this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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People on here always talk about how lawns need a bunch of fertilizer to work, but that never made sense to me because we've never done that around here. But then I learned that's because everyone just has clover growing along side their grass.


Anyway I think shaming people for their lawn is a bad idea. I think killing your lawn will only catch on if it's presented as a way to make your lawn cooler. You're not a bad person for having a lawn, but you could change it into something so much more interesting by including native flora.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We have one that barely has any grass left. We are surrounded by meadows and there is so much just random plants growing. Don't tell me our lawn is bad since the obly difference between it and the surrounding meadows is that we mow ours.

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Pretty sure the mowing is the exact problem. Can't remember if it's solved by using an old school push-powered mower or something

Edit - after looking into it, seems like push mowers don't help because Americans eating meat will cause as much pollution pushing a mower as using gas? Not sure

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Why is mowing the issue? If you just leave it be it grows too tall.

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Would you prefer I cut it with a scythe? I already do that with a particularly steep part of the grass

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I don't think I trust the studies saying human power is worse tbh. Cultivating food uses CO2, cows eat plants before we eat them, the plants drink CO2 from the air. Lawnmower takes power out of the ground and injects pollution in the air. Scythe has to be better

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

An electric mower runs on sunlight (at least mine does), at some point their batteries will be recyclable. They have to be better than both

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Electric is definitely about as bad as gas for mowing a lawn. The gas you're not using is just being used by someone else, if not more, because you're helping subsidize the petrodollar economy by paying orders of magnitude higher cost for batteries+motors+solar power than you would pay for a push mower or probably even a gas-powered mower. But you also have to factor in the other environmental damage from manufacturing and shipping the batteries and solar panels which you make it really difficult to avoid by demanding the mower be electrified, whereas if the mower was push-powered it would be up to suppliers whether they feel like wasting their fuel shipping it across the planet or just manufacturing it with materials found closer to you

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Solar power systems pay for themselves in four years, and typically last week in excess of 20.

It doesn't make sense to think they have more energy or material in their construction than they make, as then they would be more expensive

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 days ago

Any petroleum used in their production is subsidized by the petrodollar economy, though

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I thought a push mower might help but some studies say it might be worse. I guess the recommendation is to plant something other than grass that naturally stays good to walk on, maybe? I'm still learning about this myself

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Half the grass behind the house is dead anyway and was replaced by moss naturally. The issue is the moss would dry out faster and die in the summer. The current situation is probably the best

[–] RickAstleyfounddead@lemy.lol 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What on earth is happening now?
So cheap lawns are trending in this context am i right?

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Grass lawns is a landscaping trend that came from the British aristocracy. Who had large manicured grass fields around their mansions.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Are you still dressed like this?

Then why does your bed still look like this?

18th century bed

Look, I get the idea. Lawns are bad. But, the argument is a stupid one. Just because things haven't changed in a few centuries doesn't mean they necessarily should change. Beds are essentially the same design as hundreds of years ago because that design works. Why are lawns necessarily different than beds?

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Lawns were easily maintained by the livestock that simply ate the grass. What we are doing now is a facimile of that by wasting energy to pretend sheep live nearby.

Do you have livestock? By all means have a lawn, it makes sense!

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

I don't care about lawns, what I care about is the bad argument claiming that just because things were done a certain way 300 years ago means that they're necessarily bad.

[–] greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Depends on the livestock. Some are top grazers like cows and other eat all the way to the base like sheep (this one can kill the grass)

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Beds don't have an adverse effect on our ecosystem like lawns do

Also beds back then were made of straw and rope, maybe feathers if you were rich. Nowadays they're made of a precision engineered combination of different types of foam and springs, all topped with self-cooling materials, placed on bases that can detect if you're snoring and automatically adjust the mattress's angle and softness to get you to stop. Beds are way fucking better than they were centuries ago. Yards are still useless wastes of space.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Also beds back then were made of straw and rope

Mattresses, maybe. Beds were beds. The basic design of beds hasn't changed.

The point is that some things haven't changed in centuries because they do the job just fine. So, the argument that "this is the way it was 300 years ago, therefore it's bad" is a shitty argument.

[–] shiftymccool@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The basic design of lawns doesn't need to change: a relatively cleared area around a house. The exact composition of the lawn can change, though. Why does it need to just be some genetically modified grass that provides nothing? Let natural grasses, clover, and flowers take over.

I'm pretty convinced HOAs are causing firefly extinction (among others). Better spray your lawn, i see a dandelion. Fire up the single-stroke leaf blower to push that one leaf out to the end of your driveway for the next 20 minutes.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 days ago

The basic design of lawns doesn't need to change

I'm not really interested in lawns, just the bad argument that was used to claim that something being in use 300 years ago means that it's necessarily out of date and needs to be replaced.

[–] webp@mander.xyz 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The point is things need to change when they no longer do the job just fine.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Then say that, instead of saying "do you dress like this?"

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ok but lawns have always been bad. Their whole original purpose was so rich people could flex their ability to leave some of their land useless. The whole point was for lawns to be useless. So like, the argument of "this is the way it was 300 years ago therefore it's bad" is actually valid in this case. They were useless then, and they're still useless now.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't care about lawns, I care about the bad argument claiming that if things were done a certain way 300 years ago, they're necessarily bad.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah you keep saying that, but that's not really the argument being made. If you'd actually read all the text, you'd find the argument being made is that lawns are no longer environmentally sustainable, which is just true.

Just because something was done 300 years ago doesn't mean it's ok to do now. And acknowledging that isn't saying that things that are old are necessarily bad. It's just recognizing that things change.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's what's in the tiny text at the bottom, but the actual argument as presented is "it's the way things were done in the past, so it's bad".

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Mkay well now you're just stubbornly refusing to see reality lol. I hope you don't do this with every piece of media you see

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm seeing reality, you're seeing what you want to see.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 59 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

www.healthyyards.org is the link in the image. I'm not affiliated with it in any way, I just hate when people put links in images and you can't click on them. Almost as bad as texting someone a QR code. Motherfucker, what am I supposed to do with that, get another phone to scan it?

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

Heal thy yards

[–] beveradb@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Screenshot, share to binary eye, done 🥳

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Kind of amazing that people still need to be convinced to wear helmets while riding.

You'd have a hard time convincing me to ride without one.

[–] beveradb@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Same, but it's actually a charity I started recently to fundraise to buy bikes (and helmets) for teenagers who sign up for a cycling club at local high schools! There's a bunch of kids who are interested in the club but can't afford their own bike. Cycling is pitifully rare here in the US so I'm hoping to improve that in a small way 🙏

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In that case, masterful self plug.

Where are you located in the US? I think I have a few unused bikes.

[–] beveradb@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks! South Carolina - details on https://helmetheads.club/ if you're actually interested in supporting, anything is appreciated!

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[–] jared@mander.xyz 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] dumbass@aussie.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because I'm also on a lot of cocaine and I've cleaned the entirer inside of my house to surgical standards.

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[–] scytale@piefed.zip 9 points 1 week ago

Because of bullshit HOA rules.

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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