12 ms·

Getting rid of our lawn and growing other stuff has been amazingly fulfilling. I have fresh produce most of the year, I've got honeybees and bumblebees and maso

Getting rid of our lawn and growing other stuff has been amazingly fulfilling. I have fresh produce most of the year, I've got honeybees and bumblebees and mason bees coming around. I have to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. Everything from fruit trees to berries, flowers to vegetables, herbs to herbal teas like chamomile. Strongly recommend looking at what will grow in your area and start replacing your lawn. Chunk out a four by four foot section and grow some sugar peas and tell me it wasn't a thousand times more rewarding than a lawn.

larnmar 7y ago
Since having kids I’ve been realising that a lot of the things in life that other people do, that have never made sense to me, suddenly make a whole lot more sense in the context of kids. With a kid, I’m suddenly super grateful for my little lawn.
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  Huh, interesting. I have a kid and I'm grateful we gave up our lawn. She plants in the spring, harvests, cooks, and preserves with us. She's excited to make pickles, jam, squash, pumpkins, corn, etc from things she's grown and tended to. She even got to pick out some of the flowers and make her own little square. Watching her step out to grab some blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries is one of the best feelings in the world. We read seed catalogs together in the winters and plan what we could grow (Ooh, what if we grew purple cauliflower? Or rhubarb for pie!)
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Where does she play ball games, set up a paddling pool, and wrestle? I'd agree if you have a house big enough to have a playroom, and have open space close by, it's probably easy enough. Our lawn is kinda a tiny, tiny, wildflower meadow, ie it's not cut much. The bees love the Clover.
    - adrianN 7y ago
      When I was young we did those things in public parks. Except for the pool, we went to a public pool instead.
    - krageon 7y ago
      In what decadent universe is a pool expected or even necessary?
      - cowsandmilk 7y ago
        I suggest you google “paddling pool”. They are under $30 and for little kids. Not something decadent...
      - Sean1708 7y ago
        One where everyone has at least a fiver: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestway-BW51009-Ocean-Paddling-Multi-Coloured/dp/B002CIKZ12/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=paddling+pool&qid=1578318674&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestway-BW51009-Ocean-Paddling-Mult...
    - astura 7y ago
      The park? That's where I did those activities as a kid.
    - alistairSH 7y ago
      Paddling pools and wrestling don't take a 1/5 acre lawn (not atypical suburban plot size). In my previous house, the back yard was heavily landscaped/hardscaped - patio, retaining wall, rocks and shrubs on the hill, etc. The front was lawn. Still plenty of room for my son to run around. And if he wanted more space, he went to the park around the corner. There's also a substantial difference between a "natural" lawn, where clover and other plants are allowed vs the stereotypical "perfect" lawn (in the US) with a single grass species (and heavy application of herbicides and fertilizers).
    - Pfhreak 7y ago
      Ball games are at the park. It's a short bike ride or moderate walk away. We have a small gravel area we set up the paddling pool in, and no reason one can't wrestle in between beds (or indoors on the carpet).
  - hinkley 7y ago
    Our youngest lamented the lack of a front lawn to lay on. But I honestly don't believe that between the damp and the dog walkers she would have actually done the activities she had in her head. You have to mow it. You have to mow it every week. You have to mow it every week even if you're tired, or sick, or it's hot, or it's cold, or it's rainy, or your friends are playing a game, or you had a sleepover. No excuses, no exceptions. You can't mow it too early in the morning, or too late in the evening. You can't stop halfway through and do the rest later (back yard/front yard perhaps, but not half of the front yard). The grass does not care what your reasons are. It just cares that you didn't mow it. If you don't, it punishes you. Sometimes the neighbors do, too. In theory they understand this, in practice there are plenty of other activities that result in a litany of renegotiations. Grass. Doesn't. Care.
- philosopher1234 7y ago
  Could you elaborate why that is?
  - EdwardDiego 7y ago
    They can run around on it, play ball games with their mates, you can put down a slip 'n slide in the summer, there's room for a trampoline etc. etc.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Also (I'm guessing) room for barbecue parties and such - generally facilitating socialization with other families with children.
      - Pfhreak 7y ago
        Many of our raised beds have a piece of flat wood on one side that serves as a bench. In the summer we'll host garden parties and people will socialize among the flowers and veggies. The delight people have picking tomatoes, peas, berries, beans, corn, and other things for their meal is real.
    - jiofih 7y ago
      Those are all choices, plus you don’t need to turn the entire backyard into a forest.
    - ginko 7y ago
      I'd guess you could do all of this on a meadow as well.
      - Sean1708 7y ago
        What's the difference between a meadow and a lawn? In relation to the article that is, obviously I could tell the difference between a meadow and a lawn. Edit: To add a bit of context here a lot of people are talking about pesticides and fertilizer and stuff like that but we don't do anything like that, we just mow it when it gets a bit long. Does that mean our lawn is technically a meadow?
- elric 7y ago
  When I was a kid, our (huge) back yard was more orchard than yard. It had at least 30 fruit trees, including cherry, apple, pear, peach and plum. There were hazelnuts, brambles and raspberries. Next to that was a patch of land with all kinds of produce. I loved playing in that yard. It had great places to hide. Ample trees to climb. Wildlife to look for and learn about. A variety of fun tasks to perform, from picking fruit and berries to making jam and juice. When my younger brother turned 10, our parents decided that he had to play football. Almost all of the trees were felled. Everything I loved about that place was destroyed, and replaced by one, big, boring, lifeless lawn. Instead of fun tasks, I was thenceforth assigned the task of mowing the lawn. Which I resented and continue to detest to this day.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    It took me many years to realize that nearly everything in my grandmother's back yard (except the lawn and porch) was food. There were orange trees, a cherry tree, an avocado tree, garlic, and a raspberry bramble. I loved picking raspberries. There was a pomegranate tree in the front. A garden is always going to be better than a lawn. A garden of plants that grow faster than trees may be higher-maintenance, though.
  - biztos 7y ago
    Wow, crazy. I grew up with a modest lawn (with two trees, one smack in the middle of each side of the lawn) and my best friend had a really big yard on a slope with a bunch of apple trees. Playing in his yard was way more fun.
- FooHentai 7y ago
  You made me think back over my childhood which was pretty idyllic in terms of outside time and non-supervision. You know, lawns were simply not a major factor in that, outside of perhaps once-in-a-year water gun fights with some neighbor kids, the wilderness held far more appeal. Back-lot tracks, untilled fields, marginal scrubland running along stream beds. That was where the majority of my 'green time' took place. I do remember a few families around the village that had completely unkept, wilderness yards. They provided far more entertainment than any with manicured lawns.
- floatingatoll 7y ago
  We had a front lawn, a back lawn, and a dog. The back lawn may as well have been a concrete slab for playing purposes due to the statistical likelihood of dog. The front lawn was exposed to all the neighbors and thus similarly unusable for a social anxiety kid. Would have given up that lawn in a heartbeat for wilderness, which I spent years hiking and exploring.
vanderZwan 7y ago
> I have to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. The irony is that people think a lawn is easier to maintain because it looks simpler
- stinos 7y ago
  This. In what lawn-owners treat as mowing season, more than half of the year here, they spend several hours a month with motorized devices keeping the grass trimmed. Meaning they also pay for the device and the energy to keep it running. And the trimmings are usually wasted. So all in all: pretty expensive thing, that lawn. And to stay on topic: pretty much dead as far as nature is considered as well. Almost like a local farmer once put it: you might just as well have concrete and paint it green. Same looks but cheaper and no maintainance. We on the other hand make hay. Meaning depending on the year, we spend several hours once or twice a year to cut the meadow (by scythe, but that's just because I like that). And then some more time to turn the hay and bale it to produce something which is then worth some money. And yields vivid fauna&flora (we also never cut everything every year, some random parts can stay till the next year). Still I get neighbours telling me 'wow that's a lot of work you put in there'. At first I thought they were joking but theye are not: I really have to do the math for them to make them realize several hours every month is way more work than what I do (and that's not even talking about the money spent). I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time. Or they see a scythe and think it's extremely hard work.
  - biztos 7y ago
    I agree it's probably better and more fun and maybe less "work" to have a garden or wild plants than a lawn, but: > you might just as well have concrete and paint it green No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet, and your kids and dogs would be having a whole lot less fun playing in the yard. > Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time. A lot of people find lawn-mowing relaxing. It's light physical labor, it has an immediate payoff, it involves motors and/or engines and/or tools depending on your preference, and the smell of fresh-cut grass is amazing.
lr4444lr 7y ago
I have both a lawn, and a perimeter where I grow flowers, edibles, and trees. I am happy that you find your conversion satisfying, but there is no conceivable way I am going to believe the careful weeding, deadheading, variable watering, pruning, shading, trellising, etc. is less maintenance than simply running the mower and edger once a week at MOST, and relying on an automated sprinkler system. (Maybe a 2x/year weed and feed application too.)
- mooreds 7y ago
  Depends on how nice you want your yard to look (and how productive you want or need it to be). I am a big fan of the set and forget with a sprinkler system. Some stuff lives, some dies. I have had waves of different plants across the yard over the years. It's not tidy, but it's easy.
- dbingham 7y ago
  If you're going for a perfectly maintained look to wild plantings, then yeah, that's a a lot of work. We've replaced our lawn with wild savanna, and it's zero work. We just let it go. It looks totally wild, and I'm happy with that. (Getting it in place - removing the invasives, improving the soil, planting trees, and spreading native wildflower and grass seeds was a lot of work - but since its established its very little work. Just occasionally walking through it and pulling out the invasives that are trying to move back in.) Part of the change that needs to happen is a change in our aesthetics.
  - dhimes 7y ago
    Oh- so you're that neighbor. It's not just a change in your aesthetics that's needed. If you live in a community then it's prudent to get community buy-in. Especially if you have kids. Community reputation means a lot more than some people realize. Source: I've been on both sides of this one.
    - gbrown 7y ago
      People are way too uptight about lawns
ausjke 7y ago
We have HOAs, if you grow fruits etc you're dead. Anything visible must be conformed to HOA rules.
mumblemumble 7y ago
Our apartment building has a butterfly garden with a small-ish stone patio in the middle. It was a major reason why we picked the place. Friends' buildings have standard-issue grassy lawns. Our backyard is the preferred place to congregate in the summer. I'm sure the landlord went with it because it drops their groundskeeping costs to something approaching zero. But it's been great for everyone else involved, too.
cr0sh 7y ago
> Chunk out a four by four foot section and grow some sugar peas and tell me it wasn't a thousand times more rewarding than a lawn. If you have an HOA - there might be a bit of problem...
- JoeAltmaier 7y ago
  Yeah that's the big issue there - HOAs are oppressive organizations run by OCD types who want conformity at any cost. I'll never live under the thumb of an HOA is I can possibly avoid it.
- DennisP 7y ago
  Maybe, but not necessarily. I live in a neighborhood with an HOA, have a four-by-four with no complaints, and have neighbors who've replaced their entire lawns with complicated gardens and maintained them for years. The HOA even hosted a seminar on butterfly-friendly gardens.
- wffurr 7y ago
  Step 1, petition the HOA to change the rules...
utopian3 7y ago
We get a lot of rabbits.. How do you keep them out of your produce?
- matt_morgan 7y ago
  People have ways and you can google that. It won't be perfect. We don't have a lot of rabbits but we have groundhogs, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, and lots of birds. Our strategy is basically: 1) grow things like wildflowers that don't get eaten (but do get pollinated) 2) grow things that produce more than you need (tomatoes in our case, but summer squash is another good example) 3) grow things that produce more than can be eaten by the critters (pumpkins) 4) grow things that most critters don't want (chili peppers, basil) 5) enjoy the fact that some critters got something to eat, instead of treating it like a problem. We don't try to keep anybody out of anything. #5 is easier for us than it is for a lot of people, I'm sure, but it's easier if you get #1-4 right. If I were growing things that took lots of effort I might be annoyed but where we live (southeastern Pennsylvania), most things just grow.
- jlangemeier 7y ago
  One bio-ethical route (at least for many of us in the Mid/Mountain-West US) is to use a deer or pigs blood dilute. It isn't harmful for edible plants (you should be at least rinsing your produce anyway) and it keeps most foragers off the goods - minus birds, but netting part of the trees or shrubs is a good way to deal with birds over foraging produce. If there's a local butcher they're a ready supply of the stuff, and it helps your local markets so win-win. Or if you already hunt for meat (or have friends that do), it's just making sure you're using even more of the animal, so again, win-win. If you don't think that locally sourced meats are ethically/environmentally sustainable then... ummm... /shrug; there's other methods, but none that have been as effective for our plot size.
- wmeredith 7y ago
  We are lucky in that we have a five foot rat snake that lives in the rocks in front of our house. I think I've seen it twice in 10 years. We have no rodents on our property.
- xnyan 7y ago
ryanmarsh 7y ago
I love vegetable gardening however I have it constrained to a plot in the back yard. When your entire yard (front and back) is productive is it visually appealing?
OGWhales 7y ago
I would love to see what your yard is like if you're willing to share a picture.
hinkley 7y ago
In the PNW, mowing your lawn is a serious logistics problem because mowing wet grass is a titanic pain in the ass, and the grass is pretty much wet for half of the year. I'm kinda surprised there's as much grass as we have. Most other yardwork activities can be done in the damp, or even in the rain (hello REI/Patagonia). Gardeners will tell you never to dig in wet soil, but the clay content in coastal soils is so low in many areas that it's a non-issue.
morganvachon 7y ago
I haven't gone as far as you in my homesteading, but I do follow one of the suggestions Dr. Berenbaum made in the article: I don't rake the leaves in my yard in the fall, I let them naturally decompose. I've found this makes the grass grow much more naturally and results in a diverse insect and spider population.

larnmar 7y ago

Since having kids I’ve been realising that a lot of the things in life that other people do, that have never made sense to me, suddenly make a whole lot more sense in the context of kids. With a kid, I’m suddenly super grateful for my little lawn.

Pfhreak 7y ago
Huh, interesting. I have a kid and I'm grateful we gave up our lawn. She plants in the spring, harvests, cooks, and preserves with us. She's excited to make pickles, jam, squash, pumpkins, corn, etc from things she's grown and tended to. She even got to pick out some of the flowers and make her own little square. Watching her step out to grab some blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries is one of the best feelings in the world. We read seed catalogs together in the winters and plan what we could grow (Ooh, what if we grew purple cauliflower? Or rhubarb for pie!)
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Where does she play ball games, set up a paddling pool, and wrestle? I'd agree if you have a house big enough to have a playroom, and have open space close by, it's probably easy enough. Our lawn is kinda a tiny, tiny, wildflower meadow, ie it's not cut much. The bees love the Clover.
  - adrianN 7y ago
    When I was young we did those things in public parks. Except for the pool, we went to a public pool instead.
  - krageon 7y ago
    In what decadent universe is a pool expected or even necessary?
    - cowsandmilk 7y ago
      I suggest you google “paddling pool”. They are under $30 and for little kids. Not something decadent...
    - Sean1708 7y ago
      One where everyone has at least a fiver: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestway-BW51009-Ocean-Paddling-Multi-Coloured/dp/B002CIKZ12/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=paddling+pool&qid=1578318674&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestway-BW51009-Ocean-Paddling-Mult...
  - astura 7y ago
    The park? That's where I did those activities as a kid.
  - alistairSH 7y ago
    Paddling pools and wrestling don't take a 1/5 acre lawn (not atypical suburban plot size). In my previous house, the back yard was heavily landscaped/hardscaped - patio, retaining wall, rocks and shrubs on the hill, etc. The front was lawn. Still plenty of room for my son to run around. And if he wanted more space, he went to the park around the corner. There's also a substantial difference between a "natural" lawn, where clover and other plants are allowed vs the stereotypical "perfect" lawn (in the US) with a single grass species (and heavy application of herbicides and fertilizers).
  - Pfhreak 7y ago
    Ball games are at the park. It's a short bike ride or moderate walk away. We have a small gravel area we set up the paddling pool in, and no reason one can't wrestle in between beds (or indoors on the carpet).
- hinkley 7y ago
  Our youngest lamented the lack of a front lawn to lay on. But I honestly don't believe that between the damp and the dog walkers she would have actually done the activities she had in her head. You have to mow it. You have to mow it every week. You have to mow it every week even if you're tired, or sick, or it's hot, or it's cold, or it's rainy, or your friends are playing a game, or you had a sleepover. No excuses, no exceptions. You can't mow it too early in the morning, or too late in the evening. You can't stop halfway through and do the rest later (back yard/front yard perhaps, but not half of the front yard). The grass does not care what your reasons are. It just cares that you didn't mow it. If you don't, it punishes you. Sometimes the neighbors do, too. In theory they understand this, in practice there are plenty of other activities that result in a litany of renegotiations. Grass. Doesn't. Care.
philosopher1234 7y ago
Could you elaborate why that is?
- EdwardDiego 7y ago
  They can run around on it, play ball games with their mates, you can put down a slip 'n slide in the summer, there's room for a trampoline etc. etc.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Also (I'm guessing) room for barbecue parties and such - generally facilitating socialization with other families with children.
    - Pfhreak 7y ago
      Many of our raised beds have a piece of flat wood on one side that serves as a bench. In the summer we'll host garden parties and people will socialize among the flowers and veggies. The delight people have picking tomatoes, peas, berries, beans, corn, and other things for their meal is real.
  - jiofih 7y ago
    Those are all choices, plus you don’t need to turn the entire backyard into a forest.
  - ginko 7y ago
    I'd guess you could do all of this on a meadow as well.
    - Sean1708 7y ago
      What's the difference between a meadow and a lawn? In relation to the article that is, obviously I could tell the difference between a meadow and a lawn. Edit: To add a bit of context here a lot of people are talking about pesticides and fertilizer and stuff like that but we don't do anything like that, we just mow it when it gets a bit long. Does that mean our lawn is technically a meadow?
elric 7y ago
When I was a kid, our (huge) back yard was more orchard than yard. It had at least 30 fruit trees, including cherry, apple, pear, peach and plum. There were hazelnuts, brambles and raspberries. Next to that was a patch of land with all kinds of produce. I loved playing in that yard. It had great places to hide. Ample trees to climb. Wildlife to look for and learn about. A variety of fun tasks to perform, from picking fruit and berries to making jam and juice. When my younger brother turned 10, our parents decided that he had to play football. Almost all of the trees were felled. Everything I loved about that place was destroyed, and replaced by one, big, boring, lifeless lawn. Instead of fun tasks, I was thenceforth assigned the task of mowing the lawn. Which I resented and continue to detest to this day.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  It took me many years to realize that nearly everything in my grandmother's back yard (except the lawn and porch) was food. There were orange trees, a cherry tree, an avocado tree, garlic, and a raspberry bramble. I loved picking raspberries. There was a pomegranate tree in the front. A garden is always going to be better than a lawn. A garden of plants that grow faster than trees may be higher-maintenance, though.
- biztos 7y ago
  Wow, crazy. I grew up with a modest lawn (with two trees, one smack in the middle of each side of the lawn) and my best friend had a really big yard on a slope with a bunch of apple trees. Playing in his yard was way more fun.
FooHentai 7y ago
You made me think back over my childhood which was pretty idyllic in terms of outside time and non-supervision. You know, lawns were simply not a major factor in that, outside of perhaps once-in-a-year water gun fights with some neighbor kids, the wilderness held far more appeal. Back-lot tracks, untilled fields, marginal scrubland running along stream beds. That was where the majority of my 'green time' took place. I do remember a few families around the village that had completely unkept, wilderness yards. They provided far more entertainment than any with manicured lawns.
floatingatoll 7y ago
We had a front lawn, a back lawn, and a dog. The back lawn may as well have been a concrete slab for playing purposes due to the statistical likelihood of dog. The front lawn was exposed to all the neighbors and thus similarly unusable for a social anxiety kid. Would have given up that lawn in a heartbeat for wilderness, which I spent years hiking and exploring.

vanderZwan 7y ago

> I have to do a lot less maintenance, and when I do it's more varied and interesting. The irony is that people think a lawn is easier to maintain because it looks simpler

stinos 7y ago
This. In what lawn-owners treat as mowing season, more than half of the year here, they spend several hours a month with motorized devices keeping the grass trimmed. Meaning they also pay for the device and the energy to keep it running. And the trimmings are usually wasted. So all in all: pretty expensive thing, that lawn. And to stay on topic: pretty much dead as far as nature is considered as well. Almost like a local farmer once put it: you might just as well have concrete and paint it green. Same looks but cheaper and no maintainance. We on the other hand make hay. Meaning depending on the year, we spend several hours once or twice a year to cut the meadow (by scythe, but that's just because I like that). And then some more time to turn the hay and bale it to produce something which is then worth some money. And yields vivid fauna&flora (we also never cut everything every year, some random parts can stay till the next year). Still I get neighbours telling me 'wow that's a lot of work you put in there'. At first I thought they were joking but theye are not: I really have to do the math for them to make them realize several hours every month is way more work than what I do (and that's not even talking about the money spent). I'm not sure why that is. Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time. Or they see a scythe and think it's extremely hard work.
- biztos 7y ago
  I agree it's probably better and more fun and maybe less "work" to have a garden or wild plants than a lawn, but: > you might just as well have concrete and paint it green No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet, and your kids and dogs would be having a whole lot less fun playing in the yard. > Maybe they perceive running behind a mower or sitting on one not as work. Or not as lost time. A lot of people find lawn-mowing relaxing. It's light physical labor, it has an immediate payoff, it involves motors and/or engines and/or tools depending on your preference, and the smell of fresh-cut grass is amazing.

lr4444lr 7y ago

I have both a lawn, and a perimeter where I grow flowers, edibles, and trees. I am happy that you find your conversion satisfying, but there is no conceivable way I am going to believe the careful weeding, deadheading, variable watering, pruning, shading, trellising, etc. is less maintenance than simply running the mower and edger once a week at MOST, and relying on an automated sprinkler system. (Maybe a 2x/year weed and feed application too.)

mooreds 7y ago
Depends on how nice you want your yard to look (and how productive you want or need it to be). I am a big fan of the set and forget with a sprinkler system. Some stuff lives, some dies. I have had waves of different plants across the yard over the years. It's not tidy, but it's easy.
dbingham 7y ago
If you're going for a perfectly maintained look to wild plantings, then yeah, that's a a lot of work. We've replaced our lawn with wild savanna, and it's zero work. We just let it go. It looks totally wild, and I'm happy with that. (Getting it in place - removing the invasives, improving the soil, planting trees, and spreading native wildflower and grass seeds was a lot of work - but since its established its very little work. Just occasionally walking through it and pulling out the invasives that are trying to move back in.) Part of the change that needs to happen is a change in our aesthetics.
- dhimes 7y ago
  Oh- so you're that neighbor. It's not just a change in your aesthetics that's needed. If you live in a community then it's prudent to get community buy-in. Especially if you have kids. Community reputation means a lot more than some people realize. Source: I've been on both sides of this one.
  - gbrown 7y ago
    People are way too uptight about lawns

ausjke 7y ago

We have HOAs, if you grow fruits etc you're dead. Anything visible must be conformed to HOA rules.

mumblemumble 7y ago

Our apartment building has a butterfly garden with a small-ish stone patio in the middle. It was a major reason why we picked the place. Friends' buildings have standard-issue grassy lawns. Our backyard is the preferred place to congregate in the summer. I'm sure the landlord went with it because it drops their groundskeeping costs to something approaching zero. But it's been great for everyone else involved, too.

cr0sh 7y ago

> Chunk out a four by four foot section and grow some sugar peas and tell me it wasn't a thousand times more rewarding than a lawn. If you have an HOA - there might be a bit of problem...

JoeAltmaier 7y ago
Yeah that's the big issue there - HOAs are oppressive organizations run by OCD types who want conformity at any cost. I'll never live under the thumb of an HOA is I can possibly avoid it.
DennisP 7y ago
Maybe, but not necessarily. I live in a neighborhood with an HOA, have a four-by-four with no complaints, and have neighbors who've replaced their entire lawns with complicated gardens and maintained them for years. The HOA even hosted a seminar on butterfly-friendly gardens.
wffurr 7y ago
Step 1, petition the HOA to change the rules...

utopian3 7y ago

We get a lot of rabbits.. How do you keep them out of your produce?

matt_morgan 7y ago
People have ways and you can google that. It won't be perfect. We don't have a lot of rabbits but we have groundhogs, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, and lots of birds. Our strategy is basically: 1) grow things like wildflowers that don't get eaten (but do get pollinated) 2) grow things that produce more than you need (tomatoes in our case, but summer squash is another good example) 3) grow things that produce more than can be eaten by the critters (pumpkins) 4) grow things that most critters don't want (chili peppers, basil) 5) enjoy the fact that some critters got something to eat, instead of treating it like a problem. We don't try to keep anybody out of anything. #5 is easier for us than it is for a lot of people, I'm sure, but it's easier if you get #1-4 right. If I were growing things that took lots of effort I might be annoyed but where we live (southeastern Pennsylvania), most things just grow.
jlangemeier 7y ago
One bio-ethical route (at least for many of us in the Mid/Mountain-West US) is to use a deer or pigs blood dilute. It isn't harmful for edible plants (you should be at least rinsing your produce anyway) and it keeps most foragers off the goods - minus birds, but netting part of the trees or shrubs is a good way to deal with birds over foraging produce. If there's a local butcher they're a ready supply of the stuff, and it helps your local markets so win-win. Or if you already hunt for meat (or have friends that do), it's just making sure you're using even more of the animal, so again, win-win. If you don't think that locally sourced meats are ethically/environmentally sustainable then... ummm... /shrug; there's other methods, but none that have been as effective for our plot size.
wmeredith 7y ago
We are lucky in that we have a five foot rat snake that lives in the rocks in front of our house. I think I've seen it twice in 10 years. We have no rodents on our property.
xnyan 7y ago

ryanmarsh 7y ago

I love vegetable gardening however I have it constrained to a plot in the back yard. When your entire yard (front and back) is productive is it visually appealing?

OGWhales 7y ago

I would love to see what your yard is like if you're willing to share a picture.

hinkley 7y ago

In the PNW, mowing your lawn is a serious logistics problem because mowing wet grass is a titanic pain in the ass, and the grass is pretty much wet for half of the year. I'm kinda surprised there's as much grass as we have. Most other yardwork activities can be done in the damp, or even in the rain (hello REI/Patagonia). Gardeners will tell you never to dig in wet soil, but the clay content in coastal soils is so low in many areas that it's a non-issue.

morganvachon 7y ago

I haven't gone as far as you in my homesteading, but I do follow one of the suggestions Dr. Berenbaum made in the article: I don't rake the leaves in my yard in the fall, I let them naturally decompose. I've found this makes the grass grow much more naturally and results in a diverse insect and spider population.