4 ms·
For me, its about invasive weeds, mosquitoes, ticks and other non-desireable bugs as well as rodents. But I live near a field! So the lawn serves as a buffer
by sjg007 5y ago
For me, its about invasive weeds, mosquitoes, ticks and other non-desireable bugs as well as rodents. But I live near a field! So the lawn serves as a buffer and lawns are very good at suppressing weeds. I could go with clover though which we are cultivating on the small hill next to us to buffer us from the field instead of grass though.
A lot of my neighbors have had their lawns overridden by crab grass anyway so is that still a lawn at that point?
Having a lawn also is nice for the kids.
- goda90 5y agoIn my opinion, a lawn should be a space where vegetation covers all of the ground, and is kept under a few inches tall. As long as that's not thistles or poison ivy, then you can play on that all you want. My lawn has all sorts of grasses, clover, dandelions and wood violets in it. I get to see frogs and fireflies in the evening because I don't spray chemicals to kill them off. Mosquitos are inevitable. If you spray for them, you're also killing their predators like spiders and dragonflies, but not their food supply(you) so they bounce back really fast, way before their predators can recover.
- finiteseries 5y agoThey live next to a field and mentioned using the lawn as a buffer, twice, in what is assumedly a sort of rural area. Not as the red carpet for a wildlife oasis in paved over suburbia which this sort of advice is inevitably geared towards. You don’t need to spray for mosquitoes and ticks and ruin the local ecosystem when they’re happy in their field at a healthy distance with a nice, clean lawn in between you.
- moron4hire 5y agoAt least here in the DC area, the natural predators are not up to the task of controlling the mosquitos. We don't spray and we don't have any nearby bodies of standing water and our yards are still unbearable with tiny tiger mosquitos every summer. Luckily, it's also just plain too hot and humid to bother with outside in the summer, so yeah, fuck summer.
- jefflombardjr 5y agoIf you like having a lawn, consider mixing in clover! It's great for pollinators and it is a nitrogen fixer that helps build better soil. https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/clover/#:~:text=White%20clover%20has%20rhizobia%20bacteria,quality%20with%20less%20nitrogen%20fertiliser https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/clover/#:~:te....
- kibbleble 5y agoWhen we raised chickens, the amount of bugs went down a lot.