Indeed @Busy-Lizzie. I'm getting slightly tired of all the 'gardener bashing' that goes on nowadays, when the truth is - most gardeners probably do more to help their surroundings and wildlife etc, than anyone else. At our last house we had large areas of grass. You couldn't possibly have cultivated it all without hideous expense, not to mention trying to keep the rabbits from eating everything.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We have a healthy population of bees living in our lawn. They don't seem to mind the lawnmower, but struggle to find their way back to the right nest if we let the grass get too long.
The article seems like the standard carp from somebody who doesn't like something. They can always find examples of the worst practice to support their argument.
As others have said it’s not lawns that are the problem, it’s what people do with them that’s the problem.
Im in the opinion that as long as it’s vaguely green I don’t care what ‘weeds’ grow in it.
Hi, no mow may sounds great but it's worth looking into it more deeply if you want to help wildlife. There has been discussions about how it can actually be harmful because all the creatures are attracted in before the grass is mown back down. Froglet's, grasshoppers, caterpillars etc hide in the long grass and have no where to go when the blades come. It's much better to just leave one area of grass long for the summer. My brother mentioned he heard something on the radio about it today, so that's several bug experts who have viewed their reservations about it, so its definately worth reading more on the subject.
The article seems like the standard carp from somebody who doesn't like something. They can always find examples of the worst practice to support their argument.
As a Proof Of Concept here are 2 short extracts from the aforesaid article where I have replaced "lawn" with "garden" (and a couple of other similar replacements too):
"I hate gardens," says Abbie Richards, who takes a hard line on them. "That idea of being entitled to your own useless piece of multicolored carpet, just to say you can afford it, without putting it to the use of, say, growing food. Gardens are symbolic of our lack of thought, of the collective ignorance of so many of our actions... But [to move away from gardens] requires a cultural shift." Indeed, some people, such as the residents of California [...] are now even being paid to rip out their gardens. They get up to $2 (£1.53) for each square foot of mixed border that they remove, with the state also offering subsidies to those who have artificial flowers installed.
But imagine living in some dry American state, in a suburbs, a decent neighborhood but having a HOA with a ton of rules. One of them being that all front gardens have to be lawns, just lawns, perfect green lawns and nothing else. Imagine watering this lawn on Sunday morning, all houses around exactly the same, all front gardens the same, no fences between them, just perfect grass. Imagine seeing your neighbor, who is a jerk but you are polite to him anyway, doing the same thing, watering his lawn. Everyone doing it, everyone hating it, but everyone still requesting it from everyone in the HOA.
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I'm getting slightly tired of all the 'gardener bashing' that goes on nowadays, when the truth is - most gardeners probably do more to help their surroundings and wildlife etc, than anyone else.
At our last house we had large areas of grass. You couldn't possibly have cultivated it all without hideous expense, not to mention trying to keep the rabbits from eating everything.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi, no mow may sounds great but it's worth looking into it more deeply if you want to help wildlife. There has been discussions about how it can actually be harmful because all the creatures are attracted in before the grass is mown back down. Froglet's, grasshoppers, caterpillars etc hide in the long grass and have no where to go when the blades come. It's much better to just leave one area of grass long for the summer.
My brother mentioned he heard something on the radio about it today, so that's several bug experts who have viewed their reservations about it, so its definately worth reading more on the subject.
Sometimes it gets a bit muddy, and can be full of dandelions, daisies and clover between cuts.
Indeed, some people, such as the residents of California [...] are now even being paid to rip out their gardens. They get up to $2 (£1.53) for each square foot of mixed border that they remove, with the state also offering subsidies to those who have artificial flowers installed.
I suppose if you were an antelope, you might consider lions to be the worst.
But imagine living in some dry American state, in a suburbs, a decent neighborhood but having a HOA with a ton of rules. One of them being that all front gardens have to be lawns, just lawns, perfect green lawns and nothing else. Imagine watering this lawn on Sunday morning, all houses around exactly the same, all front gardens the same, no fences between them, just perfect grass. Imagine seeing your neighbor, who is a jerk but you are polite to him anyway, doing the same thing, watering his lawn. Everyone doing it, everyone hating it, but everyone still requesting it from everyone in the HOA.
That's my definition of hell.