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Lawns & The American Obsession

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
In many parts of the USA we have a lawn fetish. We spend many hours a year and many hundreds of dollars making our lawns green and lush. We cut them with $300+ lawn mowers that bag, and/or mulch the grass clippings. We fertilize 4 times a year to feed the grass and nurish the soil. We use gas powered machines to edge the sidewalks, and blow the grass clippings off the pavement. Wew have gas powered trimmers to wack the weeds and stray shoots of grass that the mower can't quite reach. We rake the leaves during the fall, and water the grass so it will stay green and beautiful during times of drought. We do things with lime to alter the ph. Sometimes we airate (spelling?) and/or thatch to get more air into the soil. There are sevices that will check your soil samples to determine what chemicals you'll need to fix fungus problems. We are truely nuts with the green green grass of lawn perfection.

What about you? What about the traditions of lawn manicuring in your country? Are you obsessed with having the perfect golf coarse type lawn?
 
don't even get me started on this. the amount of water wasted and the chemicals used to kill weeds and pests which then leak into our water supply. gas consumption!!!!!!!! grass is an unnatural environment for living things, it drives away all the good bugs and wildlife and only encourages the very insects we spend all the money on to kill. we feed it and water it and feed it and water it to keep it green and lush when it naturally wants to go dormant come august. people spray shit all over it, it goes in the air and we have to close our windows to keep all that shit out of my air in my house. the kids and dogs can't go on it. i hate it. hate it. we have lawn. i have never watered it, never fed it, or sprayed shit on it to kill dandelions or whatever the hell else people hate. do you know what? it grows faster than the freakin' guy next door and i go out 2 times a week and cut it with my man powered push mower. so i will live 20 years longer than buddy because i am getting all this excercise.
do i resent that people in my neighbourhood spray stuff that stinks and kills bugs all over the place for the sake of a green lawn and then i have to bring my kids in on a sunny day even though they claim it won't do anything to humans and animals. news flash!!!! if it will kill ants and weeds that will grow in the middle of pavement i am willing to bet it ain't too good for my kids lungs.
but i'm not bitter.
 
I don't fertilize, weed, or even water my lawn. I probably wouldn't even spend the time mowing it if I didn't have neighbors. :D
 
I do absolutely nothing to our lawn :eek: Technically it is part of a field which has been fenced off on one side. It gets mown every three weeks by a farm hand but apart from that it's left to its own devices. The part the dogs go on is mostly mud anyway with very little grass.
 
Good thread, Moto.
I am the garden-obsessed one really.
Our piece of land is about 7 years old or so, and we started to think about lawns only last year - it had been enough to build things on the land or to look after workers.
But I've spent a lot of time on planting and tending for many kind of forest trees, that now grow on our land.
So, last year we started to make lawns. We made three, but one seem to be dead already - not enough light, too much humidity...
Other two looks OK - but I have to cut them each week. My grass cutter is not an expensive one - just $400 or so, by Gardena. The only thing I do not like about it - its tendency to kill frogs. If there is a frog nearby - one could be sure my cutter would find and kill it.
And, you know, I bought a new fence! Usually Russians build impenetrable walls of brick, concrete, metal sheets or wood, up to 3 - 4 meters high. And my fence is just about 1,50 m, and is quite easy to look through. It is almost impossible to find such a thing in Russia, so I had to buy in Belgium. It costed me a TON of money, but at least I have what I had wanted.
 
My little postage stamp of the world is not quite golf course quality, but it's one of the nicest in my neighborhood. It's always well trimmed and cut. I don't go in for the watering part, but I do fertilize at least twice a year, and use insect control too. We've had 3 dogs in the 16 years we've lived here and never had a flea or tick problem. This I contribute to keeping the grass cut, and the weeds at bay. It may not be "natural" as jenn alludes, but it's beautiful, and increases the value of my house over my neighbors. Pride and care to the outside signifies pride and care on the inside. I love the look after I cut, edge and weed-wack. Sometimes I cut in a differnt pattern each week to get the "cut lines" to really show up and differentiate between my neighbors yard and mine. We never have ant problems or cricket problems like a few people in out neighborhood. They are the ones with shabby lawns and overgrown yards.

no god damn dandylions in my yard, and very little clover. I don't want anything that's not green and thin growing on my watch.

I love the green green color of spring. And my yard is part of that. I love the smell of the first good cut of the year after winter. I dig it when people walk by as I'm cleaning up and comment on how great my house and yard look. I'll take cutting grass over shoveling snow any day, and I'll fertilize to get what I want.

No apologies either.

Green is great!
 
I don't own a house but this is my idea of lawn maintenance -

Mow with an old-fashioned multi-blade push mower (all manual kids), leave the dead grass where it falls, rake the dead leaves and use them to cover your garden. Weeds? If you don't like them get rid of the grass and surround your home in cement - or just move into one of those lovely inner city apartment buildings that don't have yards.

If I ever get a house I'm putting up bat houses for mosquito control - just thought I'd share that.
 
I want horsepower. Give me horsepower. I want gas and oil. I want 2 stroke mix that smells like the race track on a summer day. I want to bag the clippings and leaves if I want, or mulch them if I'm so inclined. I want crisp edges along my sidewalk and driveway. I want no wayward shoots of grass along my fence.

Man has made technology and I want to use it, and benefit from it.

If you're so concerned about the environment then why aren't you driving electric cars and heating with solar power? Why aren't you wearing hemp clothes and eating only what you grow, or hunt and kill yourselves?

Power mowers are sweet, and I love mine. Power..power..power.....
 
I've had enough of mowing to last a lifetime or two, which is why I have a 14-yr-old. :D The hub likes to keep about 7 acres mown, mostly brush-hogged, (no kidding) and frankly I'd just as soon have it go to hay. I try to plant things that don't need mowing, like phlox and periwinkle and ivy, wherever there's a danger of my ever having to mow.

You want horsepower? Boys will be boys. Hub's idea of a little light gardening is driving a huge New Holland tractor into the field and pushing the land into new configurations. Chainsawing. Backhoes. That sort of thing. My goal is to make the perennial garden completely maintenance free. The John Deere is for the kid.
 
Renee said:
I don't own a house but this is my idea of lawn maintenance -

Mow with an old-fashioned multi-blade push mower (all manual kids), leave the dead grass where it falls, rake the dead leaves and use them to cover your garden. Weeds? If you don't like them get rid of the grass and surround your home in cement - or just move into one of those lovely inner city apartment buildings that don't have yards.

If I ever get a house I'm putting up bat houses for mosquito control - just thought I'd share that.
Click to expand...

Well, my place is a little large for a push-mower! LOL! :D At over two acres of grass, I'd get finished just in time to start over!

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But the dead grass does stay where it falls, because our mower is a mulching sort. We only use chemicals when the fire ants get out of control (a medium sized nest is over ten BILLION ants, and can literally overcome and KILL a full-grown goat in about two minutes! :eek: Sorry, but they're toast wherever I find them!)

The big red, grass-harvesting ants have full run, because we have horned lizards (most know them as horny toads -- ever seen one?) and wild turkeys that think they're delicious, so they stay under control. But they can't eat the fire ants. Pity.

Yes, our bats and purple martins keep the mosquitos and biting flies under control!

Weeds don't live in St. Augustine grass -- the variety is slow growing, meaning little mowing, and sends runners out that choke out the weeds. We also have one whole section of our yard that is devoted to native wildflowers which stay all year round and attract lots of butterflies and wasps (which ALSO eat ants!)

Pillbugs (roly-polies) digest dog and goat droppings, so you never have to pick them up or step in them. They're gone in about two days!

The snakes are welcome -- they eat the mice and rats that live near the pond. Well, except for the rattlesnakes and coachwhips. They're too aggressive. Fortunately, the cats and the turkeys think they're yummy!

But the garter snakes, ratsnakes and lizards, several varieties of frogs, turkeys, deer, rabbits and squirrels are quite happy here!
 
Motokid said:
If you're so concerned about the environment then why aren't you driving electric cars and heating with solar power? Why aren't you wearing hemp clothes and eating only what you grow, or hunt and kill yourselves?
Click to expand...


i do a lot of things. we walk more than drive, we can't afford an electric car or we would have one. we have been looking at solar power. i don't wear hemp clothes but 95% of the time they are second hand, and when we lived in the country raised our own meat. also nova scotia is one of the world leaders in recycling.
i also do not have air conditioning, we keep our house cool in the winter, turn off lights in rooms when we leave and are careful about our water consumption.
 
--nope, mowing the grass and shoveling the snow are the only two things we do in our lawn and it's bec the law required us,we don't have enuff $$$ to waste on grass that will soon wither as soon as the season ends,even if we do have it, we might spend it to something else that we think really worth the price.
That's another thing I notice here in US, they spend so much money for so many things that is not important,and it's not even last for a year.
 
What an interesting discussion!
Really, that's great to use less power, to conserve nature and all that. And it is best when a person is inclined to do so, not made by some authority. As I think that a person can live a life one chooses: if one could afford golden toilets and wants to have them - he can have that, if there is no law against it. So, only our own conscience should direct us, and not angry green-lovers, or angry cement-lovers, or any other variety of angry people.

As to me - we heat our forest hut in cold periods with electricity only when we are away - so that the water would not freeze... Or at nights, when it gets too cold - we have Noirot panel radiators, which allow for very fine temperature regulation, and they automatically switch on when needed. And in daytime the heat comes from a french 7 kWt oven - I use lumber from the fallen trees, which are aplenty in the nearby forest, for that.
Most of light in the hut swithes on by heat detectors - so the lights are on when you are about, and off - when you leave. The same with water - you can wet your hands only when your hands are near the fixture.
To filter my underground supply of water I was offered American system which needed magnesium for clearing the filters once a week, and that magnesium had to be disposed of after use. That could kill off every little bug nearby if anything happened, so I installed the much more expensive filters which use oxigen for clearing water.
And I forgot to mention that every structure I have on our 1500 sq. meters is made of wood and very thoroughly insulated, to cut on heat losses... That helps not to have air conditioners installed too, as good insulation works against overheating in Summertime...
I water our garden with an automated system with rain and humidity-detectors integrated, so it doesn't spray water when it isn't needed.
And my neighbour comes even further - he wants to install a "Thermal Pump" to heat his house - it costs much, but uses almost no electricity, so is very nature-friendly...

And, yes, I have the lizards to eat the ants, but, alas, there are not enough of the lizards... And there is not enough birds, as we have a family of falcons nearby...
 
i think it is the responsibility of authorities to set regulations for the environment. contrary to popular belief this isn't our planet, we are part of it's ecosystem and we are the only ones who systematically destroy it. not everyone is going to do their share. big corporations will almost always go for the bottom line over environmental safety. we obviously cannot live altruistically, but we can make an effort to do better by the environment. i don't think having weeds and brown grass in autumn is such a huge sacrifice for a healthier planet.
 
As far as I know grass is a living, breathing plant. In some small way the photosynthesis that keeps the grass green helps the oxygen - carbondioxide exchange that keeps the air fresh and pure.
 
yes it is. but it doesn't do half the job that trees would do and all the benefits get lost in all the shit done to lawns. not to mention the water wasted. i'm not anti lawns, i'm pro green. have a lawn, take care of it, but don't be lazy and spray it and then use a gas powered leaf blower to "rake" it. i do this crazy thing with weeds, it's crazy. i should write a book. step one, locate weed. step two, bend down, step three , with gardening tool, loosen weed, step four, yank weed out by roots and chuck in compost. voila!!!!
 
oh brother. but it's common sense (and adveritising) obviously grass has benefits, but trees and plants and shrubs and flowers are better. and as i said, have grass, just don't go polluting your neighbourhood for the sake of green grass. hostas and ferns and evergreen shrubs while not only adding character to a dull, flat, green canvas, also are hardy, require little care, and will do more for the air than lawn ever could. and you're not going to have to spray the hell out of them. flowers will encourage insects and birds that will naturally take care of annoying pests, and isn't it way more interesting to watch the birds and the bees than the grass grow?( careful how you answer this, it's a loaded question)
 
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