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"After the neighbors replaced the nearby woods with an oversized house and lawn" The lawn is the least of the problems cited here. And its quite geographicall
by benj111 8y ago
"After the neighbors replaced the nearby woods with an oversized house and lawn"
The lawn is the least of the problems cited here.
And its quite geographically specific. If you get heavy rain, you want grass to absorb run off. Because lawns aren't going to be replaced by trees and natural wilderness. They'll be replaced by paving.
- eesmith 8y agoI felt it was pretty clear that while details (like the one about the neighbors) were geographically specific, the point wasn't to get rid of all grass. The term "lawn" in this essay is a short-hand for "turf grass lawn". For example, the starting suggestion was "Getting rid of turf grass and replacing it with native grasses, prairie, or whatever natural ground cover happens to be inherent to the place you live and that doesn’t require fertilization, pesticide use, or mowing". If you need grass to absorb run off, then go ahead and use grass which has evolved in and for that local climate. I felt like the author should have pointed out some of the politics involved, like city or neighborhood rules which place limits on the height of the grass. One of the houses near me when I lived in Illinois used prairie grasses. I loved it. But the grasses were a lot higher than the turf grass of the neighbors, which upsets people who 1) value the turf grass lawn look and 2) believe, perhaps correctly, that their house value depends on having neighbors who agree with 1).