#lawn
The lawn is now one single level. Dumb chore. Next up, I have to find my work gloves so I can specifically murder Cypress Spurge, which infects my garden because the boomers I bought the house from thought it was pretty. Also invasive and toxic, and I suppose pretty if invasive and toxic didn’t dull the pretty. #lawn #today #invasive #toxic #chores
On the Swedish island of Gotland there's been a competition for the Ugliest Lawn to celebrate those who haven't wasted water in maintaining grass. It's raising awareness and showing that a lush lawn isn't necessarily worth wasting all that water.
#GoodNews #Sweden #Water #Lawn #Grass #Competition #Efficiency #Nature
Anyone have an idea what is digging divots in our front lawn? These holes are everywhere. It looks like a dog did it, but it's only our front yard, no neighboring yards. Back yard is unaffected. The strip on the other side of the driveway is also untouched. #lawn #gardening #pest
Here is a #Medium article that highlights negative consequences of large scale #lawn maintenance.
>We’re consuming gargantuan amounts of #water and #pesticides, emitting clouds of #pollutants, and shredding #biodiversity, just for [it].
The author offers alternatives for more ecologically responsible lawn maintenance as an outcome of #research being performed at #Cornell.
#ClimateChange #biodiversity #cleanwater
(PAYWALL ALERT)
https://clivethompson.medium.com/its-time-to-kill-the-lawn-46ecb2e1ba9a
![Photo by Petar Tonchev on Unsplash
>We’re consuming gargantuan amounts of #water and #pesticides, emitting clouds of #pollutants, and shredding #biodiversity, just for [lawn maintenance].](https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/cache/media_attachments/files/111/115/763/574/482/358/small/dc4e957a711a5ca5.jpg)
After over 60 days with high heat and no rain in my area of TX, there are two groups in our neighborhood: 1. Those with green lawns, but no green left in the bank (water bills); 2. Those with green in the bank, and beige lawns. #water #climate #lawn #ecosystem #sustainable
"Over the last two and a half years, our group has been visiting lawns of all kinds across the Twin Cities as part of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Long-Term Ecological Research project focused on urban nature. These assessments include identifying and recording plant species found throughout the lawn as part of the Effectiveness of Pollinator Habitat objective." #lawn #horticulture
Is this plant pretty or pretty invasive?
By Ryan Schwab
https://turf.umn.edu/plant-pretty-or-pretty-invasive
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we have our own awesome turfgrass program over at the University. Know your weeds!
(Yes, evidently, "turfgrass" is all-one-word.) #lawn #Hinterlandia #Minnesota
If you like that kinda thing:
https://turf.umn.edu/
“We had pollinators, we had herbivores, we had predators, we had parasitoids — this complex web of this insect community that mimicked nature,” Mr. Bittner said. “Which was one of our goals in establishing the native lawn, to create this beneficial native-plant habitat. It far exceeded our expectations, in numbers and complexity.” #lawn
A Viable Alternative to Conventional Lawn? Cornell May Have Found It.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/realestate/native-grass-lawn.html
#Dandelion is full of vitamin C, #calcium, antioxidants, fiber,.. Dandelions were brought by European settlers. Unfortunately, dandelion is now treated as a #weed People will mow them down when they see them in their #lawn.
However, mowing your lawn too often actually promotes dandelion growth because dandelion is more drought tolerant than grass. It grows faster than grass in the dry summer. It will spread open to block the grass from getting sunlight.
Well, it's Saturday. The morning is clear and temperate. The grass stands tall and insouciant.
We must change that.
Jean-Michel is nervous and impatient to be loosed from his pen.
Soon, we'll ride again for honor and the HOA bylaws!
Lawn, control and the colony - Life after lawns
Lawn "are monocultures made up of a handful of species that require frequent watering, fertiliser and – often – pesticides."
Lawn is “nature under totalitarian rule”. Michael Pollan
"At a larger scale they also suggested a permanence and control that assuaged anxieties about the fragility of colonial control. Andrea Gaynor, professor of history at the University of Western Australia, argues that while some settlers appreciated the beauty of Australian landscape from early on, that “didn’t override the necessity to provide a civilised veneer that meant the colony could project an image of itself as stable, settled and prosperous, and therefore an attractive field for investment. So the cultural aspect is deeply entwined with the economics of the whole enterprise.” Simultaneously lawns helped encode and reinforce racial and social hierarchies. “Lawns were understood by Perth’s white residents as the antithesis of, and vastly superior to, Indigenous landscapes and cultures,” says Gaynor."
“Even in a drying climate we’d rather run desal[ination] plants than do away with lawn. It really shows how deeply ingrained lawn is in Australian culture as a symbol of civilisation and environmental control.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/02/no-mow-is-australias-long-love-affair-with-lawn-ending
#Lawn #colonialism #SettlerCulture #monoculture #suburbia #landscapes #CivilisedVeneer #FossilFuel #pollution #biodiversity #conservation #climate
#vss365 (#prompt: lawn)
Dirt grew in the cracks of her knuckles, spreading down from underneath her fingernails and along the nail beds. Mats of dandruff drifted like snowflakes from the roots of her hair. Her odor went feral and became strong enough to knock out the city inspector who came to investigate complaints about her wildflower pollinator #lawn. Her body became like the lawn: an intentional cultivation of wildness.
“They see loveliness where we see a desert, and where we see vibrancy they see shameful neglect. We have slow-worms, grass snakes, newts, dragonflies, and mice and voles of various kinds; they have a #lawn. But a lawn isn’t just a lawn: it’s shorthand for a network of social assumptions”
Fiona Mathews & Tim Kendall
#gardens
#tidiness
#wild
Artist’s date week 8
Following Julia Cameron’s advice, I started to take myself in artist’s date. It’s not always about art but today I discovered these felt tips at a local store and decided to sit in the park, listen to the fountain and wind in the trees. And stressed mums (oh, how I feel them ), helpless grandparents, and doodle for a bit. (Edited to add the actual photos 😂)
#Tree #Green #Outdoors #Plant #Grass #Lawn #Leaf #Field #art #doodle_art #artistsdate #juliacameron
@GrrlScientist
Well, this is certainly a step in the right direction.
What exactly is a "functional grass #lawn," anyway? #Grass lawns are strictly #decorative, and therefore non-functional by definition. If a patch of grass has a legitimate function, then it's not a lawn. Native grasses for #soil #erosion prevention? Functional. #Lawns and #golf courses? Non-functional.
Note to any butthurt #golfers out there:
A golf course is *not* a legitimate function of grass. Your #GolfBall will roll just fine on any moderately flat surface. Find a way to play your #SillyGame without #KillingThePlanet, or find a new silly game. #SorryNotSorry
California bids farewell to the ornamental #lawn https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-08-13/editorial-drought-nonfunctional-grass
House of the French poet Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) in Normandy, France.
I was expecting the interiors to be preserved and styled in the way Prévert used to keep when alive. Unfortunately, the interiors are all replaced with tables and shelves with placards, souvenirs, and books for sale. It's more of a store than a trip to the past.
#Normandy #france #LaHague #house #lawn #nature #photography #amateurphotography
Lawn wars 2023 - Northern campaign
Rode into battle this morning on my trusty mount Jan-michel. We cut down their numbers with every charge but I am not fooled, we have only purchased a week's delay in their onslaught from our brave actions here today.
Also, sorry to my neighbors for the shriek of terror, that garter snake took me *completely* by surprise.
My parents have a small patch of grass in front of their house but it's not a dull green "dead zone" lawn. It's all one creeping plant that remains green year round, can handle heat and drought, and blooms Spring through Fall. It requires very infrequent mowing and handles footsteps quite well. It is full of life!
Corsica, France.
This grows as weed in Texas but HOAs would be horrified to see a flowering lawn.
Ban #Lawn Watering
We have a small "lawn" in the middle of the forest. Most of it is dried moss and buttercups this time of year. I would welcome any advice on where to begin to bring it back to health. I've never really had a "lawn". During summer it's like a solid moss/buttercup carpet over the dirt. Help!
#Homophobic #neighbor tears up #prideflag in man's #yard, so he covers it with 800 pride flags
Addison had installed one small rainbow #lawn #flag and it was #torntobits, so he decided to #uptheante.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Hate #Bigotry #Homophobia #Transphobia #Hatecrimes
I wonder how long it would take to breed a variety of moss that is better suited to being a #lawn. It seems they are ok with light foot traffic but that's it.
Not that most lawns are really walked ok.
Given all the land that lawns take up, they could make a significant carbon sink
TIL about Olla's for watering plants.
https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/garden-ollas
In light of climate change, and stupid people who insist on wasting water on lawns, I feel like someone needs to see this.
Thriving #biodiversity, increased #resilience, reduced #CarbonEmissions due to less mowing and fertilisation, 25% more sunlight reflected hence reduced ‘urban heat island’ effect....some of the striking benefits of a wildflower #meadow compared to a traditional #lawn.
'A break from the lawn: Can an iconic meadow seed wider change?'
The example of King's College in Cambridge
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/kings-wildflower-meadow-a-break-from-the-lawn
I am trying out a (new to me) technique to convert grass to a border. Covered the grass with a layer of cardboard and garden earth. By the time the cardboard has broken down, the grass should no longer want to come up. This is only a small strip to try out. No idea if this will work.
#artistsgarden #garden #gardener #gardening #artist #wolfkettler #gardenwiltshire #wiltshiregarden #wiltshire #NoDig #lawn
We bought our house in 2019 and stopped mowing the #lawn, to the exasperation of our neighbors (ok, the first 2 yrs didn’t look so good 😂). But now we are reaping off rewards, our lawns rewilding and getting lots of flowers like forget-me-nots, wild strawberries, lady’s mantle, columbine, and even raspberry bushes. ❤️The ground holds water much better: while our neighbors’ grass is slowly yellowing due to a watering ban, ours is holding quite well. I highly recommend to re-wild your lawns!
Drought-plagued #Nevada pledged to do away with 3,900 acres of grass – roughly 3,000 football fields' worth — in the #LasVegas area within six years.
But a ProPublica analysis found that the state grossly overestimated how much of that #grass would likely be removed.
#Vegas #Climate #ClimateChange #Water #ClimateCrisis #Lawn #Drought #Rain #Golf #Southwest
Silly article on #lawn #wars. (I have no lawn, only natives and garden -- but mostly as a result of owning a home on a circle with no front lawn area). "Lawn wars consume America's neighborhoods" https://www.axios.com/2023/04/30/lawn-wars-mow-may-bees-pollinator-turf?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_source=twitter
Follow on news on No Mow May. We have reached the end of the month without being panicked into an early cut or having to answer "what if it rains and the dog traipsed grass cuttings in the house?" Our mower, Mo, is scheduled to take this on starting on Friday at noon.
One of the bonuses of letting nature take over your lawn is wild strawberries
And now for something completely different (besides my regular web / Linux based posts) - Lawn Mowers!
"My Robotic Mower Woes"
Don't mow your lawn - enjoy the wildflowers!
Daisies watercolor painting - find it here:https://karen-kaspar.pixels.com/featured/daisies-watercolor-painting-karen-kaspar.html
and here: https://www.artheroes.de/de/motiv/Margeriten-Aquarellgemaelde/1151401/132
#noMowMay #wildflowers #daisies #MastoArt #art #AYearForArt #painting #FediArt #FediGiftShop #artist #arte #InteriorDesign #MastodonArt #ArtistsOnMastodon #TraditionalArt #kunst #contemporaryArt
#watercolor #watercolour #ArtCollector #BuyIntoArt
#flowers #flower #gardening #garden #floral #nature #NatureLover #blumen #environment #gardens #lawn
Yesterday I saw my first bumblebee of the year. She was buzzing along a pristine lawn looking for something to eat. I hope she found the dandelions on the next lawn over. Lawns are food deserts for pollinators. Weedkillers starve bees. Pesticides kill more than just the pests. They kill bees & songbirds, too. Don’t make life harder for them (and us). Grow native species so our nonhuman relations have a fighting chance. #ecology #LandDefence #UrbanWildlife #Pollinators #Lawn #FoodDesert #LandBack
I want to do the #wildflower #lawn thing. But a big reason is to avoid work. "First remove all vegetation" from an acre is too big an ask.
I just want to sling a burlap sack over my shoulder and start broadcasting. Maybe with spiky shoes first to make holes.
Or perhaps an #invasivespecies is the way to go here.
Et tu regarde le mec avec sa débroussailleuse à fil à essence en te disant: "So uncivilizied!"
Cudowny kompost
Cudowny habitat dla ptaków, które mieszkają w budkach obok (podloty czują się tam bezpiecznie, bo żaden kot nie może się zaczaić niewidocznie)
Cudowny habitat dla drobnych kwiatów jak stokrotki i koniczyna, które niedługo zdominują tę „pustynię”
Trawa dzika, polska, rosła jeszcze za II wojny światowej ta sama.
#lawn
Let #dandelions grow. #Bees, #beetles and #birds need them
May, 2015
"As I write, thousands of hectares of such #wildflower habitat are being destroyed under the blades of our #lawn mowers, and the bees, pollen #beetles butterflies and #moths are going hungry. As a weed, it’s one of the most unpopular of the bunch: dandelion tap roots are notoriously hard to dig out, the plants have an almost unrivalled knack of propagating themselves, including in walls and cracks in paving where nothing else would live, and – to add insult to injury – they are often the first flower we see in spring and the last in autumn. The dandelion is bold and brash and unrelenting. But that is why it is brilliant. It’s virtually everywhere and nearly always in flower; it’s the #pollinator’s best friend.
"#Bumblebees, solitary bees and #honeybees all visit dandelions for food, along with hoverflies, beetles, and #butterflies such as the peacock and holly blue. #Goldfinches and house #sparrows eat the seed. Yet most of us gardeners miss out on the spectacle of watching wildlife feast on our dandelions, because we wage such a war against them as weeds."
Planting and maintaining a #bee #lawn
University of Minnesota Cooperative extension
"Are you interested in doing more to help our native #pollinators? You can make your lawn do double duty! A bee lawn can not only provide a recreational space for you, your family and your pets, it can also provide much-needed food resources for bees and other beneficial pollinators."
Quick facts:
- Bee lawns have flowers mixed in with turfgrasses such as fine fescues and Kentucky bluegrass.
- The flowers of a bee lawn provide food (nectar and pollen) for pollinators.
- Bee lawns are environmentally friendly because they are managed using low-input methods that generally use less fertilizer and pesticides.
- Bee lawns can still be used recreationally by your household like a regular lawn.
- A bee lawn can attract over 50 species of native bees.
#Gardening #GardeningForPollinators #NoMowMay #Bees
Read more:
https://extension.umn.edu/landscape-design/planting-and-maintaining-bee-lawn
Clover requires less water and fertilizer than grass; plus, it's magical looking.
By Ilana Strauss, July 21, 2022
"Clover is becoming popular because it looks magical but doesn't require as much care as regular lawns. Since it doesn't need fertilizer or much water, it's also good for the planet. Plus, it's tough.
"You don't need to water microclover as much as grass, and don't even think about using an herbicide on it. You can add fertilizer if you want, but clover is pretty good at keeping itself fertilized since it naturally pulls nutritious nitrogen out of the air."
#Gardening #GardeningForPollinators #NoMowMay
Read more: https://www.treehugger.com/how-plant-clover-lawn-4858751
On #EarthDay I bought myself a reel lawn mower! No fossil fuel required, no pollution, no noise. Plus exercise!
My lawn areas are small and the front lawn I'm converting into a native plant landscape.
My favourite thing about the Fediverse is that a whole bunch of extremely awesome folks I remember from my very early years online twenty-five years ago or so but sadly kind of lost track of, just... keep turning up here. It's like having a bit of the Good Old Internet back. Magical.
Let's see how long it takes before #Saanich #bylaws folks tell us to cut our front lawn. I would convert whole front #lawn to native/food plants field, if bylaw folks didn't force us to mow it every year. I let a lot of backyard space go wild & am actively trying to #rewild more of it. I loathe groomed lawns & think they're a waste of space & water (& gas/electricity for mower - to maintain). I am a huge supporter of #GrowFoodNotLawns #GlobalMovement 👩🌾✌
gifted @washingtonpost article about the importance of #nativePlants in the #homeGarden - or at least, the importance of getting rid of #invasives and leaving the #nonNative #nonInvasives as "decorations". And yes, minimizing "#lawn" to encourage #nativeSpecies to flourish.
I've been given a stay in the form of 3 inexplicably dry days here in Seattle and now a perfect bluebird morning so I guess it's a sign from the universe to do that last lawn mowing and yard cleanup. #Lawn #Mowing #HomeOwnership #AdultingSoHard