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My wife and I leave large portions of our lawn untended. We seed ours with flowering native plants and herbs. We had fireflies and butterflies and bees galore t

My wife and I leave large portions of our lawn untended. We seed ours with flowering native plants and herbs. We had fireflies and butterflies and bees galore this year— noticeably more than any of our neighbors. It’s not much, but it’s something.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
phs318u 8y ago
Same. We have what in some parts of the world would be called a "country garden". A mix of flowering natives and imports. We have bugs (especially bees) galore. Have now taken to leaving out suitable fruit scraps in the garden and water as well, and have been attracting small and large (raven) birds too.
njarboe 8y ago
After the three year California drought and not watering the lawn much during it, I just let the grass and wild flowers grow up without mowing the last few years. Lots of different kind of plants, many bees, etc. Pretty cool, although some people comment on how we have let the yard go. I wish I could do a controlled burn at the start of the rainy season. On the other hand, I recently learned what a carpenter bee is and what they can do to exposed wood structures. This year was the first time I had them boring into the wooden eves of our house. I have mixed feelings when I see them now.
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  What exactly do you mean by controlled burn? If it is what I think it is, you will kill many insects that call that lawn their home. Not really good for anything (plus the risk of burning down the neighborhood)
  - njarboe 8y ago
    Of course burning my front lawn would never be allowed and I understand the reasons for that but ever since humans arrived (15,000 years or so ago) California grasslands would burn quite often. The "native" ecosystem was adapted to it and I think it would be fun to see what a few years of buring would do to the biological diversity of my little bit of grassland.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - Baeocystin 8y ago
      California has been burning for far longer than people have been here. Human presence did, of course, alter things, but natural ignitions due to lightning strikes shaped the ecology for millennia before we showed up. https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/Resources/Conservation/FireForestEcology/FireScienceResearch/FireHistory/FireHistory-Stephens07.pdf https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/Resources/Conservation/Fi...
      - njarboe 8y ago
        This looks like an interesting paper. I'll read in over in detail, but from the abstract this paper is discussing the suppression of fire after Euro-American settlement in the 1800's. Fires caused by Native Americans is discussed as the cause, along with lightning, and I don't think lightning is a big factor in (Northern) California wildfires. While lighting is a major cause of fire throughout the Rocky Mountains, they are less of a factor in California, especially along the coast and central valley. I have lived in Oakland for over two decades and the number of thunderstorms I've seen/heard here is less than a half-dozen. We don't get the same kind of bad lightning storms that occur in the Rockies where the monsoons bring up thunderstorms from the south during otherwise dry summers. Maybe in the San Bernardino mountains near LA get a few of these summer lightening storms. It would be interesting to read about pre-human fire occurrence rates in the grasslands of California but, as this study states, preserved evidence of grass fires more than 15,000 years ago are rare.
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
This is what needs to happen a lot more - just let nature do its thing. I'm seeing too much cultivation on the one hand - maximize yield and convenience for farmers, and of course mass deforestation - but on the other, overcompensation or wild ideas to overcompensate - from planting forests (which is fine as long as they're left alone for the hundred years afterwards) to wild ideas of covering glaciers and the north pole in reflecting plastics, or what China's doing, creating artificial rain at a huge scale. Intervention just doesn't work; just leave your land barren and unattended, that'll give the best results. Maybe not the most desireable for you personally but that's just not important.
- randcraw 8y ago
  Is there a price for ignoring change? Yes there is. For example, when you lose honeybees, you lose everything they pollenate... apples, cranberries, melons, broccoli, blueberries, cherries, almonds, mangos, plums, peaches, strawberries, pears, onions, apricots, kidney beans, lemons, and much more. https://honeylove.org/list-of-food/ https://honeylove.org/list-of-food/ It may seem natural to let nature take its course. But that didn't work too well for the dinosaurs. And since we seem to be the cause for this change, ignoring it is likely to just make it worse, not better.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

phs318u 8y ago

Same. We have what in some parts of the world would be called a "country garden". A mix of flowering natives and imports. We have bugs (especially bees) galore. Have now taken to leaving out suitable fruit scraps in the garden and water as well, and have been attracting small and large (raven) birds too.

njarboe 8y ago

After the three year California drought and not watering the lawn much during it, I just let the grass and wild flowers grow up without mowing the last few years. Lots of different kind of plants, many bees, etc. Pretty cool, although some people comment on how we have let the yard go. I wish I could do a controlled burn at the start of the rainy season. On the other hand, I recently learned what a carpenter bee is and what they can do to exposed wood structures. This year was the first time I had them boring into the wooden eves of our house. I have mixed feelings when I see them now.

saiya-jin 8y ago
What exactly do you mean by controlled burn? If it is what I think it is, you will kill many insects that call that lawn their home. Not really good for anything (plus the risk of burning down the neighborhood)
- njarboe 8y ago
  Of course burning my front lawn would never be allowed and I understand the reasons for that but ever since humans arrived (15,000 years or so ago) California grasslands would burn quite often. The "native" ecosystem was adapted to it and I think it would be fun to see what a few years of buring would do to the biological diversity of my little bit of grassland.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - Baeocystin 8y ago
    California has been burning for far longer than people have been here. Human presence did, of course, alter things, but natural ignitions due to lightning strikes shaped the ecology for millennia before we showed up. https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/Resources/Conservation/FireForestEcology/FireScienceResearch/FireHistory/FireHistory-Stephens07.pdf https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/Resources/Conservation/Fi...
    - njarboe 8y ago
      This looks like an interesting paper. I'll read in over in detail, but from the abstract this paper is discussing the suppression of fire after Euro-American settlement in the 1800's. Fires caused by Native Americans is discussed as the cause, along with lightning, and I don't think lightning is a big factor in (Northern) California wildfires. While lighting is a major cause of fire throughout the Rocky Mountains, they are less of a factor in California, especially along the coast and central valley. I have lived in Oakland for over two decades and the number of thunderstorms I've seen/heard here is less than a half-dozen. We don't get the same kind of bad lightning storms that occur in the Rockies where the monsoons bring up thunderstorms from the south during otherwise dry summers. Maybe in the San Bernardino mountains near LA get a few of these summer lightening storms. It would be interesting to read about pre-human fire occurrence rates in the grasslands of California but, as this study states, preserved evidence of grass fires more than 15,000 years ago are rare.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

This is what needs to happen a lot more - just let nature do its thing. I'm seeing too much cultivation on the one hand - maximize yield and convenience for farmers, and of course mass deforestation - but on the other, overcompensation or wild ideas to overcompensate - from planting forests (which is fine as long as they're left alone for the hundred years afterwards) to wild ideas of covering glaciers and the north pole in reflecting plastics, or what China's doing, creating artificial rain at a huge scale. Intervention just doesn't work; just leave your land barren and unattended, that'll give the best results. Maybe not the most desireable for you personally but that's just not important.

randcraw 8y ago
Is there a price for ignoring change? Yes there is. For example, when you lose honeybees, you lose everything they pollenate... apples, cranberries, melons, broccoli, blueberries, cherries, almonds, mangos, plums, peaches, strawberries, pears, onions, apricots, kidney beans, lemons, and much more. https://honeylove.org/list-of-food/ https://honeylove.org/list-of-food/ It may seem natural to let nature take its course. But that didn't work too well for the dinosaurs. And since we seem to be the cause for this change, ignoring it is likely to just make it worse, not better.