this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 7 months ago (1 children)

aesthetically pleasing

???

[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Putting green lawns are boring.

[–] FuglyDuck 47 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So... there's now a trend, at least in the city... of people putting out astroturf or.... even cheaper... forms of fake grass. like. EWW.

[–] Frozengyro 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

At least they aren't mowing the grass weekly? It's something, though I'm not sure if that's a net positive in the end.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] FuglyDuck 15 points 7 months ago

Oh… no…They have to wash it,

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago (5 children)

"wasteland" is a bit strong. Non-native grass is not ideal, but we could do far worse. Good on you for improving your land. Let's not force everyone to be perfect, as many will just give up.

I think the focus on perfection leads to poor mental models and outcomes.

[–] kadu 37 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

You're correct, but the north American concept of a "well kept yard" being two random trees and a bunch of freshly trimmed grass is absolutely horrendous. Beats an actual wasteland, but when most of your neighborhoods have rules that enforce this way of doing things it's a lot of wasted potential and does bring ecological consequences.

Again, while not ideal, actually living backyards with several native species could act as a local metapopulation model, with sources and sinks across the different houses.

This is something that people could and should take seriously and make active efforts to change. You already have the space, you're just not using it correctly.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Focus on perfection? It's harder to maintain an ugly cut grass lawn than to just let it go wild and plant some native grasses/plants to overtake it.

[–] BassTurd 7 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I really hard to play ball or have other activities on a non grass surface and many people particularly enjoy the look of a nice cut lawn. Both can coexist.

[–] mojo_raisin 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Ya, grass isn't inherently a bad thing. A lawn where I live in some serious desert is grotesquely wasteful, an appreciated lawn in other regions not so bad.

It's not the grass, it's capitalism. It's the eradication of native species for profit, and the spreading of fossil fuel derived fertilizers and poisons to support conspicuous consumption (real-estate values, golf, keeping up with the Joness, etc) that is problematic.

[–] fireweed 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Except most grass, especially border areas like front lawns and street medians as well as corporate-owned lawns like around a drive-thru or suburban offices, gets zero use. It's one thing to have a dedicated play area in a yard or park that's cut grass; it's another thing to have the entire property as cut grass.

Everyone in my neighborhood has large cut grass lawns. There's mostly retired folks here are very few children. I spend a lot of time outside yet can literally count on one hand the number of times I have seen people out in those yards for a purpose other than cutting the grass. If you're not going to use it at least let the dandelions grow so the bees have something to eat!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Nah, manicured lawns can't coexist with healthy ecosystems. They're hugely wasteful in general. There are alternatives that are equally nice to run on like clover and many areas have their own soft ground cover that's native. The best thing about native plants is that they're almost always lower maintenance. It just doesn't make sense to keep wasting water and other resources on lawns imo.

I recently let my garden grow wild and it's crazy how many flowers came up on their own. Now I've got all kinds of little critters and birds I hardly ever see elsewhere. The only thing I pull are goat head weeds because fuck those things lmao

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[–] whoreticulture 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (12 children)

Wow what a horrible comment to be at the top. There honestly isn't much worse than an invasive plant monoculture. Like yah maybe it's better than an asphalt park? But does the bar need to be on the floor? Thanks for detracting from the already difficult work of convincing people that invasive plants are detrimental.

[–] TORFdot0 7 points 7 months ago

Relevant username

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Interesting thought, what makes you say perfection creates a bad mental model?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

It is great to have goals and want to improve. Being accepting of incomplete change and process is better. Personally, I like the photos that provide inspiration and some written direction for easily improving a situation that could be similar to mine.

Only accepting perfection tends to drain motivation. It also presumes a lot about ability, uses, values, and resources. It also drives wedges between people.

"I hate ugly monoculture yards" is not an helpful for changing minds as "i love native grass yards. Even a few accent areas are great." I fail at this all of the time. It is important that I get it right some of the time.

As for perfectionism creating poor mental models, the results tend to be fragile. If one must be perfect and able all of the time, it will fail. The models tend to not allow for different abilities, resources, or desires.

I hope this was clear. Cheers

[–] bizzle 26 points 7 months ago

I planted a bunch of native prairie on my property just yesterday ☺️ feels good!

[–] JokklMaster 14 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Is there a way to have more native plants growing without increasing ticks? I just bought a house and have a couple areas it would be great to not have to maintain, but I have dogs and don't wanna have to worry about ticks.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

You'll have to decide which plants are native to your area, but there are certainly plants that ticks don't like.

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/plants-that-repel-ticks/

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I live in a small unit that had dusty ultra-compacted dirt around the house that was called a lawn. I broke the soil with a hoe, threw a few bags of soil mix down and planted some moss I harvested growing wild down the laneway. 2 years later the ground is mostly covered in a spongey moss. Give it a few more years it'll be completely covered and thick.

It requires virtually no mowing and needs little water. Apparently growing moss is even good for air and ground water purification. Not sure how much purifying it's doing but it's good to know I'm doing my little part.

If you have a small yard, grow moss.

[–] gingernate 3 points 7 months ago

That's cool!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I'm seeding an empty lot with native perennials but it's pretty clear that two or three invasive species are beating them out.

[–] angrystego 6 points 7 months ago

Please, don't forget about the local native grasses. Not every grass is evil grass!

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