My mom was a well-trained gardener who volunteered hours at the local “extension” (university dept that answers any & all gardening Q’s). At some point she converted her big lawn in to a clover lawn, with the benefits being that it could feed pollinators and didn’t need to be mowed, since that type of clover only grew to a certain height.
Soon after she passed, the person in charge of the lawn decided to wipe out the clover and reinstall some type of lawn grass. I couldn’t believe it. They even explained to me that it was necessary, because mowing a clover lawn could be dangerous due to rocks potentially being kicked up…
<insert smacks-self-in-head emoji>
Do… do rocks just spontaneously appear in the ground in his world? Like how people used to think frogs came into being
That’s the rock fairy bro. That or if there are already rocks they, you know, breed and stuff.
He’s probably had some experience with moles. They’re so small but they’ll fuck up all your landscaping. And they do bring small rocks up with their mounds sometimes.
In his defense, I suppose a certain amount of small material (including a few little rocks) would probably accumulate over time, hidden by the clover. So that part’s kind of fair, I guess.
Just that, if you don’t need to actually mow it, then what matters it? If I had to speculate, I’d guess that he was used to a lifetime of grass lawns, felt a comfort zone there, and was always a bit uneasy about the clover lawn. And yet, didn’t feel up to arguing that with a certified Master Gardener while she was still alive.
That was wonderful thanks for posting!
Man i found this bloke on YouTube the other week.
His videos are great, there’s a mix of short and long form content.
Deserves so many more subscribers then he has too
I really wish people would include the channel name in the post. I’m very reluctant to click on a YT link if I don’t know what channel it is.
Make Thing With Hand
I just recognised the guy and the style of thumbnail
I’ve never understood the obsession with the plain grass lawn. Even aside from ecological reasons, I’d rather have native plants just because they look better.
The joy of people is, no matter which your neighbor has, they will inevitably find a way to make it look bad.
As a counter argument, lawns are a resilient, walkable surface that’s pleasant to sit or walk on. It’s great for children and pets. I haven’t come across a lawn alternative that is suitable for the load of dogs and children. But I don’t spray, and I do not use a gasoline mower.
I have my lawn bordered with a mix of native and nonnative ornamental plants and trees, forming about 30% of the available land.
The problem is with lawns that aren’t used except to serve abstract purposes, such as signaling status, adhering to socially conditioned ideas of beauty, or holdovers from the colonial impulse to terraform.
For example, I’ve lived in my home for nearly two decades and have not once seen any neighbor use their front lawn other than to mow it. Many are the same way with their backyards. Blocks and blocks of this type of land use, all over my city. This is what the nolawns movement is about.
Well it started as a wealth symbol because the amount of energy, labor, and money it took to maintain a pure grass lawn was immense. No one ever saw a well manicured, pure grass lawn outside of mansions and palatial estates and such.
Then we got push mowers and fertilizer and weed killer and sprinklers - everyone could have their own green carpet!
But yeah, fuck lawns. Might as well just roll out AstroTurf.
The solution to lawns isn’t plastic.
“Might as well” was meant to indicate that I don’t think lawns are different from AstroTurf. Lawns might as well be green concrete.
Having a lawn also showcased one’s status as a wealthy person who didn’t need to grow food crops on their land
More than that, it showcased status as a wealthy person that could afford to hire servants to care for unproductive grass… or, in some cases, afford to have slaves to care for unproductive grass. It’s more impressive than just leaving the dirt bare or letting weeds grow wild, it required intensive inputs to maintain.
One of my neighbors has a plain grass lawn. And to his credit, he puts in a lot of work into it. I’ll see him multiple times a week spending hours maintaining it, buying and spreading mulch, watering, trimming, raking, the works.
But it just looks so boring and unnatural. I can’t imagine why he would put in all that time, money, and effort into something so unremarkable.
