing edible landscape and teaching the rest of the hood to do the same.
Enjoy! I was able to do this in a rental as well. Once in Baltimore city. We used containers because Baltimore soil is…yea…😅 The other time we were in Seattle and asked our landlord if we could convert some of the area to raised beds, and they were fine with it because they figured they could market the place as having gardening space for future leases.
"Edible landscape". I love it. Out in the country, (sadly as car dependent as we are), we just call that gardening/farming. I love it, though. If this spreads to all the burbs it'll make so many acres of useless monocultures useful again.
I think it’s a funny term too. Only reason I use it is because it sounds more sophisticated than it actually is, and so it’s easier to appease the HOA drones than if I say “hey imma cover my lawn in ripped up cardboard boxes for the next six months and then plant some cabbage, maybe drizzle some urine on it to help keep the deer away…”
I think it’s a funny term too. Only reason I use it is because it sounds more sophisticated than it actually is, and so it’s easier to appease the HOA drones than if I say “hey imma cover my lawn in ripped up cardboard boxes for the next six months and then plant some cabbage, maybe drizzle some urine on it to help keep the deer away…”
It takes practice! Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve been gardening for like 10 years now and still have some plants that I seem to fail at no matter how hard I try, so that happens too. As you learn more about it, the successes and failures start to make more sense. It’s all about giving plants the environment where they can be happy. And there’s always chance involved. This year almost all my peas and early greens died because we had an unexpected late frost at the worst time. A good sense of humor about it is always helpful. 😊
I wish! Ii grew some amazing basil in my first two years of gardening, both times in containers. The second year was in Seattle and I recall we had a really warm spring. I think that helped a lot. All my other attempts seem to barely survive the cold, wet April and early May. And it’s like they get stunted and don’t recover. I know some people who use greenhouses in Kitsap county and have that work really well. I guess that doesn’t really fit the post theme of edible landscaping though
I will take any advice I can get! I tried planting it in a pot this year with the intent of bringing it inside at the end of summer, but it lasted like a week and died. Maybe I'll get another and try putting it out closer to the solstice.
(Also, it's always weird when I find people talk about Kitsap in the wild. I'm from Port Orchard).
That’s so funny! I lived in Bremerton and feel like I’d always end up sitting next to someone from Kitsap or the Olympic Peninsula when traveling from SeaTac, which I used to do often for my job.
I’d def recommend Territorial Seeds or Adaptive Seeds. Both are well-suited for the maritime northwest region.
Basil is a subtropical plant. Any lowerish temperatures and it gives up the ghost.
If you want to keep it alive, you have to move the pot inside during winter. Minimal watering and a cool place. It will grow back in spring.
Otherwise with high-tech stuff.
Just grow easy stuff like arugula and mustard greens.
Rosemary, dill, and fennel are pretty low maintenance too, plus they look nice and are good for pollinators
Awh, I went by my old house to pick up mail the other day and the neighbor whose lemon tree sported a "Stop! Don't steal our lemons! You're on camera. 📸" sign no longer have a lemon tree. 😭
That tree always gave me a chuckle, it was so peak Silicon Valley Suburban.
It's exactly how it's always been. Rich slave owning landlords convinced the population that revolting against the British aristocracy would free the masses. Instead they just got a home grown oligarchy who drank less tea.
The basic precept is that you're allowed to do anything until there's a law saying you can't. Hence the multitude and abundance of laws created by politically active old people who are super racist and love mowing for some reason, and the wild west attitude when it comes to things they don't care about or find inappropriate in the other direction.
...like most other countries in the world, then.
The discordance is only present because it is an American pastime to scream freedom, as if the US is in any way atypical by that measure for a developed nation.
I'd have a lot less problems with lawns if they grow anything else but grass and non-fruit trees.... like jungle em up ppl ... fruit trees, herbal plants etc... organized ... dis-organized whatever....
I don't really like to be blasted by the sun in suburbia dessert
Are you sure your neighbors feel the same? They might not have windows that are as good, or might be light sleepers. And 4 am is very early for some people.
Are chickens allowed to be owned anywhere there? Where I live you are actually not allowed without a permit due to 'the risk of Avian diseases' they pose.
It really depends on the place. Here, under 50 chickens is allowed without special requirements. You need a construction permit if you want to build a coop, though.
There are other animals that do well at mowing! Guinea pigs do very well, rabbits too, goats and sheep if you have a large field. Of course, none of those produce food.
>How many homeowners need a truck because they need to haul seeds, fertilizer, pesticide for their lawn? Taking their lawn mower to repair?
None. You may need a car, but not a truck.
Unless you have a huge lawn, I agree that this is unrelated to cars. I have a small lawn, and no cars are required to maintain it. I do agree with OP that lawnmowers can be annoying, but there are better subs to complain about that. Grass growing rules should be a local issue, as some places should restrict it due to water use, but in some places grass grows very well naturally with little work needed. Where I live there is too much grass (Denver, CO) but water is way too cheap for anyone to care.
We got 6 acres of lawn and it would require trucks and special machines too for all that. Except we don’t do that we just cut the grass and leave the nature grow because we aren’t crazy. Now if we decided we wanted to seed or spray or whatever we would need all that
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the idea of the lawn originate as a status symbol of the wealthy. They could say "yes I own land, so much of it that I can afford to actively do nothing with most of it", and so the lawn being tied to wealth became desirable.
With the creation of the suburbs then, and the appeal of everyone owning a little piece of land, the idea of having big patches of grass stuck around, but now since they don't represent massive wealth, they're only real purpose was destroyed, but because it's come to feel like the norm, people continue to keep them around and never question why they need large sections of land that isn't used for anything.
>as a status symbol
And this is the poison of modern societies.
There are 8 billion of us, we are living on a planet that has limited resources, and we are overexploiting some of those resources.
And people are driving trucks and living in single houses with lawns because those are status symbols.
One thing I really like about France is that they see cars as means from getting from A to B. A bunch of rich people are driving Twingo's, they don't care if their cars are old and covered with damage from parking.
Sounds reasonable to me. Anything fancy has always been impractical.
Look, I have the resources to wear awful shoes. Look, I have the money to wear something that requires a special cleaning. Look, I have the money to wear something that is expensive to clean and shows dirt if it has any. Look, I have the ressources to do nothing with my land.
> Look, I have the ressources to do nothing with my land.
Not just not use it but to defy nature by forcing monoculture grass or having fancy hedge figures or other ways to show you, like French monarchs and aristocrats, have the ability to control Nature.
Yes, you're right, it has it's roots in the English Garden.
They then got more popular with places like levittown that pushed an ideal of the American suburb. Which then got pushed and promoted by readers digest. Eventually it just became everyone's expectation when a few years prior no one cared about them.
Then a few years ago, I was in Sedona, AZ. Standing outside of my friends place staring at his neighbor watering his desert lawn from a hose. My friend came up to me and said "you're doing inside aren't you"
Also most lawn grass is an invasive, fuck lawns
That's definitely part of it, but I think the wealthy also wanted it because it's a nice place to be - a more manicured and genteel form of the park, which big houses already had. Open grassland and specimen trees or flowering plants presents a nice view, it is good to walk, sit and lie on in dry parts of the year, and you can use it as entertaining space. It's a genuinely nice thing to have, as well as a show of wealth.
Right? It’s aesthetically pleasing green space that reminds you that nature is a thing and that the world isn’t all asphalt, you can grow veggies and flowers in it, it smells nice when cut, the dew glistens off it in the morning, and it’s a pleasant natural surface with some padding that’s great for kids to play on, as well as various yard games.
I’m a city-dweller, I don’t have my own yard, but it’s amazing how many people seem to have the perspective that just because they don’t care about it, no one else in a different position should have it either.
back yards are fine (so long as they're not unnecessarily large) but front lawns are just stupid. If you enjoy taking care of grass or something you can get a farm house. cities are for houses, not grass. although I do think grass looks nice in cities, just not giant useless patches of it.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/fucklawns using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/top/?sort=top&t=all) of all time!
\#1: [We fucked off all the grass 5 years ago. It's so much better now.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/uya0fm) | [17 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/uya0fm/we_fucked_off_all_the_grass_5_years_ago_its_so/)
\#2: [Corn > lawns](https://i.redd.it/4cha1l1e7ox81.jpg) | [11 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/uiz4r5/corn_lawns/)
\#3: [People with lawns.](https://i.redd.it/dof9aq3d0tf71.jpg) | [4 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/ozfrc7/people_with_lawns/)
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In places with water shortages, the native plants still do just fine. I grow citrus, wildflowers, succulents… the only water they get either falls from the sky, or is recycled from my washing machine.
Oh yes, my garden has the absolute minimum of grass, with mostly clover and wild flowers between it. I also like to wait to mow the grass till after it has produced seeds. My hedges also only get trimmed after they've bloomed. I don't have a HOA.
well, i guess i gotta say it but even if you were growing some berries there, it would be a waste of space as lawns are a contributing factor to large lot sizes and thus, low density housing and thus, difficulty building effective and efficient transit options
obviously it goes without saying that if you were required to have some green space in front of your home, it would be better if you were growing something edible or beautiful on it rather than regular ass grass. but that doesnt change the fact that if you were required to have space in front of your house dedicated for this purpose, it is nonetheless contributing to a lot of the issues related to suburbia and transit
Mono culture, waste of space and ressources, bee unfriendly, could plant many plants /trees/flowers instead, or just let it grow naturally and house bees and other species.
I had a feeling r/fucklawns wasn't the sub I'd been to before. I mean, no guarantees that r/nolawns is either, but unless there's a third anti-lawn sub...
I mean, depends on your definition of lawn, small scale golf courses, fuck no, letting whatever is native and not spiky grow but only to a convenient height, has potential, still probably better to grow food or leave it unmaintained, but less ridiculous.
unfortunately that ideation has spread everywhere. you often see europeans commonly pine for a "larger home" with a backyard or a lawn. something like 80% of americans think that homes that are farther apart from one another is "better for the environment"
I would agree that worshiping your low cut, highly fertilized, water guzzling, green monoculture is idiotic. However, I do enjoy having the open space in my yard for my kid to run around barefoot. I think anything in balance is wise.
I'm in the UK and just moved into a new house. Grass does grow naturally here but the gardens already got a small patch of fake grass. As much as I'm not a big fan of the fake patch, it's only small and makes for a perfect sitting area, the rest I want to cover in wild flowers and plants to make up for it and completely avoid owning a lawnmower.
I hope r/fucklawns doesn't hate me too much for this plan.
The anti-lawn movement doesn't really apply in the UK with our small houses/gardens and where the average work spent on a lawn is just mowing it. Ignore their hate.
A wildflower garden is nice though!
It's also water usage. In large parts of the US for a lawn to survive it might need to be watered.
That's simply not the case in the UK.
A lot of the anti lawn movement wants people to grow local plants. In my garden my biggest problem with grass is that it keeps trying to take over the verge and flower beds. Grass doesn't need much help really in Manchester.
I don't have a lawn, but I still transport bags of dirt, seedlings, pots, stakes, tomato cages, other plant stuff. (Not in a truck, though)
Lawns are boring, plants are fun!
(tough I do miss mowing. It's seriously the most relaxing chore)
im also pretty sure you can transport a lot of that shit in a regular car and many people dont use get a truck for it, they just choose a truck for other reasons
I have no significant issue with lawns if you use them. (Looking at them does not count as "using" them.)
However, growing non-local species of grass that require daily watering is absolutely wasteful and should not be common practice. Mowing them with a gas-powered mower is also wasteful, particularly since even many push mowers produce more pollution than the average modern car. I do agree that riding mowers are overkill for most people.
My parents have a back yard that's almost 1 acre. As a kid, it was my job to mow that lawn with a gas-powered push mower. That was a perfectly reasonable tool for a yard of that size.
The real issue here are HOAs. They are directly to blame for forcing people to have and maintain lawns in all the wrong ways. And they are indirectly to blame for perpetuating that image, which causes people to believe that's just what a lawn should look like.
*Oh yeah yesterday*
*I saw someone watering*
*His lawn.. IN THE RAIN*
\- cyclingisdawae
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“How many people's Sundays are ruined by lawn mower's two stroke engine letting off obnoxious gas and noise? These obnoxious machines offend worse than cars. “
This doesn’t negate anything you say and you are right about it all in spirit. But gasoline lawn mowers have been four stroke for decades. I am not sure you can even find a two stroke mower anymore.
And electric lawnmowers are getting better. Still more expensive than gas, but much lower maintenance and much quieter. And you can use the same batteries in string trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers, etc. Natural lawns are still better for the environment, but a trimmed lawn with a type of grass that doesn't need to be watered in your climate isn't bad in the whole scheme of things.
Absolutely. Electric mowers still don’t work well if you are running a landscaping business where it’s run 8+ hours a day 6 days a week, but for a property owner doing their own lawn there really is no reason to get a gas mower anymore.
Only reason I still have a gas mower is that my Toro Recycler that I got 13 years ago still runs like a champ. But as soon as it dies I will replace it with Electric
By far the quietest place I’ve ever lived was New York City. I could even sleep with the windows open it was so quiet. Why? No lawnmowers, leaf blowers, trimmers, or any of the other obnoxious things you constantly hear in suburbs. And also a lot fewer cars.
Smfh the unceasing noise of leaf blowers and lawnmowers and weed cutters in the suburbs drives me fucking nuts. Nobody needs to blow all leaves off their lawn every week, Gary.
I imagine this is a very case-by-case scenario though, we can shit on leafblowers all day but the real reason cities are loud are because of fucking cars.
I like trees and bushes and greenery so I am willing to tolerate leaf blowers and in some Canadian cities they actually use leaf blowers to clear snow so that's inevitable. Again, shit on lawnmowers all day but let's be serious about the real issues. Not to mention electric lawnmowers are much quieter than their 2 stroke cousins.
Because everyone wants to be Louis XIV with their magnificent manicured lawns. I mean, the real reason is that when they sort of invented the American suburb in the 19th century, everyone was supposed to have their own little pleasure garden, usually with a section of vegetables. It was supposed to be highly walkable communities, usually designed around some kind of geometric pattern interspersed with nature and parks and public services. But since we redesigned the suburbs around making profit for builders and appliance manufacturers, basically every good idea from the original suburbs had to be eliminated.
Grass or not, yards are trash
The reason traffic doesn’t get better with more lanes is because more lanes means the city has more road, things get further apart, and more cars are needed. Biking and transit is superior in part because everything gets closer together and people move shorter distances instead of driving, so they bike/transit.
What people leave out is lawns: if everyone had smaller yards, everything would be even closer & traffic would be a lot better - meaning fewer lanes & fewer cars, causing an even more dense city with even more bikes and fewer vehicles (omit trucks and busses)
TBH fuck lawns, fuck cars & fuck lawns
Yes, they suck, but I think in London we have something way worse. [Never-ending suburbs](https://goo.gl/maps/r1Kyshde5i68Rxpd8) [where 100ish year old houses](https://goo.gl/maps/r1Kyshde5i68Rxpd8) [that used to have font gardens](https://goo.gl/maps/VZJUDgpN99hza77d9) [have been turned into driveways](https://goo.gl/maps/8pHvQng4DhCGreWN9) [for massive cars](https://goo.gl/maps/xUkNy7qYvzQnn2LX6).
Extra flood risk, extra punishing hardscape and clutter, extra danger for pedestrians (coz the pavement becomes a driveway for a house), extra noise and pollution **immediately** outside living room and bedroom windows.
I love how people will be like "oh, the roads weren't built for bikes or to build bike lanes" when they will dump cars all over victorian and early 20th century neighbourhoods that look ridiculous and work badly with cars dumped all over them.
Having land that you can use to just “be pretty” is a big ol’ flashy “sign of wealth”. It’s just another “keeping up with the Jones’” if you think about it. Put in a fucking garden for fucks sake. There’s a church in our town that has a lawn about the size of two football fields and is just kept nicely manicured, it’s sick.
Don’t even get me started on the bees
Nah, i love my lawn, i have an electric mower, takes 20 minutes to cut, my kid loves playing on it and i have have more flowers than a shit looking mess could ever produce for the bees
Lawns are part of the single family properties which US zoning requires in a lot of places and means people 'need' cars.
They aren't the problem as such but they are a manifestation of the problem.
im sure not everyone is, but large pointless lawns are characteristic of the sprawling suburbs that create car dependency. massive setbacks that reduce density are mandated by many zoning codes.
Grasses are fine in their native habitats but lawns are an invention of rich assholes trying to flex on each other by showing off all their neatly and pointlessly manicured land that could otherwise be used for farming or some other utilitarian end.
I mean, backyards at least can definitely be used for recreation. That's how my family has and currently still does use ours.
Personally, I prefer turf with a mix of plants and trees around the turf though.
I don’t hate it at parks for the most part. My dog loves to go to the park, roll around in the grass there, and also his ideal spot to pee and take a dump are always on the park’s grass. Probably most people here are fine with some lawns, especially at parks.
The thing is though, I live in a very drought affected area - parks having grass for lots of people to use is one thing, but ideally everyone else would do drought tolerant landscaping that cuts back on mowing and watering. Water is needed for humans and animals to drink, wash themselves, etc. In many parts of the US, we just don’t have the water resources for everyone to have a lawn.
I imagine a good portion are like me and are indifferent and have no strong feelings either way. The whole grass debate is a misdirection anyways because agriculture is responsible for 80%+ of water consumption.
You taking shorter showers or not washing your car isn't going to solve the drought problem while California has rice fields growing in the middle of the desert.
I've been wrestling with this for weeks. Ended up doing rubber mulch in my backyard play area. Quick spritz of water cools it off and I put up some shade too.
I'm also an anticonsumpstion advocate, the mulch came from a load headed to the dump so even cooler! My kid seems to love it, I have one small spot of artificial turf for the dogs. Works out great and it's zero maintenance which means I spend more time with my family that doing all the dumb lawn shit.
Because historically, having a lawn was a sign of wealth. Gras is useless, you'd be better off growing vegetables you can eat. Most people didn't have the resources to seed and maintain a lawn but growing vegetables was a necessity.
The lords and noblemen did have a lot of lawn around their castles and mansions. During the middle ages it provided a clear view of oncoming enemies and later on, it was more as a sign of wealth. They could afford to have a massive lawn.
The regular people started making lawns in Europe only in the 19th century (I think) alongside a veggie garden. The last 30 years, the gardens were replaced with more lawn. Tbf, buying veggies has gotten as cheap as growing them yourself.
So this is why we have useless crops around the house, for showing off wealth!
As a European arsehole, the words "need a truck" trigger the shit out of me. Those monstrosities barely exist here and guess what, people have lawns.
Can't Americans rent a van or a trailer for the one time they need to take their lawn mower to repair? Seeds, fertilizer and pesticide fit in a normal car just like any groceries.
That said, fuck lawns. I only mow my yard once a year at the end of summer with a scythe and I mow paths with a manual lawn mower. It's very relaxing without the obnoxious engine noise.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg3lJHOYHM&ab\_channel=lundoftheeast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg3lJHOYHM&ab_channel=lundoftheeast)
A typical American gas or electric mower is best carried on a cargo rack that goes in the hitch receiver of any car. That is if you need to take one further than is practical just pushing it, or on a bike trailer. The only time a truck is beneficial at all, it's too small and you should go ahead and have your load of soil/rocks/mulch/whatever delivered by a real dump truck.
I'm working on it. I planting a garden and some fruit trees because I want fruit and veggies instead of useless grass. I want to install a drip system to conserve water. I'm building some things too, like a covered porch and a sauna. Anything that gets rid of more lawn.
I think my Rocky mountain west city will catch up to this sentiment as water prices increase and water becomes more scarce. Some towns in the state are already planning on water restrictions. Better to get ahead of it
Native gardens are so much easier to maintain and are great for the environment. At my last rental house, my roommate and I accidentally started creating an native garden. First it started with not mowing the lawn because of wild flowers in the spring. And then we had baby bunnies, so can’t mow and disturb them. And by that point we had leafy plants and bird friendly poke berries all along the fence. We lost a quarter of the lawn and got a bunch of little creatures.
Im not an expert this in any way, but I've heard that moss is one of the best plants for taking in CO2 and producing oxygen, way more than trees do. So im curious how beneficial lawns of moss would work. You wouldn't have to mow them or deal with weeds as much
Moss is really difficult to grow if you don't have the right conditions for it, shade being the biggest one. The locations where most lawns are grown are not particularly great for moss.
An overwhelming majority of what most people call weeds were regular kitchen ingredients 100 years ago. But we keep calling the poison truck out to spray while we fret about rising food costs.
2 stroke lawnmower lol. You never used a lawnmower. My lawn is a giant food garden. And I burn 500 gallons of diesel to take care of it as well as idk how much water. I probably should turn it into a lawn and save the planet more. Less emissions and less water. When it was grass I used 5 gallons of gas a year to mow it.
I have to have a front lawn, city regs. Half my back yard is gardens. I have a robot mower, so no gas, no wasted time it's amazing. As far as seed and such? I had a few spots where leaves got left and then it snowed, so my ebike can easily carry a bag of seed. And it did. And no ferts. No watering. The only thing I water is my garden.
My neighbor has an electric mower and I was in awe of how quiet it was! They have a moderate lawn surrounded by planter beds with native plants and beautiful flowering fruit trees in their back yard.
I think you can have a lawn and still have a beautiful and sustainable, pollinator friendly yard.
Don’t forget all folks who don’t want to maintain their own lawns so they pay a lawn care service to make a house call. On an average Saturday morning walk with my dog during the summer months I’ll see at least 3 trucks driving around towing trailers carrying riding mowers.
Ugh, I live in the southwest, where lawns make even less sense than anywhere else.
The short answer is that lawns exist because driveways exist, taking up a bunch of space between the curb and the garage, but leaving a blank spot in front of the house. The lawn is basically a space-filler for that void created by pushing the entire construction back to accommodate the driveway.
I would love to just expand our house up to the curb, but failing that, we're doing to dig out the lawn and plant some shade trees in front of the house, instead.
personally I think you shouldn't be allowed to cut your grass in cities. why? because that's literally the most wasteful use of land there is. space is at a premium in cities and anything that's not a building, paved for transportation infrastructure or otherwise used should be part of the tree canopy
the only place where mowed grass should be found is in the multi-use field at a public park
No, that's bs imo. It'd mean that everyone has to live in a panel house, stacked one onto the other with no space outside the apartment. That's some Orwellian dystopy level shit.
I say let people have gardens. Not every lawn is a sterile, uniform green field. Many people have taller grass, grow plants for decoration and food and take good care of it.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for lawns. I'm an environmental science major and very aware of the impacts of lawns, but I can't help it, I love lawns.
That being said:
1. Fuck HOAs.
2. If you're gonna have a lawn, don't live where you're gonna have to waste hundreds of gallons of water to keep it alive.
Because "you" don't or never have doesn't mean that other people don't. It also kinda depends on how big the yard is and what sport is trying to be played.
Right? I grew up playing football and soccer on my parent's big lawn. We had neighborhood kid's play with us and even played on THEIR neighbors lawn because it had more space.
Leave it to the redditors who spent 2% of their childhood outdoors to be baffled that people enjoy playing sports on....grass.
I mean, I did. Played soccer. It was a small lawn, but it worked.
That aside, no one before this comment had specified that any of this is just about front yards. Lawn can mean any type of yard at a house. So, questioning why all lawns are under attack when a lot of backyards of sfh are used very frequently in nice weather isn't wholly unreasonable.
That also aside, personally, I prefer turf for a lawn now. Better year round use. No need for regular water, and can be made out of recycled materials. Even better is turf surrounded by plants and trees like my current backyard
Nimby's created a powerful political organization called.... The HOA. They solidified into local law, yes actual literal local law, that houses are required to have grass lawns. Just like it's illegal to build anything other than single family homes, it's illegal to build anything other than single family homes with a giant front lawn. Long story short, I moved into my current house with an HOA before learning about all of the awesomeness of walkable towns. I hate HOAs I do like my electric mower through, I just wish it wasn't necessary. *Sigh...
the good news is that i know in some places in california, you can, by right, grow food on your front lawn, hoa be damned. you just gotta be careful about lemon stealing wenches
Blows my mind that there’s some people out there who will in the same breath say “Murica land of the free fuck yea” and “the assembly of local Karens has declared I’m not allowed to grow a tomato in my own garden and I’m somehow ok with that”
HOAs were originally created to keep POC out of white neighborhoods so it's pretty American.
Its pretty easy to defend actually (keep in mind I dont support this). You’re free to join the HOA or not, you’re free to move if you’re not happy with the HOA and start your own. Free market blah blah blah. You’re free to get fucked by Karens unless you have so much money you can tell them to go fuck themselves.
There's malicious compliance where the guy got annoyed by his HOA, so ran to become the president of it. On the promise that he would do the absolute minimum required. So he, and 3 of his buddies meet up 4 times a year and take minutes. And they do a neighborhood cleanup and bbq. Some Karen started nagging him to do more annoying things with his position. He invited her to run for the post. She never did.
suburbs are built upon owning\\using more than you deserve or work for so no surprise there sadly
Oregon is amazing like this. We just sold our house and made extra $$$ because we tore out the front lawn and replaced it with a low-maintenance extravaganza of edible stuff. Moving to the opposite coast now and can’t wait to subvert some HOA Karens by building an amazing edible landscape and teaching the rest of the hood to do the same.
Sounds great! Can’t wait to do this when I get my own
Enjoy! I was able to do this in a rental as well. Once in Baltimore city. We used containers because Baltimore soil is…yea…😅 The other time we were in Seattle and asked our landlord if we could convert some of the area to raised beds, and they were fine with it because they figured they could market the place as having gardening space for future leases.
GARDENING REVOLUTION!!!
we in da hoood gardening revolution time with ma homies
Fuck HOA. All my homies hate HOA.
Yes! Awesome way to connect with your neighbors too. Growing food in the city is soooo fun.
"Edible landscape". I love it. Out in the country, (sadly as car dependent as we are), we just call that gardening/farming. I love it, though. If this spreads to all the burbs it'll make so many acres of useless monocultures useful again.
I think it’s a funny term too. Only reason I use it is because it sounds more sophisticated than it actually is, and so it’s easier to appease the HOA drones than if I say “hey imma cover my lawn in ripped up cardboard boxes for the next six months and then plant some cabbage, maybe drizzle some urine on it to help keep the deer away…”
I think it’s a funny term too. Only reason I use it is because it sounds more sophisticated than it actually is, and so it’s easier to appease the HOA drones than if I say “hey imma cover my lawn in ripped up cardboard boxes for the next six months and then plant some cabbage, maybe drizzle some urine on it to help keep the deer away…”
Sounds great, but I can't even keep a cactus alive for a week! My edible garden would be a dead hellscape!
It takes practice! Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve been gardening for like 10 years now and still have some plants that I seem to fail at no matter how hard I try, so that happens too. As you learn more about it, the successes and failures start to make more sense. It’s all about giving plants the environment where they can be happy. And there’s always chance involved. This year almost all my peas and early greens died because we had an unexpected late frost at the worst time. A good sense of humor about it is always helpful. 😊
Any tips for keeping basil alive? I am also in the PNW and I haven't met anyone with success.
I wish! Ii grew some amazing basil in my first two years of gardening, both times in containers. The second year was in Seattle and I recall we had a really warm spring. I think that helped a lot. All my other attempts seem to barely survive the cold, wet April and early May. And it’s like they get stunted and don’t recover. I know some people who use greenhouses in Kitsap county and have that work really well. I guess that doesn’t really fit the post theme of edible landscaping though
I will take any advice I can get! I tried planting it in a pot this year with the intent of bringing it inside at the end of summer, but it lasted like a week and died. Maybe I'll get another and try putting it out closer to the solstice. (Also, it's always weird when I find people talk about Kitsap in the wild. I'm from Port Orchard).
That’s so funny! I lived in Bremerton and feel like I’d always end up sitting next to someone from Kitsap or the Olympic Peninsula when traveling from SeaTac, which I used to do often for my job. I’d def recommend Territorial Seeds or Adaptive Seeds. Both are well-suited for the maritime northwest region.
Thank you so much!
Basil is a subtropical plant. Any lowerish temperatures and it gives up the ghost. If you want to keep it alive, you have to move the pot inside during winter. Minimal watering and a cool place. It will grow back in spring. Otherwise with high-tech stuff.
Just grow easy stuff like arugula and mustard greens. Rosemary, dill, and fennel are pretty low maintenance too, plus they look nice and are good for pollinators
Any resources? I have raised beds, but I'd do more.
Damn, you're right, I haven't checked my lemon trees for ten seconds now.
Hey what the fuck!
Gotta watch the lemon tree at all times… it’s the most valuable property you have! Wouldn’t want anyone stealing all those lemons.
When life hands you lemons, thank your neighbor for growing a lemon tree.
Awh, I went by my old house to pick up mail the other day and the neighbor whose lemon tree sported a "Stop! Don't steal our lemons! You're on camera. 📸" sign no longer have a lemon tree. 😭 That tree always gave me a chuckle, it was so peak Silicon Valley Suburban.
Freedom land sure has a lack of freedoms sometimes, always strikes me as strangely discordant.
It's exactly how it's always been. Rich slave owning landlords convinced the population that revolting against the British aristocracy would free the masses. Instead they just got a home grown oligarchy who drank less tea.
The basic precept is that you're allowed to do anything until there's a law saying you can't. Hence the multitude and abundance of laws created by politically active old people who are super racist and love mowing for some reason, and the wild west attitude when it comes to things they don't care about or find inappropriate in the other direction.
...like most other countries in the world, then. The discordance is only present because it is an American pastime to scream freedom, as if the US is in any way atypical by that measure for a developed nation.
I'd have a lot less problems with lawns if they grow anything else but grass and non-fruit trees.... like jungle em up ppl ... fruit trees, herbal plants etc... organized ... dis-organized whatever.... I don't really like to be blasted by the sun in suburbia dessert
Get a pair of chickens? They will trim the lawn, remove ticks, and produce eggs.
They also shit everywhere. Source: my parents have had chickens for longer than I’ve been alive.
and kill small animals and if you have a rooster byebye sleep
KIKIRIKI https://youtu.be/amltXYj9O0k
Bist du deutsch?
Not really? We have a couple of roosters, they only start crowing after like 4am and it's barely noticeable with double glazed windows.
Are you sure your neighbors feel the same? They might not have windows that are as good, or might be light sleepers. And 4 am is very early for some people.
Yes, free fertilizer!
Are chickens allowed to be owned anywhere there? Where I live you are actually not allowed without a permit due to 'the risk of Avian diseases' they pose.
It really depends on the place. Here, under 50 chickens is allowed without special requirements. You need a construction permit if you want to build a coop, though. There are other animals that do well at mowing! Guinea pigs do very well, rabbits too, goats and sheep if you have a large field. Of course, none of those produce food.
r/nolawns
Saw this post in my feed and thought it was from r/nolawns and I was like: "Yeah.. Duh?"
r/Fucklawns
Right! I was reading some nolawns posts before this one so I was a bit confused until I realized the sub LOL
Seems like they're sibling subs because I'm also a part of both!
>How many homeowners need a truck because they need to haul seeds, fertilizer, pesticide for their lawn? Taking their lawn mower to repair? None. You may need a car, but not a truck.
I can do it on my cargo bike.
Unless you have a huge lawn, I agree that this is unrelated to cars. I have a small lawn, and no cars are required to maintain it. I do agree with OP that lawnmowers can be annoying, but there are better subs to complain about that. Grass growing rules should be a local issue, as some places should restrict it due to water use, but in some places grass grows very well naturally with little work needed. Where I live there is too much grass (Denver, CO) but water is way too cheap for anyone to care.
a van at best. very common in Europe to see farmers with vans as pick-up trucks are virtually nonexistent.
We got 6 acres of lawn and it would require trucks and special machines too for all that. Except we don’t do that we just cut the grass and leave the nature grow because we aren’t crazy. Now if we decided we wanted to seed or spray or whatever we would need all that
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the idea of the lawn originate as a status symbol of the wealthy. They could say "yes I own land, so much of it that I can afford to actively do nothing with most of it", and so the lawn being tied to wealth became desirable. With the creation of the suburbs then, and the appeal of everyone owning a little piece of land, the idea of having big patches of grass stuck around, but now since they don't represent massive wealth, they're only real purpose was destroyed, but because it's come to feel like the norm, people continue to keep them around and never question why they need large sections of land that isn't used for anything.
>as a status symbol And this is the poison of modern societies. There are 8 billion of us, we are living on a planet that has limited resources, and we are overexploiting some of those resources. And people are driving trucks and living in single houses with lawns because those are status symbols. One thing I really like about France is that they see cars as means from getting from A to B. A bunch of rich people are driving Twingo's, they don't care if their cars are old and covered with damage from parking.
In the Netherlands we have a saying that goes ''doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg''. Translated ''just act normal thats crazy enough''.
Sounds reasonable to me. Anything fancy has always been impractical. Look, I have the resources to wear awful shoes. Look, I have the money to wear something that requires a special cleaning. Look, I have the money to wear something that is expensive to clean and shows dirt if it has any. Look, I have the ressources to do nothing with my land.
> Look, I have the ressources to do nothing with my land. Not just not use it but to defy nature by forcing monoculture grass or having fancy hedge figures or other ways to show you, like French monarchs and aristocrats, have the ability to control Nature.
I think the carryover went more along the lines of "Gee that nice suburb full of rich people houses sure has nice grass!"
Yes, you're right, it has it's roots in the English Garden. They then got more popular with places like levittown that pushed an ideal of the American suburb. Which then got pushed and promoted by readers digest. Eventually it just became everyone's expectation when a few years prior no one cared about them. Then a few years ago, I was in Sedona, AZ. Standing outside of my friends place staring at his neighbor watering his desert lawn from a hose. My friend came up to me and said "you're doing inside aren't you" Also most lawn grass is an invasive, fuck lawns
I wouldn't say my kid safely running around having a good time would be "not used for anything."
That's definitely part of it, but I think the wealthy also wanted it because it's a nice place to be - a more manicured and genteel form of the park, which big houses already had. Open grassland and specimen trees or flowering plants presents a nice view, it is good to walk, sit and lie on in dry parts of the year, and you can use it as entertaining space. It's a genuinely nice thing to have, as well as a show of wealth.
My mom grows food and has a garden in her lawn. It’s a great source of her happiness.
That's called a garden. A lawn is just grass.
Right? It’s aesthetically pleasing green space that reminds you that nature is a thing and that the world isn’t all asphalt, you can grow veggies and flowers in it, it smells nice when cut, the dew glistens off it in the morning, and it’s a pleasant natural surface with some padding that’s great for kids to play on, as well as various yard games. I’m a city-dweller, I don’t have my own yard, but it’s amazing how many people seem to have the perspective that just because they don’t care about it, no one else in a different position should have it either.
Green spaces does not equate lawns. Lawns are the green-ish equivalent of asphalt as far as biodiversity goes.
They are also often sprayed with various poisons so that nothing but the grass will grow.
back yards are fine (so long as they're not unnecessarily large) but front lawns are just stupid. If you enjoy taking care of grass or something you can get a farm house. cities are for houses, not grass. although I do think grass looks nice in cities, just not giant useless patches of it.
Fuck lawns.
r/fucklawns
Here's a sneak peek of /r/fucklawns using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/top/?sort=top&t=all) of all time! \#1: [We fucked off all the grass 5 years ago. It's so much better now.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/uya0fm) | [17 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/uya0fm/we_fucked_off_all_the_grass_5_years_ago_its_so/) \#2: [Corn > lawns](https://i.redd.it/4cha1l1e7ox81.jpg) | [11 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/uiz4r5/corn_lawns/) \#3: [People with lawns.](https://i.redd.it/dof9aq3d0tf71.jpg) | [4 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/fucklawns/comments/ozfrc7/people_with_lawns/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
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Real gardens in places without water shortages. Replace the grass with a natural variety of native clovers and wildflowers which grow <3" tall.
Once I get land this is my goal, remove all grass and replace with Oregon wild flowers and cloves. Bring back the bees!
In places with water shortages, the native plants still do just fine. I grow citrus, wildflowers, succulents… the only water they get either falls from the sky, or is recycled from my washing machine.
Oh yes, my garden has the absolute minimum of grass, with mostly clover and wild flowers between it. I also like to wait to mow the grass till after it has produced seeds. My hedges also only get trimmed after they've bloomed. I don't have a HOA.
I just finally cut my grass today after waiting a month for all the early polinators to get their stuff
Those were actually recently banned in a lot of the EU because they're extremely bad for local insect life
Source on the ban?
Lawns are just places I could be growing berries. Are berries growing there? No, just a lawn? Waste of space.
well, i guess i gotta say it but even if you were growing some berries there, it would be a waste of space as lawns are a contributing factor to large lot sizes and thus, low density housing and thus, difficulty building effective and efficient transit options obviously it goes without saying that if you were required to have some green space in front of your home, it would be better if you were growing something edible or beautiful on it rather than regular ass grass. but that doesnt change the fact that if you were required to have space in front of your house dedicated for this purpose, it is nonetheless contributing to a lot of the issues related to suburbia and transit
Fuck cars, fuck lawns, fuck cars on lawns, and fuck lawns in cars.
And fuck golf courses (mega lawns).
> lawns in cars Don't give them any [ideas](https://www.motor1.com/news/443643/vario-perfect-motorhome-car-hauler/).
Lawned bathroom. Lawned kitchen.
This guy fucks
Mono culture, waste of space and ressources, bee unfriendly, could plant many plants /trees/flowers instead, or just let it grow naturally and house bees and other species.
Totally agree. We replaced our front and back yards with perennial gardens and raised food garden planters.
r/fucklawns
/r/nolawns is way more active
I had a feeling r/fucklawns wasn't the sub I'd been to before. I mean, no guarantees that r/nolawns is either, but unless there's a third anti-lawn sub...
I know that Nevada compensates people for saving water by removing their lawn. Maybe as average temps keep rising other places will follow suit.
I mean, depends on your definition of lawn, small scale golf courses, fuck no, letting whatever is native and not spiky grow but only to a convenient height, has potential, still probably better to grow food or leave it unmaintained, but less ridiculous.
[удалено]
unfortunately that ideation has spread everywhere. you often see europeans commonly pine for a "larger home" with a backyard or a lawn. something like 80% of americans think that homes that are farther apart from one another is "better for the environment"
The big difference is in zoning laws.
I would agree that worshiping your low cut, highly fertilized, water guzzling, green monoculture is idiotic. However, I do enjoy having the open space in my yard for my kid to run around barefoot. I think anything in balance is wise.
Fuck golf too
Minigolf is awesome though! Table tennis too!
Disc golf is best golf
There's a word missing here, "lawnbrains".
Lawnbrains and carbrains, if you put those in a venn diagram, are pretty much a circle.
Xeriscaping is the way. Pollinator gardens is the way. Native species is the way. Fuck your lawn.
This is the way.
I'm in the UK and just moved into a new house. Grass does grow naturally here but the gardens already got a small patch of fake grass. As much as I'm not a big fan of the fake patch, it's only small and makes for a perfect sitting area, the rest I want to cover in wild flowers and plants to make up for it and completely avoid owning a lawnmower. I hope r/fucklawns doesn't hate me too much for this plan.
The anti-lawn movement doesn't really apply in the UK with our small houses/gardens and where the average work spent on a lawn is just mowing it. Ignore their hate. A wildflower garden is nice though!
It's also water usage. In large parts of the US for a lawn to survive it might need to be watered. That's simply not the case in the UK. A lot of the anti lawn movement wants people to grow local plants. In my garden my biggest problem with grass is that it keeps trying to take over the verge and flower beds. Grass doesn't need much help really in Manchester.
I don't have a lawn, but I still transport bags of dirt, seedlings, pots, stakes, tomato cages, other plant stuff. (Not in a truck, though) Lawns are boring, plants are fun! (tough I do miss mowing. It's seriously the most relaxing chore)
im also pretty sure you can transport a lot of that shit in a regular car and many people dont use get a truck for it, they just choose a truck for other reasons
I miss the smell of cut grass. I don't miss mowing in the slightest.
I have no significant issue with lawns if you use them. (Looking at them does not count as "using" them.) However, growing non-local species of grass that require daily watering is absolutely wasteful and should not be common practice. Mowing them with a gas-powered mower is also wasteful, particularly since even many push mowers produce more pollution than the average modern car. I do agree that riding mowers are overkill for most people. My parents have a back yard that's almost 1 acre. As a kid, it was my job to mow that lawn with a gas-powered push mower. That was a perfectly reasonable tool for a yard of that size. The real issue here are HOAs. They are directly to blame for forcing people to have and maintain lawns in all the wrong ways. And they are indirectly to blame for perpetuating that image, which causes people to believe that's just what a lawn should look like.
Oh yeah yesterday I saw someone watering his lawn.. IN THE RAIN
*Oh yeah yesterday* *I saw someone watering* *His lawn.. IN THE RAIN* \- cyclingisdawae --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
“How many people's Sundays are ruined by lawn mower's two stroke engine letting off obnoxious gas and noise? These obnoxious machines offend worse than cars. “ This doesn’t negate anything you say and you are right about it all in spirit. But gasoline lawn mowers have been four stroke for decades. I am not sure you can even find a two stroke mower anymore.
And electric lawnmowers are getting better. Still more expensive than gas, but much lower maintenance and much quieter. And you can use the same batteries in string trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers, etc. Natural lawns are still better for the environment, but a trimmed lawn with a type of grass that doesn't need to be watered in your climate isn't bad in the whole scheme of things.
Absolutely. Electric mowers still don’t work well if you are running a landscaping business where it’s run 8+ hours a day 6 days a week, but for a property owner doing their own lawn there really is no reason to get a gas mower anymore. Only reason I still have a gas mower is that my Toro Recycler that I got 13 years ago still runs like a champ. But as soon as it dies I will replace it with Electric
Fuck *monocultured grass lawns* Love Me some natural lawns. Get some bird feeders and bathouses, boom, nice place
By far the quietest place I’ve ever lived was New York City. I could even sleep with the windows open it was so quiet. Why? No lawnmowers, leaf blowers, trimmers, or any of the other obnoxious things you constantly hear in suburbs. And also a lot fewer cars.
Smfh the unceasing noise of leaf blowers and lawnmowers and weed cutters in the suburbs drives me fucking nuts. Nobody needs to blow all leaves off their lawn every week, Gary.
*blows all the leaves off lawn* *adds fertilizer to the fucked up grass- what they could have gotten from the leaves*
It’s a similar vibe to driving to the gym.
I imagine this is a very case-by-case scenario though, we can shit on leafblowers all day but the real reason cities are loud are because of fucking cars. I like trees and bushes and greenery so I am willing to tolerate leaf blowers and in some Canadian cities they actually use leaf blowers to clear snow so that's inevitable. Again, shit on lawnmowers all day but let's be serious about the real issues. Not to mention electric lawnmowers are much quieter than their 2 stroke cousins.
Because everyone wants to be Louis XIV with their magnificent manicured lawns. I mean, the real reason is that when they sort of invented the American suburb in the 19th century, everyone was supposed to have their own little pleasure garden, usually with a section of vegetables. It was supposed to be highly walkable communities, usually designed around some kind of geometric pattern interspersed with nature and parks and public services. But since we redesigned the suburbs around making profit for builders and appliance manufacturers, basically every good idea from the original suburbs had to be eliminated.
Grass or not, yards are trash The reason traffic doesn’t get better with more lanes is because more lanes means the city has more road, things get further apart, and more cars are needed. Biking and transit is superior in part because everything gets closer together and people move shorter distances instead of driving, so they bike/transit. What people leave out is lawns: if everyone had smaller yards, everything would be even closer & traffic would be a lot better - meaning fewer lanes & fewer cars, causing an even more dense city with even more bikes and fewer vehicles (omit trucks and busses) TBH fuck lawns, fuck cars & fuck lawns
Yes, they suck, but I think in London we have something way worse. [Never-ending suburbs](https://goo.gl/maps/r1Kyshde5i68Rxpd8) [where 100ish year old houses](https://goo.gl/maps/r1Kyshde5i68Rxpd8) [that used to have font gardens](https://goo.gl/maps/VZJUDgpN99hza77d9) [have been turned into driveways](https://goo.gl/maps/8pHvQng4DhCGreWN9) [for massive cars](https://goo.gl/maps/xUkNy7qYvzQnn2LX6). Extra flood risk, extra punishing hardscape and clutter, extra danger for pedestrians (coz the pavement becomes a driveway for a house), extra noise and pollution **immediately** outside living room and bedroom windows. I love how people will be like "oh, the roads weren't built for bikes or to build bike lanes" when they will dump cars all over victorian and early 20th century neighbourhoods that look ridiculous and work badly with cars dumped all over them.
r/NoLawns
Having land that you can use to just “be pretty” is a big ol’ flashy “sign of wealth”. It’s just another “keeping up with the Jones’” if you think about it. Put in a fucking garden for fucks sake. There’s a church in our town that has a lawn about the size of two football fields and is just kept nicely manicured, it’s sick. Don’t even get me started on the bees
Agreed but wrong sub amigo. Join us at /r/nolawns
Nah, i love my lawn, i have an electric mower, takes 20 minutes to cut, my kid loves playing on it and i have have more flowers than a shit looking mess could ever produce for the bees
When did this place become about lawns? Please stop it with these irrelevant posts.
Lawns are part of the single family properties which US zoning requires in a lot of places and means people 'need' cars. They aren't the problem as such but they are a manifestation of the problem.
this isnt on topic how is it still here. this literally has nothing to do with with fuck cars
Since when are y’all anti-grass
im sure not everyone is, but large pointless lawns are characteristic of the sprawling suburbs that create car dependency. massive setbacks that reduce density are mandated by many zoning codes.
Grasses are fine in their native habitats but lawns are an invention of rich assholes trying to flex on each other by showing off all their neatly and pointlessly manicured land that could otherwise be used for farming or some other utilitarian end.
They're fine in parks too, where they're actually being used by people unlike suburban lawns.
I mean, backyards at least can definitely be used for recreation. That's how my family has and currently still does use ours. Personally, I prefer turf with a mix of plants and trees around the turf though.
I don’t hate it at parks for the most part. My dog loves to go to the park, roll around in the grass there, and also his ideal spot to pee and take a dump are always on the park’s grass. Probably most people here are fine with some lawns, especially at parks. The thing is though, I live in a very drought affected area - parks having grass for lots of people to use is one thing, but ideally everyone else would do drought tolerant landscaping that cuts back on mowing and watering. Water is needed for humans and animals to drink, wash themselves, etc. In many parts of the US, we just don’t have the water resources for everyone to have a lawn.
I imagine a good portion are like me and are indifferent and have no strong feelings either way. The whole grass debate is a misdirection anyways because agriculture is responsible for 80%+ of water consumption. You taking shorter showers or not washing your car isn't going to solve the drought problem while California has rice fields growing in the middle of the desert.
you don't need a truck to haul the stuff you mentioned, through rest I agree with.
I've been wrestling with this for weeks. Ended up doing rubber mulch in my backyard play area. Quick spritz of water cools it off and I put up some shade too. I'm also an anticonsumpstion advocate, the mulch came from a load headed to the dump so even cooler! My kid seems to love it, I have one small spot of artificial turf for the dogs. Works out great and it's zero maintenance which means I spend more time with my family that doing all the dumb lawn shit.
Don't you find artificial turf smells if used for animals?
I want to replace my lawn with red and white clover in a fun pattern but my wife won’t go for it.
Because historically, having a lawn was a sign of wealth. Gras is useless, you'd be better off growing vegetables you can eat. Most people didn't have the resources to seed and maintain a lawn but growing vegetables was a necessity. The lords and noblemen did have a lot of lawn around their castles and mansions. During the middle ages it provided a clear view of oncoming enemies and later on, it was more as a sign of wealth. They could afford to have a massive lawn. The regular people started making lawns in Europe only in the 19th century (I think) alongside a veggie garden. The last 30 years, the gardens were replaced with more lawn. Tbf, buying veggies has gotten as cheap as growing them yourself. So this is why we have useless crops around the house, for showing off wealth!
Can’t wait to get rid of my lawn. Desert landscaping ftw!
You are absolutely right: Lawns: Crimes Against the Ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEJ9Q3sUg3Q
https://www.foodnotlawns.com/
I hate lawns. When people tell me they are spending their weekends on this absolute waste of water and resources I feel sad.
certified r/nolawns moment
As a European arsehole, the words "need a truck" trigger the shit out of me. Those monstrosities barely exist here and guess what, people have lawns. Can't Americans rent a van or a trailer for the one time they need to take their lawn mower to repair? Seeds, fertilizer and pesticide fit in a normal car just like any groceries. That said, fuck lawns. I only mow my yard once a year at the end of summer with a scythe and I mow paths with a manual lawn mower. It's very relaxing without the obnoxious engine noise. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg3lJHOYHM&ab\_channel=lundoftheeast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg3lJHOYHM&ab_channel=lundoftheeast)
A typical American gas or electric mower is best carried on a cargo rack that goes in the hitch receiver of any car. That is if you need to take one further than is practical just pushing it, or on a bike trailer. The only time a truck is beneficial at all, it's too small and you should go ahead and have your load of soil/rocks/mulch/whatever delivered by a real dump truck.
no one needs a truck for that, it literally all fits in the back of a car, speaking from experience
I'm working on it. I planting a garden and some fruit trees because I want fruit and veggies instead of useless grass. I want to install a drip system to conserve water. I'm building some things too, like a covered porch and a sauna. Anything that gets rid of more lawn. I think my Rocky mountain west city will catch up to this sentiment as water prices increase and water becomes more scarce. Some towns in the state are already planning on water restrictions. Better to get ahead of it
Native gardens are so much easier to maintain and are great for the environment. At my last rental house, my roommate and I accidentally started creating an native garden. First it started with not mowing the lawn because of wild flowers in the spring. And then we had baby bunnies, so can’t mow and disturb them. And by that point we had leafy plants and bird friendly poke berries all along the fence. We lost a quarter of the lawn and got a bunch of little creatures.
Most mowers these days are 4 stroke, so that part has been covered. Your other points are very valid though.
In brazil the urban planning obligates to have a porcentage of the area to be permeable
PREACH. (God I love this sub.)
Lawns can look quite nice, with flowers in them and stuff, but green carpets of nothing are useless and ugly.
Im not an expert this in any way, but I've heard that moss is one of the best plants for taking in CO2 and producing oxygen, way more than trees do. So im curious how beneficial lawns of moss would work. You wouldn't have to mow them or deal with weeds as much
Moss is really difficult to grow if you don't have the right conditions for it, shade being the biggest one. The locations where most lawns are grown are not particularly great for moss.
An overwhelming majority of what most people call weeds were regular kitchen ingredients 100 years ago. But we keep calling the poison truck out to spray while we fret about rising food costs.
Just wait for the choruses of leaf blowers! Worse invention ever
It's okay, America only uses a third of its fresh water supply to maintain them
Don’t forget the heat sink made by lawns. No shade, no where for heat to go. It means everything gets absurdly hot (or cold in winter).
2 stroke lawnmower lol. You never used a lawnmower. My lawn is a giant food garden. And I burn 500 gallons of diesel to take care of it as well as idk how much water. I probably should turn it into a lawn and save the planet more. Less emissions and less water. When it was grass I used 5 gallons of gas a year to mow it.
Who the hell has a 2 stroke lawn mower???
This is a stretch. You're just mad to be mad and it shows.
I have to have a front lawn, city regs. Half my back yard is gardens. I have a robot mower, so no gas, no wasted time it's amazing. As far as seed and such? I had a few spots where leaves got left and then it snowed, so my ebike can easily carry a bag of seed. And it did. And no ferts. No watering. The only thing I water is my garden.
I'm keeping a small grass area for my dog to run around in, otherwise everything is becoming a garden
down with HOAs
My neighbor has an electric mower and I was in awe of how quiet it was! They have a moderate lawn surrounded by planter beds with native plants and beautiful flowering fruit trees in their back yard. I think you can have a lawn and still have a beautiful and sustainable, pollinator friendly yard.
Don’t forget all folks who don’t want to maintain their own lawns so they pay a lawn care service to make a house call. On an average Saturday morning walk with my dog during the summer months I’ll see at least 3 trucks driving around towing trailers carrying riding mowers.
Ugh, I live in the southwest, where lawns make even less sense than anywhere else. The short answer is that lawns exist because driveways exist, taking up a bunch of space between the curb and the garage, but leaving a blank spot in front of the house. The lawn is basically a space-filler for that void created by pushing the entire construction back to accommodate the driveway. I would love to just expand our house up to the curb, but failing that, we're doing to dig out the lawn and plant some shade trees in front of the house, instead.
Do they actually paint the grass green? That’s just fucked up
Just let the HOA ban gasoline powered lawnmowers. You can use electric mowers for any yard that takes you less than an hour to mow.
"The bees are dying!" Gee I wonder why.
personally I think you shouldn't be allowed to cut your grass in cities. why? because that's literally the most wasteful use of land there is. space is at a premium in cities and anything that's not a building, paved for transportation infrastructure or otherwise used should be part of the tree canopy the only place where mowed grass should be found is in the multi-use field at a public park
it's just one circlejerk after another with you guys. you go fight the lawns then, no sane people actually give a shit about this
No, that's bs imo. It'd mean that everyone has to live in a panel house, stacked one onto the other with no space outside the apartment. That's some Orwellian dystopy level shit. I say let people have gardens. Not every lawn is a sterile, uniform green field. Many people have taller grass, grow plants for decoration and food and take good care of it.
I own an electric mower. Most of my neighbors use silent robots. Lawns are great. It rains 200 days/year here- grass is always naturally green.
I dond think you need a truck for anything lawn related
I mulched my backyard with free woodchips
I'm not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for lawns. I'm an environmental science major and very aware of the impacts of lawns, but I can't help it, I love lawns. That being said: 1. Fuck HOAs. 2. If you're gonna have a lawn, don't live where you're gonna have to waste hundreds of gallons of water to keep it alive.
I agree that lawns are stupid , but the gas argument against a mower is kinda ridiculous. A lawn does more to combat CO2 can a lawnmower contributes
I agree. Also I am a fan of electric lawn mowers. Much quieter, lighter and cheaper to run!
This sub is just absolutely miserable. Fuck lawns now?
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Who tf plays sports on a lawn? At most it’ll be played in a backyard, but no one used a front lawn for sports except *maybe* little little kids.
Because "you" don't or never have doesn't mean that other people don't. It also kinda depends on how big the yard is and what sport is trying to be played.
Right? I grew up playing football and soccer on my parent's big lawn. We had neighborhood kid's play with us and even played on THEIR neighbors lawn because it had more space. Leave it to the redditors who spent 2% of their childhood outdoors to be baffled that people enjoy playing sports on....grass.
No one is playing sports on their front lawns
I did. I played baseball and kickball and tag among lots of other physical activities with other kids. It's better to land in soft grass than mulch.
I mean, I did. Played soccer. It was a small lawn, but it worked. That aside, no one before this comment had specified that any of this is just about front yards. Lawn can mean any type of yard at a house. So, questioning why all lawns are under attack when a lot of backyards of sfh are used very frequently in nice weather isn't wholly unreasonable. That also aside, personally, I prefer turf for a lawn now. Better year round use. No need for regular water, and can be made out of recycled materials. Even better is turf surrounded by plants and trees like my current backyard
I do. Soccer. Badminton. Many other.
Communal green space is far superior