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!