[HN Gopher] 'No mow' movement could transform our lawns
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'No mow' movement could transform our lawns
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 24 points
Date : 2023-04-22 18:19 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| orobinson wrote:
| My grandfather was famously anti-lawn-mowing[0]. His un-mowed
| lawn eventually sprouted some rare bee orchids among a vast array
| of other wildflowers. It always looked beautiful when we pulled
| into the drive when we went to visit.
|
| [0] https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-
| ga...
| aaron695 wrote:
| [dead]
| brucethemoose2 wrote:
| This is going to vary by climate.
|
| Here in south Florida, if you can _see_ the grass growing in the
| rainy season. Its insane. If you don 't mow your lawn for a
| month, it will turn into a knee deep bug and snake infested
| jungle... its literally a health hazard.
|
| In some dry, hot places, it would actually be good for the grass
| itself. Everyone I knew in central Texas cut their grass too
| short, as it stays greener and needs less precious water when
| long.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Well you don't ever want to cut your grass too short in one go.
| Always 1/3 of its blade length until its lowest recommended
| height. Otherwise you put the grass in shock when it's already
| finding water hard to come by.
|
| Central Texas grass and generally any warm season grass is more
| drought and sun tolerant.
| technion wrote:
| Same here in Australia. I've had about six weeks not mowing due
| to a few weekend projects and now it's leech infested.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| I always seed my lawn with clover every spring and only cut every
| three weeks. Clover not just helps pollinators but also fixes
| nitrogen in the soil. My soil was a blasted waste land when I
| bought the house. Now it's a rich soil with plenty of life in it.
| dieselgate wrote:
| Interesting perspective how the article seems to recommend mowing
| less and to a taller height rather than not mowing at all. Fair
| enough. Not mowing ever at all Can be dangerous for fire risk,
| ticks, and fox tails for dogs/animals/livestock, etc.
|
| Edit: grew up in a rural area where we would mow acres of fields
| so may have a different background than others.
| superchroma wrote:
| I don't mind mowing my lawn. We compost the clippings, and it's a
| non-trivial amount every fortnight. I recommend this. Make sure
| you don't use herbicides on your lawn if you choose to do this.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| I mulch my beds with my clippings. Composts and retains
| moisture
| thenerdhead wrote:
| > By manipulating lawn mowing frequency, we established that
| lawns with the three-week mowing treatment had significantly
| greater floral abundance than the one or two-week treatments, and
| that the two-week mowing regime supported the highest bee
| abundance yet the lowest bee richness and evenness (Fig. 2; Fig.
| 4b, c, d).
|
| So mow every two weeks and you'll support the bees.
|
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00063...
| pvaldes wrote:
| Spending valuable gasoline and resources to have grass extra
| short and the soil dry is stupid in our current situation of
| climate emergency.
|
| Cities should let the grass grow three times longer than now,
| save water, and use the scarce resources in neglected projects
| that are much more urgent.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Consider replacing your grass with clover if your local
| jurisdiction will tolerate it.
|
| https://germination.ca/need-a-bit-of-luck-turn-to-a-clover-l...
|
| https://www.bobvila.com/articles/clover-lawn/
|
| https://www.outsidepride.com/seed/clover-seed/Clover-Seed-Pl...
|
| https://www.bhg.com/how-to-plant-a-clover-lawn-6750469
|
| Your local Extension office is a valuable resource.
|
| https://extension.org/search_gcse/
| angry_moose wrote:
| It varies by region what you "should" plant and is worth
| checking with your local organizations.
|
| University of Minnesota has developed a low maintenance bee mix
| that's pretty great - mix of fescue, creeping thyme, self-heal,
| and clover. https://turf.umn.edu/lawn-info/purchasing-seed/bee-
| lawn-seed
|
| Ours should pretty much take over this year and choke out the
| rest of the bluegrass. Last year was dramatically better
| already and it was only half established.
| flangola7 wrote:
| Where I live it's actually illegal for HOAs and local
| jurisdictions to forbid your from having natural/non-grass
| yards.
| MandieD wrote:
| And where is this slice of sensible?
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Tremendous, you love to see it.
| andrewmcwatters wrote:
| Yeah, no. Absolutely not. Some jerk in my historic district
| reported my home to the City of Phoenix because among battling
| various other renovation challenges and taking care of family,
| our grass had grown past city ordinance height.
|
| You know what the punitive fine was? $1,000/day.
|
| I don't even live in an HOA, thank heavens.
| crazygringo wrote:
| If you choose to live in a historic district, you know very
| well you're going to have to follow a lot of rules about
| appearance, including grass height. You knew that going into
| it, or should have.
|
| I don't know why you're calling someone a jerk for reporting
| it. The whole _point_ of historic districts is to maintain an
| incredibly strict appearance. If you don 't want to follow the
| rules, don't live there.
| nimbius wrote:
| Speaking from experience, if you live in the united states you
| should be very cautious with this.
|
| Many municipalities and hoa's have pretty draconian expectations
| for your landscaping. Municipalities in Florida and Ohio have
| litigated and fined homeowners for that which they perceive as
| nuisance plantings or general nonconformity.
|
| My former residence, while not under a hoa, did have a township
| restriction that inundated me with calls and mail from the city
| demanding I remove my front lawn herb garden and tomato vines. I
| had to fight the city for nearly four months before they dropped
| the issue, but they even went so far as to send landscapers to my
| doorstep to "confirm" an appointment I never made.
| vuln wrote:
| > but they even went so far as to send landscapers to my
| doorstep to "confirm" an appointment I never made.
|
| Do you know this for a fact? I wouldn't be surprised if some
| enterprising lawn engineer decided to use publicly available
| list of "ordinance violators" as a lead generation tool.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://archive.ph/dQZOc
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