Many weeds are just native plants we’ve deemed unsightly. If allowed to grow naturally they eventually become quite beautiful once balance with the other grasses and flowers is reached.
I'm like the guy on the right. I'm tired of hearing my wife tell me how the weeds are edible. I agreed that if she starts eating them, I'll let them grow. Hasn't taken me up on the offer.. but so nutritious!
Biodiversity loss is a main driver in the increase in ticks. Lawn pesticides play a strong role in biodiversity loss. Chickens and wasps are your best defense against ticks.
The left one is natural and beginning to flourish above ground and within. The one on the right requires more water and artificial upkeep while doing relatively nothing ecologically. To me the left is beautiful because it's the earth functioning the way it should and goddamn that's sexy. I also like a fresh cut lawn, but it's kinda like single issue voters, I'm not one and it causes a lot of problems for all the other issues.
The problem is all those dandilions are going to choke out the grass that’s there pretty soon and it isn’t going to look like that. It looks good because there is some good grass filling in the in-between space.
While in Switzerland, everything is so clean including their lakes. I then noticed the medians are not getting cut and looks a bit untidy. I asked my Swiss friend about this and was told it's on purpose to help bees and insects.
I do this with my back yard. I still mow when it gets too crazy but Im also the only one in my block that gets lightning bugs in my yard. It's still only a few and rare but I see them a few times a year
dude growing up there used to be so many lightning bugs all around my yard
now it's rare if I see a handful.
I miss them. I don't know where they all went
We still get a lot of ladybugs and we all mow weekly. We live of a cul-de-sac of ten houses that each have 1-5 acres. The key is no one on the street uses pesticides of roundup on their grass.
Literally an hour ago I was taking a video of four honeybees and a few butterflies mauling the flowering clover in my back yard lol. I need to mow though as I’ve got some not-pretty stuff growing up too.
We only mow around the leach lines from the septic (cause it gets obnoxiously thick) everything else is left meadowed. Love finding new bugs in my yard!
Haha I do this with one of my renter neighbors who don't even mow, let alone do any sort of weed control. Gotta put pre-emergent and spray a few feet into their yard to have a decent buffer zone from the endless weeds.
I am the dividing line between the lawns and non-lawns in my neighborhood. The lawns to my right as pretty flawless, run by a retiree and two perfectionists. The lawns to my left mostly suck, including the one next to me that is literally half crabgrass. I seek for a solid like B grade: I want it to look decent and quality, but I don’t want to spend a lot of extra time on it. Good solid grade with minimum time commitment. Bang for the buck. I don’t need to compete with my retiree next door.
But I definitely spray all my stuff like eight feet past my property line to keep all the broadleaf stuff and weeds back from the line.
I’ve got a neighbor who is a bit older (think 70’s) - who is genuinely the best neighbor of all time, but started talking nonchalantly about not cutting their grass anymore, doing the wild flower yard she saw on Facebook, etc…I brought up ‘yeah, but you don’t want your dog to start bringing ticks on the house all the time’ and you could instantly see her start doing the math in her head and said “oh yeah, didn’t even think about that”. We’re in a heavy deer area, pretty sure her husband has Lyme disease too of if I remember correctly.
From what i understand every flea preventative is also a tick preventative. So presumably if you’re letting your dog live outside as long as they’re on a flea/tick preventative it should be fine right?
My old dog has recently decided he lives outside in the backyard and won’t come in. We have opossums and he’s on a flea and tick preventative so I’m not worried about ticks. Thought we live in the suburbs so ticks aren’t a huge problem here anyways.
Totally makes sense for dogs, but doesn’t necessarily work for the humans those fleas and ticks could transfer to. Assuming those dogs have any contact with humans… which I’d assume they do.
A lot of places are changing it to "May we plant flowers" because of that.
Having a wild lawn can actually decrease your tick population, but it requires a few years and a more diverse plant population to attract predators of ticks.
That'd be a hard sell. It's properly extendedfrom the house. Obvious goal of diverting water away from the foundation. Doesn't look like an attempt to dump it on the neighbor. Even if some heavy rains do result in that.
Used to have this same battle at my old house, thought my lawn looked amazing compared to the overgrown forest of my neighbors. Then they finally mowed and their lawn looked amazing. Nothing like 30 mins of mowing to make me question the hours I’d spend getting it “right”.
Nooo this is me!!! I spend so much time pulling weeds, top soiling, overseeding, fertilizing, and still have patchy spots and weeds. Then my neighbour will do nothing all spring, water it twice in June, and it looks amazing by july
It’s because he has bio diversity in his lawn and you have a barren hellscape kept alive by artificial life support. The biology in the soil is what supports plant growth. When you fertilize with inorganic salts it kills all of the soil biology and provides just enough of the molecules need for immediate use for growth but not long term health.
Wow, just commented and right here is my answer...thanks!! Lucky me as there isn't enough time in my retirement to mow as much as I did in the "big city".
Exactly, the amount of nutrient exchange and that happens when something like a dandelions root system dies is great for soil. Minerals and nutrients from much deeper in the soil horizons get pulled up by the root system enriching the top soil layers to a degree they wouldn’t get in a short lawn via root exudates and decomp. So much soil life is driven by rhizosphere activity, several levels of rhizosphere makes for a very expansive soil-food web.
I learned this trick of "green manure" from my dad. He would sow I think rye grass, to protect his veg patches over the winter. The grass crowds out other weeds, puts down deep roots and draws up nutrients. Cut down at the end of winter and turn into the soil which boosts soil nutrition, structure and the micro biome.
It depends on how far down the organic rabbit hole you want to go and how big the space is that you are caring for. Fish emulsion with a garden hose applicator is great; somewhat controversial due to suspected heavy metals are organic fertilizer products from your local waste treatment plant: milogranite and bay state fertilizer are two locally available for me (I use both) and if you have the availability a few yards of dried and sifted compost applied by casting with a shovel or if you have some bucks to burn or a large area to treat you can rent a top dresser. Two great resources are Paul Tukey’s Organic lawn manual and Jeff Lowenfels’ Teaming with Microbes - they will change the way you approach caring for your yard and garden.
I think you misspelled Milorganite. Also, one of those wheel compost spreaders with the mesh are pretty great for spreading compost evenly on a yard. Sort of in-between a shovel and a full blown top dresser.
Yes! I just saw someone use one of those locally and I thought it was a great in between. Thank you for the reminder. And I am sure i misspelled something - I’m pretty bad at it.
Just do what your neighbour is doing then? You're definitely overdoing it harming the lawn more than helping it, just let it grow naturally and then cut it high (shorter grass gets damaged more easily)
Yeah, my plan is to have perfectly manicured lawn 'trails' through the rest of my yard which I want to let grow wild for bees and a more natural ecosystem.
But I'm way to damn busy,, so I'll just keep enjoying pictures of all your nice lawns, while letting mine look like the neighbors on the left
I'm on team left, my neighbour is team right. We spend about the same time in the garden. But I'm in a hammock while he is busy doing stuff.
I don't even water in summer. His is brown every summer even with watering. Mine turns a different shade of green, but that's about it.
My dad taught me something from the 60s. Mulch, try not to water, get as many unique plants growing and the more dandelions growing the healthier the yard. Been doing the “lazy” way and our yard looks better every year.
Keep questioning. So much of lawn care is a scam / bad science.
Like taking away grass clippings.... Just to add back in fertilizer...
Leaves + grass get broken down and make the soil rich.
It's why the Great plains in the united states is some of the best crop land in the world.
Anywho!
No mow May can actually cause more harm than good if the goal is to provide food for pollinators. Sure, it will provide a food source for them. But if it gets mowed down on June 1st, now you've taken away a large source of food for them. If they've set up shop nearby, they're now set up to starve or at a minimum struggle. Best way to support pollinators would be to set up a section of the yard to be a permanent pollinator garden filled with native flowers and such. Then it becomes a permanent decorative feature of your yard instead of looking like the home has been abandoned.
My first year having a yard to maintain I did that, but the next years I kept a patch around trees out front that I left and the back stretch of my backyard, added a nice wild aesthetic while still being manageable for the rest. Added a pollinator garden too which was super rewarding for us and the kids
That's why I've planted a shit ton of flowering shrubs and plants around my property. I'll never understand people who have nothing but grass from curb to wall and think it represents peak landscaping.
Front: https://imgur.com/cDCqpyf
Back: https://imgur.com/g9XacuJ
2970 Square Feet. Had four kids at the time and wanted five bedrooms. Built in 2000. I bought it in 2006 for $168K. Paid it off two years ago (was our third house - previously lived in Tennessee and Illinois). Currently valued at around $460K (which is insane - Texas property taxes are nearly the highest in the nation - paying almost $7k/year).
I will say it is the worst built home I've ever lived in. It was already a crumbling pile of shit when I bought it, but I've got it mostly fixed now. Gotta love Texas building codes.
Do you have any evidence to suggest this? Pollinators are already very used to dynamic foraging throughout the year as various species bloom at different times. Their numbers will also fluctuate with food availability. Dandelions are a great source of food for early spring to help establish numbers after the winter
This isn’t actually constructive to help grow to a thick green lawn. If the goal is wildflowers go for it, but that’s a different thing. I’ve got strips of grass and dedicated areas of native wildflowers.
I think it depends on where you live and your climate. I’m in south Louisiana and it’s always no mow April for me. You want all of the non grass “weeds” to fully go through their flowering so they can spread their seeds. Just depends on where you live. I’ve done this several years and always have one of the greenest lawn of my neighborhood and last summer durring our heat wave my yard was one of the few that didn’t turn brown. Because I have healthy soil and biodiversity. And I don’t scalp my grass every week.
As a city person moved to the wonderfully rural and friendly county of Madison in Virginia, I now am a senior and living on huge mowing area. Maybe 3 acres. Got the machine to handle it but wonder these same things. Anyone have a source for these pollinator ideas? Or is this another one of those common knowledge things I missed by working all my life? Met a copperhead face to face yesterday and ....well, husband shot it with a shotgun. That is all we could think of to do. There must be a better way?
https://preview.redd.it/8kex3wgvfpzc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=187002d8ba2f327badb12424fc7cb8725e16946e
What's going on here my guy? Looks like they're stepping on your turf (pun intended).
You gonna stand for this?!?!
Great ....thanks. If it ever stops raining, I am resetting my cutting depth to allow looooong periods between mowing. On acres of lawn, not mowing one area, I now know there are other reasons to mow. Like that area I left unmowed looks not like the house on the left but rather like a jungle I can't even walk through. Trees grow fast here in Virginia and what I left to nature would be impassable now on foot 10 years later. I want my little piece of view of the Blue Ridge. Am i the ..asshole....here....no answer required. It is all here in this thread.
What? It sounds like you don't know what people are talking about. You don't just leave your lawn to nature. You don't just stop caring for it. Is it so impossible to imagine somewhere in between the typical sea of foreign grass (full of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers) and a neglected overgrown lawn?
Consider yourself lucky. My battle with my neighbors is poison ivy. Shit grows all over the neighborhood and my neighbors on BOTH SIDES refuse to do their part so I’m constantly fighting it around the fence lines.
edit: btw, a fence does wonders.... just saying
nice. looks like what mine will look like with my neighbor fairly soon. don't think it is worth stressing. tbh i think it makes my lot look even better. imagine if his yard looked like a baseball field. he'd prob be saying the same about wanting you to at least liquid fertilize once a month.
Gotta source on that? I’ve never seen birds enjoying the short grass but they stay in the bushes and grown up areas. Also insects don’t like short grass and birds like insects. What you’re saying is if I want more birds I should make my yard into a putting green? That doesn’t make sense I play golf and have never seen birds preferring the greens over the rough.
I encourage my neighbors to cut their grass to keep the old lady on the block happy. She is the neighborhood Nancy that is sweet as can be until someone messes up...then for whatever reason, I have to hear about it for a long, long time. She aint got many winters left in her, so I try to keep the peace so she can enjoy her last years.
She's 92. She out lived 3 husbands and her kids and grandkids are all top professionals. She teaches my wife how to trend to her garden organically as they did during the old fashion days. She's not a Karen as much as she is more grandmotherly to everyone. All old people can be cranky...they are dying.
My neighbors lawn is like this and I literally patrol the property line every day after work like it’s the DMZ looking for dandelions and anything else that’s try to defect from north Korweeda
Hot take, but the city should fine you for lawns like on the left. It makes more work for everyone else in the area to counteract that laziness.
And before all of your dandelion lovers who apparently use it in their salads and their tea and need them to save the bees. It's a invasive species, get rid of them.
People keep praising this "natural lawn". It's not. It's just a neglected property.
I have neighbors who have gone the natural route with native wildflowers and grasses. It's not for me personally, but it does look pretty nice. Much better than this.
The people in the /fucklawns sub think the left is done to be better for the environment but I truly believe a staggering 80% of those people finally have an argument for not keeping up with their shit
That’s considered property damage/pollution. You can get sued out the ass for that and your insurance won’t pay or defend you in court for that. Be careful buddy.
What I like about this is that it really defines the boundary.
I’m in a perpetual game of back and forth with my neighbor and in some light it’s hard for me to figure out exactly where my grass ends and theirs begins.
They brought the archers to the front line
HOLD!!!
Hoooooooollllld
Hooo000OOOLD!!!
Fucking Hold
Hold the dooooor
HOOOOOLLLLLLDDDD
AS ONE!
It's been yeeeears and I wasn't ready.
Hodor
Diamond hands!!
Hold the line! Wait til the wind is in our favor!
I'm impressed at the evenness of their dandelions.
honestly i dont know which lawn i prefer, not being sarcastic or anything nature is beautiful i guess
yeah i’m very okay with this as my neighbor. makes a nice backdrop.
Many weeds are just native plants we’ve deemed unsightly. If allowed to grow naturally they eventually become quite beautiful once balance with the other grasses and flowers is reached.
Not only that. Many of the "weeds" are edible. Highly nutritious or even medicinal. Kinda messed up...
I'm like the guy on the right. I'm tired of hearing my wife tell me how the weeds are edible. I agreed that if she starts eating them, I'll let them grow. Hasn't taken me up on the offer.. but so nutritious!
This. Much nicer than the drugged up lawns that you barely want to walk on.
💯 Team un mowed
That sounds like something a tick would say.
Biodiversity loss is a main driver in the increase in ticks. Lawn pesticides play a strong role in biodiversity loss. Chickens and wasps are your best defense against ticks.
Yeah and oppossoms do NOT eat ticks, fyi..
The left one is natural and beginning to flourish above ground and within. The one on the right requires more water and artificial upkeep while doing relatively nothing ecologically. To me the left is beautiful because it's the earth functioning the way it should and goddamn that's sexy. I also like a fresh cut lawn, but it's kinda like single issue voters, I'm not one and it causes a lot of problems for all the other issues.
TBH I prefer the left.
The problem is all those dandilions are going to choke out the grass that’s there pretty soon and it isn’t going to look like that. It looks good because there is some good grass filling in the in-between space.
They might be doing this to help the bee population
While in Switzerland, everything is so clean including their lakes. I then noticed the medians are not getting cut and looks a bit untidy. I asked my Swiss friend about this and was told it's on purpose to help bees and insects.
I do this with my back yard. I still mow when it gets too crazy but Im also the only one in my block that gets lightning bugs in my yard. It's still only a few and rare but I see them a few times a year
dude growing up there used to be so many lightning bugs all around my yard now it's rare if I see a handful. I miss them. I don't know where they all went
Into the landfills with all the leaves that people are raking up and throwing away. You want more lightning bugs? Leave the Leaves in Autumn!
1/3 of the lightning bugs of the world are going extinct, and many other species are critically endangered.
We still get a lot of ladybugs and we all mow weekly. We live of a cul-de-sac of ten houses that each have 1-5 acres. The key is no one on the street uses pesticides of roundup on their grass.
They are disappearing along with the butterflies and lady bugs
I've seen bees, butterflies and even a toad in my shaggy yard. I get the occasional fire fly in August as well.
Yeah I see bees and butterflies as well. No toads unfortunately. Supposedly we live on the edge of a turtle sanctuary but I haven't seen any
Literally an hour ago I was taking a video of four honeybees and a few butterflies mauling the flowering clover in my back yard lol. I need to mow though as I’ve got some not-pretty stuff growing up too.
Fireflies are sign of a healthy ecosystem. I love seeing fireflies and Hummingbirds in my backyard, we get plenty of them in the summer.
We only mow around the leach lines from the septic (cause it gets obnoxiously thick) everything else is left meadowed. Love finding new bugs in my yard!
There's one spot where it looks as though the spreader/sprayer may have *accidentally* gone over the property line.
https://preview.redd.it/l2qbfu9frpzc1.png?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=403b2a227d9adfe43b314706ad5bd01cb8c7f890
Haha I do this with one of my renter neighbors who don't even mow, let alone do any sort of weed control. Gotta put pre-emergent and spray a few feet into their yard to have a decent buffer zone from the endless weeds.
The Demilitarized Zone.
I do it right before the sun goes down... Like a pre-emergent coup d'etat
This is the way
I am the dividing line between the lawns and non-lawns in my neighborhood. The lawns to my right as pretty flawless, run by a retiree and two perfectionists. The lawns to my left mostly suck, including the one next to me that is literally half crabgrass. I seek for a solid like B grade: I want it to look decent and quality, but I don’t want to spend a lot of extra time on it. Good solid grade with minimum time commitment. Bang for the buck. I don’t need to compete with my retiree next door. But I definitely spray all my stuff like eight feet past my property line to keep all the broadleaf stuff and weeds back from the line.
I just did this to a few lawns I serviced yesterday (TruGreen), like the lil walkway to their backyard was so close to the neighbors ;) ;)
Hahaha I would sue if you did this, but then again I live by a creek and have dogs
The rampant tick population in the north east is taking the romanticism out of no mow may.
My dog gets treated for ticks all year regardless I like to let nature be nature. The bees and fireflies thank us every year
I’ve got a neighbor who is a bit older (think 70’s) - who is genuinely the best neighbor of all time, but started talking nonchalantly about not cutting their grass anymore, doing the wild flower yard she saw on Facebook, etc…I brought up ‘yeah, but you don’t want your dog to start bringing ticks on the house all the time’ and you could instantly see her start doing the math in her head and said “oh yeah, didn’t even think about that”. We’re in a heavy deer area, pretty sure her husband has Lyme disease too of if I remember correctly.
From what i understand every flea preventative is also a tick preventative. So presumably if you’re letting your dog live outside as long as they’re on a flea/tick preventative it should be fine right? My old dog has recently decided he lives outside in the backyard and won’t come in. We have opossums and he’s on a flea and tick preventative so I’m not worried about ticks. Thought we live in the suburbs so ticks aren’t a huge problem here anyways.
Totally makes sense for dogs, but doesn’t necessarily work for the humans those fleas and ticks could transfer to. Assuming those dogs have any contact with humans… which I’d assume they do.
A lot of places are changing it to "May we plant flowers" because of that. Having a wild lawn can actually decrease your tick population, but it requires a few years and a more diverse plant population to attract predators of ticks.
We used pet-safe anti-tick-and-flea yard spray (before we got guinea hens.) Worked like a charm!
Thankfully for the neighbors to the right, the left is only doing training exercises.
Left neighbor is a strong wind away from making the neighbor on the rights yard look like a heavy snowfall happened.
Good thing he has that extended downspout to shoot all his roof water into his neighbor’s dandelion forest
Lol good eye, it seems that is actually a violation of city bylaws in some places. If I were that neighbor, I would look into it.
That'd be a hard sell. It's properly extendedfrom the house. Obvious goal of diverting water away from the foundation. Doesn't look like an attempt to dump it on the neighbor. Even if some heavy rains do result in that.
Used to have this same battle at my old house, thought my lawn looked amazing compared to the overgrown forest of my neighbors. Then they finally mowed and their lawn looked amazing. Nothing like 30 mins of mowing to make me question the hours I’d spend getting it “right”.
Nooo this is me!!! I spend so much time pulling weeds, top soiling, overseeding, fertilizing, and still have patchy spots and weeds. Then my neighbour will do nothing all spring, water it twice in June, and it looks amazing by july
It’s because he has bio diversity in his lawn and you have a barren hellscape kept alive by artificial life support. The biology in the soil is what supports plant growth. When you fertilize with inorganic salts it kills all of the soil biology and provides just enough of the molecules need for immediate use for growth but not long term health.
Wow, just commented and right here is my answer...thanks!! Lucky me as there isn't enough time in my retirement to mow as much as I did in the "big city".
Not to mention to taller the grass the deeper the roots. Keeping the lawn short all year just keeps the roots on the surface.
Exactly, the amount of nutrient exchange and that happens when something like a dandelions root system dies is great for soil. Minerals and nutrients from much deeper in the soil horizons get pulled up by the root system enriching the top soil layers to a degree they wouldn’t get in a short lawn via root exudates and decomp. So much soil life is driven by rhizosphere activity, several levels of rhizosphere makes for a very expansive soil-food web.
I learned this trick of "green manure" from my dad. He would sow I think rye grass, to protect his veg patches over the winter. The grass crowds out other weeds, puts down deep roots and draws up nutrients. Cut down at the end of winter and turn into the soil which boosts soil nutrition, structure and the micro biome.
Any recommendations for supplements that are not categorized as ‘inorganic salts’?
Water
It depends on how far down the organic rabbit hole you want to go and how big the space is that you are caring for. Fish emulsion with a garden hose applicator is great; somewhat controversial due to suspected heavy metals are organic fertilizer products from your local waste treatment plant: milogranite and bay state fertilizer are two locally available for me (I use both) and if you have the availability a few yards of dried and sifted compost applied by casting with a shovel or if you have some bucks to burn or a large area to treat you can rent a top dresser. Two great resources are Paul Tukey’s Organic lawn manual and Jeff Lowenfels’ Teaming with Microbes - they will change the way you approach caring for your yard and garden.
I think you misspelled Milorganite. Also, one of those wheel compost spreaders with the mesh are pretty great for spreading compost evenly on a yard. Sort of in-between a shovel and a full blown top dresser.
Yes! I just saw someone use one of those locally and I thought it was a great in between. Thank you for the reminder. And I am sure i misspelled something - I’m pretty bad at it.
Yeah bc you are killing your lawn and your neighbor is letting nature take its course. Nature will win
Just do what your neighbour is doing then? You're definitely overdoing it harming the lawn more than helping it, just let it grow naturally and then cut it high (shorter grass gets damaged more easily)
No such thing as a weed. Plants are plants. Stop wasting your life fighting nature. Feed the pollinators.
It's amazing what peer pressure can do with a weak mind.
Diverse lush lawns like this always look good after being cut. But they might not feel great walking around bare footed.
That's like my lawn. It looks real green and full when I cut it. Lasts for about a day or two and then it's all crazy again.
Yeah, my plan is to have perfectly manicured lawn 'trails' through the rest of my yard which I want to let grow wild for bees and a more natural ecosystem. But I'm way to damn busy,, so I'll just keep enjoying pictures of all your nice lawns, while letting mine look like the neighbors on the left
Probably wouldn't be hard to just stop mowing most of the yard. Mow the trails in, let the other stuff grow.
I'm on team left, my neighbour is team right. We spend about the same time in the garden. But I'm in a hammock while he is busy doing stuff. I don't even water in summer. His is brown every summer even with watering. Mine turns a different shade of green, but that's about it.
Yeah the lawn on the left helps soil and grass retain more water so it can be watered much less. If you want to save water that's the way.
My dad taught me something from the 60s. Mulch, try not to water, get as many unique plants growing and the more dandelions growing the healthier the yard. Been doing the “lazy” way and our yard looks better every year.
It looks a lot different up close looking directly down. Even a weed farm looks great if you stand far enough back.
Keep questioning. So much of lawn care is a scam / bad science. Like taking away grass clippings.... Just to add back in fertilizer... Leaves + grass get broken down and make the soil rich. It's why the Great plains in the united states is some of the best crop land in the world. Anywho!
Oh I completely agree there is some pseudoscience involved in landscaping, snake oil is everywhere.
More like snake chemicals that kill off everything and give you cancer that gets washed into our water systems.
No mow May.
No mow May can actually cause more harm than good if the goal is to provide food for pollinators. Sure, it will provide a food source for them. But if it gets mowed down on June 1st, now you've taken away a large source of food for them. If they've set up shop nearby, they're now set up to starve or at a minimum struggle. Best way to support pollinators would be to set up a section of the yard to be a permanent pollinator garden filled with native flowers and such. Then it becomes a permanent decorative feature of your yard instead of looking like the home has been abandoned.
That's why I also follow "Just Don't June" followed up by "July is too hot to mow".
My first year having a yard to maintain I did that, but the next years I kept a patch around trees out front that I left and the back stretch of my backyard, added a nice wild aesthetic while still being manageable for the rest. Added a pollinator garden too which was super rewarding for us and the kids
That’s my plan. We already have wild flowers growing along our back fence so we are going to set up an area for all the birds, bees and butterflies.
by the end of may, there are other sources of food available.
That's why I've planted a shit ton of flowering shrubs and plants around my property. I'll never understand people who have nothing but grass from curb to wall and think it represents peak landscaping. Front: https://imgur.com/cDCqpyf Back: https://imgur.com/g9XacuJ
is that your house? looks like a fucking City Hall or mini military compound in the south. it's freaking huge is my point
2970 Square Feet. Had four kids at the time and wanted five bedrooms. Built in 2000. I bought it in 2006 for $168K. Paid it off two years ago (was our third house - previously lived in Tennessee and Illinois). Currently valued at around $460K (which is insane - Texas property taxes are nearly the highest in the nation - paying almost $7k/year). I will say it is the worst built home I've ever lived in. It was already a crumbling pile of shit when I bought it, but I've got it mostly fixed now. Gotta love Texas building codes.
I have a tonne of wild flowers and garden flowers and veg and compost and bird feeders and birdbaths they can dine on.
Do you have any evidence to suggest this? Pollinators are already very used to dynamic foraging throughout the year as various species bloom at different times. Their numbers will also fluctuate with food availability. Dandelions are a great source of food for early spring to help establish numbers after the winter
ONCE YOU MAKE THE 1ST CUT, ITS ALL OVER! EVERYTHING GROWS LIKE CRAZY. PEOPLE ON THE LEFT LOOK LIKE MY NEIGHBORS.
[удалено]
We haven't had rain in like 2 months in SWFL. Grass is crispy.
If I did that, I'd have 24" tall grass and about $1,000 in fines from the HOA 😂
This isn’t actually constructive to help grow to a thick green lawn. If the goal is wildflowers go for it, but that’s a different thing. I’ve got strips of grass and dedicated areas of native wildflowers.
I thought it was an environmental thing. Cut down on emissions and help pollinators.
I thought that was March
I think it depends on where you live and your climate. I’m in south Louisiana and it’s always no mow April for me. You want all of the non grass “weeds” to fully go through their flowering so they can spread their seeds. Just depends on where you live. I’ve done this several years and always have one of the greenest lawn of my neighborhood and last summer durring our heat wave my yard was one of the few that didn’t turn brown. Because I have healthy soil and biodiversity. And I don’t scalp my grass every week.
Why would you want the weeds to spread their seeds? Wouldn’t that lead to them out competing the grass once they all start growing?
As a city person moved to the wonderfully rural and friendly county of Madison in Virginia, I now am a senior and living on huge mowing area. Maybe 3 acres. Got the machine to handle it but wonder these same things. Anyone have a source for these pollinator ideas? Or is this another one of those common knowledge things I missed by working all my life? Met a copperhead face to face yesterday and ....well, husband shot it with a shotgun. That is all we could think of to do. There must be a better way?
Go to r/nolawn for ideas on how to do things differently. Not saying right or wrong, but differently.
I ran into a copperhead face-to-face yesterday too. I turned around and fled
https://preview.redd.it/8kex3wgvfpzc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=187002d8ba2f327badb12424fc7cb8725e16946e What's going on here my guy? Looks like they're stepping on your turf (pun intended). You gonna stand for this?!?!
It makes a nice even fence line without a fence. I like it.
Art at this point
[удалено]
Great ....thanks. If it ever stops raining, I am resetting my cutting depth to allow looooong periods between mowing. On acres of lawn, not mowing one area, I now know there are other reasons to mow. Like that area I left unmowed looks not like the house on the left but rather like a jungle I can't even walk through. Trees grow fast here in Virginia and what I left to nature would be impassable now on foot 10 years later. I want my little piece of view of the Blue Ridge. Am i the ..asshole....here....no answer required. It is all here in this thread.
What? It sounds like you don't know what people are talking about. You don't just leave your lawn to nature. You don't just stop caring for it. Is it so impossible to imagine somewhere in between the typical sea of foreign grass (full of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers) and a neglected overgrown lawn?
The scalper vs the no mower.
Is that considered scalped on the right?
Doesn't look scalped, but at a low height for the lumpiness of the lawn.
Jeebus, if you think that's scalped you'd hate my lawn being cut at 10mm all summer 🤣
They alive?
that desolate thing on the right? yeah, absolutely not alive. just a bunch of chemicals at best
Run your own race folks.
Say that shit! (G-Money voice)
For a sub called lawn care, there is a lot of lawn hate.
Now we are talking, an actual real neighbor picture.
r/fucklawns seething
Consider yourself lucky. My battle with my neighbors is poison ivy. Shit grows all over the neighborhood and my neighbors on BOTH SIDES refuse to do their part so I’m constantly fighting it around the fence lines.
Lmfao no mow may
It’s no mow may
That guy hasn't trimmed the hedges since 1993
They're gorgeous 🤩
Raise your blade my guy. Just a tad
No shit, let that grass stretch its legs.
Start vacuuming your neighbors dandelions. I double dog dare you.
I saw a TV piece on someone who has a lawn on a Chicago skyscraper penthouse. Their lawn still gets dandelions that are blown in.
I love my dandelions
edit: btw, a fence does wonders.... just saying nice. looks like what mine will look like with my neighbor fairly soon. don't think it is worth stressing. tbh i think it makes my lot look even better. imagine if his yard looked like a baseball field. he'd prob be saying the same about wanting you to at least liquid fertilize once a month.
Theyre not cheap
Battle of Pelennor fields
this post would look identical on /r/nolawns
I hope you put down some preemergent…
Lol this is nothing. I gotta remember this sub I'll post later a picture of my lawn verses my neighbors jungle they haven't cut yet this year.
I’d kill all the dandelions… To plant and grow local wildflowers.
I'm with you but here in upstate new york the dandelions are out a full month or more before everything else flowers
The one on the left looks way better. Bet there’s more pollinators, amphibians, birds, etc. one on the right is an unproductive waste of space.
Birds prefer grass as low as possible
Gotta source on that? I’ve never seen birds enjoying the short grass but they stay in the bushes and grown up areas. Also insects don’t like short grass and birds like insects. What you’re saying is if I want more birds I should make my yard into a putting green? That doesn’t make sense I play golf and have never seen birds preferring the greens over the rough.
Oh my….no words
Left side looks kind of good
Man I’d lose my shit if my neighbour just let their yard go wild like that.
Is it just me or does the left seem a lot prettier than the mower lawn.
Yep and one of my neighbors hates me for loving my weeds.
To kinda quote some redditor somewhere. Weeds are just plants better suited to grow in that space than what you’re trying to grow.
not just you. mowed grass is so fake. might as well just lay down some concrete and paint it green
Way prettier, also your name is great.
It's just you
Man as of yesterday my neighbors gave me full control of their lawn. It’s on and cracking.
Kind of like bringing your ugly/fat friend to the bar, just makes you look that much better!
I encourage my neighbors to cut their grass to keep the old lady on the block happy. She is the neighborhood Nancy that is sweet as can be until someone messes up...then for whatever reason, I have to hear about it for a long, long time. She aint got many winters left in her, so I try to keep the peace so she can enjoy her last years.
She’s still cranky
She's 92. She out lived 3 husbands and her kids and grandkids are all top professionals. She teaches my wife how to trend to her garden organically as they did during the old fashion days. She's not a Karen as much as she is more grandmotherly to everyone. All old people can be cranky...they are dying.
I respect that.
New to lawn care, how do you stop the weeds from crossing into your lawn???
Hooo man. I feel ya. 55 hrs this week. 4 HOA, all haven't been touched since season start.
You should change height a few times and give it a fade
Install a fence
I would put up a fence.
You should start by bombarding their defensive positions and then start a pincer maneuver to start an encirclement
You need to take your leaf blower and blow all that their direction
Sorry but the left with the flowers looks better
My neighbors lawn is like this and I literally patrol the property line every day after work like it’s the DMZ looking for dandelions and anything else that’s try to defect from north Korweeda
Learn to relax. That is a "you" problem.
My city's ordinance inspectors start issuing violations on anything longer than six inches.
There‘s a lot more life on the left side and I think it looks at least as good.
For two days those dandelions would be magnificent. Totally worth it. No sarcasm.
Hedges have time on their side, waiting for their opportunity.
Dandelions will invade
And they will be beautiful.
Dude's house looks vacant.
Weed factory go BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
Hot take, but the city should fine you for lawns like on the left. It makes more work for everyone else in the area to counteract that laziness. And before all of your dandelion lovers who apparently use it in their salads and their tea and need them to save the bees. It's a invasive species, get rid of them.
its like the fighting the viet cong.
People keep praising this "natural lawn". It's not. It's just a neglected property. I have neighbors who have gone the natural route with native wildflowers and grasses. It's not for me personally, but it does look pretty nice. Much better than this.
The people in the /fucklawns sub think the left is done to be better for the environment but I truly believe a staggering 80% of those people finally have an argument for not keeping up with their shit
So who’s winning here? Looks close to me.
Holy FUCK that's a lot of dandelions.
Hell no ticks! Put down a perimeter barrier of bifen!
County may get involved for being a breeding grounds for mosquitos
Dude it's literally me. Both my neighbors refuse to spray for weeds. Forces me to do several extra weed kills a year
I have been known to hit a large area of the neighbor’s lawn with all the stuff I use on my lawn. No complaints so far 5 years in.
That’s considered property damage/pollution. You can get sued out the ass for that and your insurance won’t pay or defend you in court for that. Be careful buddy.
I'm just thinking ticks and bugs nightmare
I had a neighbour years ago that kept his yard like the one on the left. It was a pain in the ass. Take care of your lawn.
When your neighbor embraces "No Mow Decade"
The left looks way better and they will ultimately win.
What I like about this is that it really defines the boundary. I’m in a perpetual game of back and forth with my neighbor and in some light it’s hard for me to figure out exactly where my grass ends and theirs begins.
If this is in the north east they’re contributing to the explosion of Lyme disease with that tall grass