My lawn is good for a couple of things. Mainly, it’s a place to sit without being overwhelmed by insects. But the main thing it’s good for is having a catch or playing some wiffleball with my son. If not for those things, I’d be happy to let it become an extension of the forest I live in.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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We live in the suburbs and our yard is small in the front and small in the back. My husband got a battery-powered lawn mower, which cuts both parts on a single charge. It’s quiet and efficient and no fumes.
We’re in our fifties and we’ve considered moving to a condo close to downtown and giving up house and lawn care, but we’re not there yet.
Our days of croquet, kickball, and soccer with our sons are long over. It wouldn’t be hard to say goodbye to all of the maintenance.
We built our house 20 years ago on 5-plus acres. Everything out here had been corn and soybean fields for generations. On all that acreage there was but one single tree. And ancient old oak right out by the road. We mowed everything for the first couple of years. But as I mowed I kept seeing little seedlings here and there. Tons of maples, but there were also a variety of little oaks that would pop up. With the wet ground we usually had, there were cottonwoods and sycamores, too. I told my wife one day that I was thinking about letting the back three acres just go, and see what happened.
During those intervening years, we watched as the small trees continued to pop up and grow. It first turned into a grassy meadow, rife with wild blackberries and tons of milkweed, which would attract hundreds of butterflies in the summer and early fall. We started seeing critters we had never seen before. A spotted fawn bedded down in the high grass, waiting for its mother to return. Curious foxes darting in and out of brush. Rabbits and squirrels dashing around. As it grew up, I decided to cut a single path, the width of my mower deck, from the front to the back, so we and the dog could wander back there without getting loaded down with ticks. As time went by there were more paths cut. Meandering around through different areas of the lot. I supplemented the trees that mother nature was planting with seedlings I got every year from our County Soil and Water Conservation Office. My brother ran the tree program and I would buy a few bundles every year, and he would usually show up with the trees that didn’t sell, and I would dutifully plant them around.
It’s taken twenty years, but that entire acreage is now largely all wooded with a wide variety of native trees. We have opened up a small section in the middle and added a fire pit. The trees there around the pit have been cleared enough to allow is to sit there and gaze at the night sky, especially good during meteor showers. Other than that, it is simply what mother nature graced us with by simple natural seed dispersal and a few rogue plantings by me over the years. It has become our little nature preserve, which we have found we share with all sorts of interesting creatures.
Two of our neighbors were so taken by what happened with our lot that they started allowing large portions of their property to revert back to woods, too. So what started as a way to reduce some mowing time in the hot summer sun has been returned to me thousand fold. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Mike, that sounds awesome!
Here’s wishing you clear skies and happy viewing!
Perseids peak!! also wonderful!
Wonderful!
My wife and I go on power walks in our residential neighborhood in drought-stricken California. Essentially every time we walk she will praise a front yard with no lawn and curse a property which has a green lawn.
She doesn’t mess around.
Here in the LA suburbs, we got rid of the stupid, useless, water-hungry green lawn last year in favor of drought-resistant local plants. Added some boulders. With the pre-existing large pine tree, it has a handsome Low Sierras look.
Can’t claim credit, but I have noticed since we switched out that a number of our neighbors have followed suit, some with good natural-looking results, others went ultra-cheap with gravel. At least it wasn’t artificial turf, which I’ve noticed on too many homes in the more upscale stately homes just to the north.
One of the status-flaunting inventions of the modern age were lawns that complemented formal gardens and required expensive tending.
As the bourgeois (the townsfolk) gained in status, they emulated their betters and adopted the lawns in front of their townhouses and even space for yards for lawns.
With the massive suburbanization after World War I and World War II the farmfolk come to town started D-I-Y gardens and lawns with the inspiration of many home and landscaping magazines and the growth of the nursery and lawn supply industries.
The attraction was still the expense, but in time. “I have my weekends off and can work in the yard.” [but you serfs don’t]. Or “I’m so affluent I can hire people to keep my lawn.”
And so, a yard and lawn became a de rigeur necessity for keeping up property values. Heaven help the homeowner who dared plant a vegetable garden or fruit orchard in their front yard in many neighborhoods.
Glad you are using the acreage of you lot for the activities you decide and not those dictated by custom or trends. Have fun with Finn. They grow up fast.
… provided your HOA allows your green lawn to be taken out. I think that is changing though, especially in CA.
Green lawns make sense in some non-drought areas, so long as they aren’t poisoned by constant chemical spraying which, sadly, is the case too often. Among other things, I got tired of constantly having to remind our mow-blow-and-go guys not to add any chemical treatments.
The leisure aesthetic of lawns and gardens was truer in the past, when people performed manual labor for a living. Now the dynamic is inverted; most people, even working class folks, don’t do manual labor for a living. Therefore, gardening (or other hobbies) is pretty much an outlet for making and building stuff.
At least that is the case for me. Except my garden requires almost no maintenance (the landscaping was well done). I pretty much do an involved weeding once every two months and that’s all it needs. The lawn, which is generously 200 square feet, takes a reseeding and a quick mowing every once in a while. But I like long (4″) grass anyways.
I hate bugs, and gazing out over a vast nanicured kawn makes my soul sing with joy. But as it happens I live in a condo complex so I have no control over my tiny front yard
My wife and I bought a hobby farm in TN, mostly so our dogs (DeerHound and Wolfhound at the time) would have a place to really stretch out the running muscles.
Now that we have moved to MA, we have a new hound (Pharoah with terrier) and a small OES(65lbs), I’m getting a new week end property in Western MA.
Its all for the dogs, of course, I have no ulterior motives at all.
Our lawn is mostly landscaped. Purchased the house in the middle of winter so we didn’t value the work the owners had put into it. But the landscaping is really nice. Much nicer than just lawn everywhere. We have some lawn, too. Not a whole lot. It’s a small yard, overall. Takes 10 minutes to mow with a reel mower.
We bought our place 7 years ago, and we’ve been taking chunks out of the lawns every year. Some for relatively low-maint decorative bushes and flowerbeds, but also a good chunk that I planted with native wildflowers, mostly those that appeal to butterflies and such. My goal is to get the amount of actual grass down to where I can mow it with one of those little rotary push mowers. (Yes, they’re still being made!)
My wife, our son and I live in a house that’s set in the woods. We don’t own much land but we back up to miles of woods that cannot be cut or developed because we’re in a watershed. In front of our home we have a small lawn. If it were up to me, I’d let it revert to woods. But my wife likes having a bit of grass. Takes me ten minutes to mow. That’s all I do. I don’t even dump the clippings. Just let them mulch.
A few weeks ago I found a self propelled mower at a garage sale for $50. So I gave away the old one that had to be pushed. In a way it’s silly. Our lawn is totally flat. There are hills in front of and behind our home but the lot is level. Still, I gave myself permission to be a wuss. I figured at 53 I’m entitled, particularly when pushing a mower over a lawn I don’t want as an act of love for my wife.
The lawn idea comes from England. Different climate. And the gentry had their gardeners. I love English gardens but lawns not so much. The crazy thing is the way a so-called well tended lawn became the sign of a responsible homeowner. I figure if you want a lawn, go to a park.
When I left the suburbs lo these many decades ago, through the simple expedient of graduating high school, I swore I would never mow another lawn, or shovel another driveway, again.
And I haven’t. Enjoy your lawn. It is an unnatural creation that serves no useful purpose, and will only bring you grief. Ditto the driveway.
Sucker.
We will continue to enjoy our lawn with our family, thanks. And our woods, which make up the other 2/3 of the property. Regardless of how you feel about it. 🙂
Lawns are also good for keeping forest fires away from your house, if you live in forest fire country.
“Defensible space” free of easily ignitable materials (including house, especially roof) is
The scientific data are very strong in support of this statement.
I’ve followed these matters quite closely and professionally at times, and have never come across any evidence that having that defensible space be a green lawn provides any additional benefit. OTOH, the evidence that defensible space free of easily ignitable fuels is protective of homes/structures is rock solid.
It’s so nice to see so many BooTribbers leading lives of privilege. The real U.S. proletariat has no such options. Try to remember that when you argue for centrist votes. The U.S. has a had a creature of entirely centrist interests in the White House for a long, long time…at least since Bush I, maybe since the JFK assassination.
Look at where it’s gotten us.
Here is the result.
Look, goddamnit!!!
Most people who can afford to debate lawn ownership and congratulate each other for going green need a month-long remedial lesson about life on the other side of the lawnlands.
Bet on it.
Come live inna Bronx for a month.
I’ll trade ya, even up. I’ll even care for your damned property during that time, lawn or no lawn.
Later…
AG
P.S. Buying a weekend house, eh DerFarm?
Nice.
I’ll remember that next time you write one of your shallow, two-dimensional centrist screeds.
Meanwhile, back at Der Ranch…
All’s I can say is…
Later…
AG
Can You Dig This is a great movie about “guerrilla gardeners” in South Central LA who create functional gardens (mostly vegetable), frequently opposed by city regulations which insist on useless turf grass. One of the stars, Ron Finley, has a Ted Talk on it.
One of the striking things, to me, is how interesting and attractive these gardens are compared to the sterile lawns they’re replacing. They’re full of shapes and color and variety and are just a fantastic improvement over bland lawn, visually as well as functionally. They help form a community too – it’s touching in the movie to see how inspiring it can be to grow things.