5 ms·

> 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 l

> 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.
  - stinos 7y ago
    No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet Should have made this more clear perhaps, but I only put in that farmer's concrete quote (which I don't agree with for the reasons you mention) for the biodiversity aspect not everything else grass-related :) A lot of people find lawn-mowing relaxing. Yes but that is true for me as well so doesn't really explain why more than one neighbour made a similar comment about me spending more time mowing than they do while in reality it's the opposite, by far. Maybe it's just coincidence (N=3) and/or maybe they were just making conversation or so. probably better Considering the biological side, it's way beyond 'probably'. For example [1] gives a rather high-level overview and [2] goes into (one of) the more specific aspects. [3] also talks about the history/future bits. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19092 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19092 [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717306201 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071... [3] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/148.full https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/148.full
hvidgaard 7y ago
If you buy a robot lawn mower, it is.
- MattRix 7y ago
  Maintaining a lawn is more than just mowing it. There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. The mowing is the easiest part, at least for my relatively small lawn.
  - cowsandmilk 7y ago
    > There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. If you have a grass that matches where you live and don’t mind your lawn occasionally being brown, none of that is needed.
    - arethuza 7y ago
      Agreed, apart from mowing it fairly regularly from April - October I've never done any of those things to the area of grass we have. Mind you we are in Scotland so water supply isn't really a problem.
    - Kye 7y ago
      It was interesting watching people complain about the grass not growing on The Walking Dead. Little do they know, that's normal. Especially when it never seems to rain on the show. It can jump after rain, but it stays short and brown for months in an especially dry year.
  - astura 7y ago
    I've never done any of that nor do I know how. I've only mowed it, that's it.
  - hvidgaard 7y ago
    Let's say we have a super well maintained lawn here in Denmark. You would have to do the following once every season: * Aerate/seed (realistically not necessary to do every year). * Fertilize. * Pull weeds (mostly dandelions). For a normal house that amounts to at most one weekends work. Compared to a well established bed of flowers, which every season at the very least needs: * Fertilize * Trim plants that begin taking over. For a garden with flower beds the size of the typical lawn I'd say there is at least the same amount of work required. And you need to have quite a bit more knowledge for it to be easy, compared to a lawn anyway. For a vegetable garden there is significantly more work involved. * Germinate * Ready the soil * Work in manure * Plant / transplant * Keep weeds down. * Some plants need a trellis. * Mulch. * Keep weeds down where the mulch failed. * Continuously maintain the vegetables health to ensure good harvest. * Harvest * Clean up the beds * Plant green manure * Plan next year, rotate crops ect. There is realistically something to do every single week. If you live a place where it rains enough for the grass to make it on it's own, it's the path of least resistance only bested by a concrete slab, or perhaps tiled that you spray to kill weeds.
pm215 7y ago
It is simpler in the sense that there is not really any thought required. I have to mow my small lawn every three weeks or so, true, but I know how to do that, because it's the same thing everybody does and you grow up watching your parents mow the lawn. It requires no judgement skills, and no gardening skills -- just run the mower over all the grass, and you're done. I would actually potentially be interested in having something less dull than just a lawn, but I wouldn't know where to start (what would work in my climate/levels of sun/shade/etc, what do I need to do, when does it need planting, does it need watering, all that). Keeping grass is simpler than that.
- stinos 7y ago
  Keeping grass is simpler than that. Just mowing less isn't perhaps simpler by the definition of it but is way better for biodiversity. You could try it in just a small piece of your current lawn and see what happens. Mow once near the end of spring and again once 3 to 4 months later. Shouldn't take long before native flowering plants will pop up.
- cptskippy 7y ago
  I guess maybe that's a regional thing. In the southeast US, lawn care is a year round battle against weeds and invasive species. Without weeding and chemicals, grass can easily be choked out in one growing season. Mowing the actual lawn is a very small part of the regiment. It's particularly difficult with the mild Winters we have had of late because it's almost as if spring goes from December to May now. Sods like Bermuda or St Augustine still go dormant in fall but the weeds don't stop growing.
  - folkrav 7y ago
    Might have to do with the grass type? One thing that shocked me when I went to Florida was how coarse (larger strands and way stiffer) the grass was compared to where I live (Canada). I eventually learned it's simply a different type to deal with climate differences. I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable with everything plant, but it wouldn't sound odd to me if I learned that it could also mean different care. Up here it's mostly weeding, adding soil where needed and reseeding every spring, mowing it every couple of weeks, and watering once in a while. Maybe 2-3 rounds of chemicals a year if you want that healthy deep green lawn look.

> 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.
- stinos 7y ago
  No, you would miss out on the feel of soft grass under your bare feet Should have made this more clear perhaps, but I only put in that farmer's concrete quote (which I don't agree with for the reasons you mention) for the biodiversity aspect not everything else grass-related :) A lot of people find lawn-mowing relaxing. Yes but that is true for me as well so doesn't really explain why more than one neighbour made a similar comment about me spending more time mowing than they do while in reality it's the opposite, by far. Maybe it's just coincidence (N=3) and/or maybe they were just making conversation or so. probably better Considering the biological side, it's way beyond 'probably'. For example [1] gives a rather high-level overview and [2] goes into (one of) the more specific aspects. [3] also talks about the history/future bits. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19092 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19092 [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717306201 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071... [3] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/148.full https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6411/148.full

hvidgaard 7y ago

If you buy a robot lawn mower, it is.

MattRix 7y ago
Maintaining a lawn is more than just mowing it. There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. The mowing is the easiest part, at least for my relatively small lawn.
- cowsandmilk 7y ago
  > There's aerating/seeding, watering, pulling-weeds/pest-spraying, etc. If you have a grass that matches where you live and don’t mind your lawn occasionally being brown, none of that is needed.
  - arethuza 7y ago
    Agreed, apart from mowing it fairly regularly from April - October I've never done any of those things to the area of grass we have. Mind you we are in Scotland so water supply isn't really a problem.
  - Kye 7y ago
    It was interesting watching people complain about the grass not growing on The Walking Dead. Little do they know, that's normal. Especially when it never seems to rain on the show. It can jump after rain, but it stays short and brown for months in an especially dry year.
- astura 7y ago
  I've never done any of that nor do I know how. I've only mowed it, that's it.
- hvidgaard 7y ago
  Let's say we have a super well maintained lawn here in Denmark. You would have to do the following once every season: * Aerate/seed (realistically not necessary to do every year). * Fertilize. * Pull weeds (mostly dandelions). For a normal house that amounts to at most one weekends work. Compared to a well established bed of flowers, which every season at the very least needs: * Fertilize * Trim plants that begin taking over. For a garden with flower beds the size of the typical lawn I'd say there is at least the same amount of work required. And you need to have quite a bit more knowledge for it to be easy, compared to a lawn anyway. For a vegetable garden there is significantly more work involved. * Germinate * Ready the soil * Work in manure * Plant / transplant * Keep weeds down. * Some plants need a trellis. * Mulch. * Keep weeds down where the mulch failed. * Continuously maintain the vegetables health to ensure good harvest. * Harvest * Clean up the beds * Plant green manure * Plan next year, rotate crops ect. There is realistically something to do every single week. If you live a place where it rains enough for the grass to make it on it's own, it's the path of least resistance only bested by a concrete slab, or perhaps tiled that you spray to kill weeds.

pm215 7y ago

It is simpler in the sense that there is not really any thought required. I have to mow my small lawn every three weeks or so, true, but I know how to do that, because it's the same thing everybody does and you grow up watching your parents mow the lawn. It requires no judgement skills, and no gardening skills -- just run the mower over all the grass, and you're done. I would actually potentially be interested in having something less dull than just a lawn, but I wouldn't know where to start (what would work in my climate/levels of sun/shade/etc, what do I need to do, when does it need planting, does it need watering, all that). Keeping grass is simpler than that.

stinos 7y ago
Keeping grass is simpler than that. Just mowing less isn't perhaps simpler by the definition of it but is way better for biodiversity. You could try it in just a small piece of your current lawn and see what happens. Mow once near the end of spring and again once 3 to 4 months later. Shouldn't take long before native flowering plants will pop up.
cptskippy 7y ago
I guess maybe that's a regional thing. In the southeast US, lawn care is a year round battle against weeds and invasive species. Without weeding and chemicals, grass can easily be choked out in one growing season. Mowing the actual lawn is a very small part of the regiment. It's particularly difficult with the mild Winters we have had of late because it's almost as if spring goes from December to May now. Sods like Bermuda or St Augustine still go dormant in fall but the weeds don't stop growing.
- folkrav 7y ago
  Might have to do with the grass type? One thing that shocked me when I went to Florida was how coarse (larger strands and way stiffer) the grass was compared to where I live (Canada). I eventually learned it's simply a different type to deal with climate differences. I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable with everything plant, but it wouldn't sound odd to me if I learned that it could also mean different care. Up here it's mostly weeding, adding soil where needed and reseeding every spring, mowing it every couple of weeks, and watering once in a while. Maybe 2-3 rounds of chemicals a year if you want that healthy deep green lawn look.