Some folks say lawns are bad. So what is the better option?
Since lawns are bad for the environment, what do you think lawns should be replaced with?
Optional poll if you want, since this place doesn't have polls,
https://submatrix.net/article/Polls/CYL6qLm7eL
I might add some of the suggestions
I think the common answer is native plants.
Fediverse community links:
https://threadiverse.link/slrpnk.net/c/nolawns
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Yes, I keep slowly expanding my mulched native flower bed.
If you're in the US, Prairie Moon Nursery has a great selection of exclusively plants native to North America and ships. Live plants tend to be best in the spring, their seed mixes are excellent in late fall. And they have a lot of how to guides.
Gardening stores should more commonly have seed packs of hearty local plants that make good lawn replacements. People shouldn't either be stuck researching and sourcing seeds or just giving up and doing clover.
Thanks! Came here to link this lol
native wild flowers and grasses make for a very pretty garden imo, and benefit nature a lot
As you're "asking Lemmy", I think the most Lemmy-like option is to set up a sort of paved guillotining area to be used to execute billionaires.
Once they've been culled to an appropriate level, they can be composted down into good soil.
Then you can rip up all the paving and deinstall the guillotine(s), then plant your moss/wildflowers/veg/local plants/bee-friendly plants etc.
Made me laugh, good one
Letting what naturally grows without adding water grow.
It takes a LOT of work for most people to go from lawn to native plants. Disturbed earth will grow invasives first. I’ve got an unwatered 10x20 space that I hand weed, carefully preserving natives and desirable volunteers. If I don’t stay on top of it, it’s all burr clover, Himalayan blackberry and puncture vine in no time. I had hope that if I could reestablish natives it would settle down and be maintenance free, but it’s been too many years to keep that dream alive.
This generally doesn't work in suburbia.
Its called a meadow yard or some such.
Theres one on my street, been like it for a decade or so. Its just weeds and Kikuyu from the neighbours.
A residential block is always going to need to be manicured to keep undesirable plants out.
My mom always just mowed whatever grew in the yard and called it "grass" and that's all I have ever done. Mow the weeds, who cares? They get nice flowers, the bees like them. Except bull thistle. We dug that up with prejudice before it could flower. But as far as lawn, that is just a mowed space where I grew up, and I did grow up in a suburb, though not a house farm sort of development, not an HOA situation. And it's just a mowed space where I live now too. Maybe 1 house in every 10 has the literal Grass Lawn, with the chemicals and monoculture. 9/10 have a mix of whatever.
Mowing removes undesirable plants as they don't have a chance to flower. It's the same thing.
When I had a house with a shady yard, it was mostly moss. It won't take a lot off foot traffic but it doesn't even need mowing.
Well, any combination of species that are native to your area -slash- noninvasive and you find pretty or produce fruits that you enjoy or flowers that the local bees might enjoy.
It's going to depend on your biome a lot. A pond is nice too, introduce a couple frogs and some fish, filter the water, plant some citronnelle around and you shouldn't have to worry about mosquitoes...
Best answerof the thread. Depends where you live and what is natural to your area. Southwest is going to be rocks and draught tolerant foliage. PNW is going to be mossy and ferns. Midwest a lot of natural grasses. Not sure about Louisiana or the south but I assume just keep a swamp back there. In all cases friendly flora is a good start
I didn't replace mine with anything. I just stopped cutting it so now it turns into a field instead. The biodiversity grows by itself every year. You don't really need to do anything to it - nature will take care of that.
You can still cut your lawn and have it be natural. Mine barely has any of its former monoculture and is now mostly clover and other ground cover plants.
But mowing is necessary for me because we have small dogs and the area has several venomous snake species. I keep my mower on the highest setting, though.
Each year my neighbor brags about spending $400 a month on his saint augustine, then asks me what my secret is when my grass is green in the middle of summer and I haven't watered once. He refuses to believe the answer is controlled neglect.
Although I am planning on installing an irrigation system to run using the condensate my HVAC produces, the condensate my Dehumidifier used, and used aquarium water. (I'll divert it from the lawn once I till up a patch for staple crops)
Ah, good. Over here the AC drips into a tube that lead to a nearby banana plant. Better than letting it go to waste
I have a garden with vegetables, one with flowers, a few fruit trees and a maple, some elderberry trees. And a mowed space in front and in back. I guess technically it's a lawn but we don't water it or put any fertilizer or chemicals, just keep it mowed. We throw clover seeds out on bare patches but weeds mostly take over. It grows, we mow.
Honestly, local plants* is the best way to go
Edit: Got a B- in English, how could you tell?
replace your lawn with local fauna, each blade of grass could instead be a deer
We have used the wrong word and that is the most appropriate response. 👏🏻 We hate English LMFAO Wtf is the word for local plants or should we just use local plants lmao. Thought fauna was related to plants 😭
"Flora" is the plants one and "Fauna" is the animals one.
[Edit] Depending on where you live, Flora is also a female name and a brand of margarine.
Ah thanks bestie!! :D
No, Flora is a football team.
I know of the Estonian football team, but are there any other Floras?
I meant the Estonian one, yes. I'm Estonian lol
The better option is a mix of denser housing with fewer mandatory setbacks, mixed with commercial space and public parks.
It very much depends on where you're located, what sort of climate the place has, even what sort of neighbors you have.
I have a relatively small front yard and am located in a temperate region with reasonably good rainfall. So I planted a bunch of perennial flowers and clover in the existing grass of my lawn, laid down some decorative stone pathways weaving through it, and some shrubs around the edges. Bought a sign that reads "Meadow Habitat Restoration - Please Do Not Mow or Spray" to make it clear that I wasn't just neglecting my front yard but was deliberately turning it into a patch of pseudo-wilderness. Now I can basically leave my front yard completely untouched all summer (occasionally pulling a few thistles because I personally hate them) and it looks lovely and has plenty of bees and whatnot visiting it. There's no such thing as "weeds", just wildflowers.
My back yard is much larger and I wanted to keep the lawn because it's a nice space for activities. But I got a pushmower, and the lawn doesn't grow fast because I've allowed trees to grow all around the edges and that makes it quite shady. The trees make for a nice privacy screen once the leaves come in, it's like my back yard is a forest clearing. I scattered clover seed among the grass there too, you can mow clover just like grass so I figure whatever survives best gets the territory.
Personally, I'm not fond of gravel because it's an unnecessary dead zone. There's already plenty of bare concrete everywhere, we don't need more of that. But if you're in a dry environment that doesn't support greenery without watering or fertilizer then some hardscrabble landscaping could look quite nice. Maybe plant a few sagebrushes or even cacti (cacti can put out some very nice flowers) with some interesting piles of larger rocks to add visual interest.
Maybe take a wander around your neighborhood to see if other folks have set up interesting alternatives to lawns and get some ideas off of them, they'll have done the testing to see if it works.
A non-traditional lawn? Instead of just grass everywhere, set up a biodiverse lawn with wild grasses that are safe for bunnies and such to eat as well as other things which don't require constant watering or mowing or anything and also attract bees and such.
For my property, the best stuff is wooded land. Cedar, pine, fruit, cottonwood, dogwood, birch, walnut. Cedar being my favorite due to the smell. The tree canopy keeps the ground mostly clear. Lots of birds, raccoon, squirrel, possum, deer, mice, etc. Ample shade. Natural sound deadening. Never have to water it. And a wall of green around my home for most of the year.
There's a type of clover, I think. I saw it on Reddit a few years ago. I only remember it's green and short and sort of looks like grass, but is better for some reason, I don't remember its advantages over grass.
Here in NM, we mostly use rocks. This is common in front yards:
For backyards with kids, it's real grass if you can afford the water, or fake grass and gravel. Without kids, it's pavers, a pergola with furniture, and native plants along the walls/fence.
Rocks are so. fucking. hot. Landscaping with rocks increases the ambient temperature around your house by like 10 degrees vs. bare dirt. Even in New Mexico, there are so many native trees and shrubs. Please shade the ground and help keep your neighborhood cooler
In my neighborhood, each house has a large cottonwood (or other type) tree for shade, plus bushes, juniper, etc. and 3/4 of the houses have a plot of grass of about 100 sq ft, in the front yard. The other houses have only rocks. OP asked about options without grass, though.
Miniclover maybe. There's a few varieties. I totally didn't buy some bags a few years ago and accidentally dumped them in with the grass. That's what I'd tell my HOA anyway. This year it's coming back again slowly again.
The vegetable garden suggestion isn't bad, but it depends heavily on you liking gardening.
Clover or (edit: if you can establish them) wild plants are a decent answer for low maintenance vegetation. Pavers or gravel will look a bit dire but they do the basic job of providing walkable space.
Artificial turf is nice. Somebody might point out it's plastic, but this is an application where you want it to last forever.
It doesn't last forever though - it breaks down, and gets mold. I cannot understand it at all. What a mess. Like landscape fabric. Something to enjoy for a year and regret for ten years afterwards as it breaks down and you keep finding bits of it.
Even in places that aren't as humid and alive as our subtropical steam room here, under ideal conditions maybe 10 year life on that plastic carpet of grass. All the time it's shedding plastic into the world.
Really? There's one yard near me that I'm pretty sure got put in when a was a kid. Although Canada's definitely not a subtropical steam room, and I doubt it's walked over much.
I think something like this provides a good aesthetics/effort ratio:
And you could always move to a desert. Then it's really easy and looks amazing.
Xeriscape with native plants and drip irrigation
Less grass.
I have kids and dogs. Native plants don’t work - they can’t handle the traffic, the poop, and they don’t cover the mud.
But I don’t need to fertilize it. I certainly don’t spray. I don’t need to water. I mow it, but it’s mechanical. And I plant native perennials around it.
It sounds weird to plant native plants. I always just ignore a piece of garden for a while and native plants spontaneously spawn.
I would like berry bushes and flowers, personally.
Edible garden/pollinator’s garden. Flowers, fruits, herbs
The choice doesn't have to be lawn or not lawn. I bought a house that was all lawn, front and back, about 10 years ago, and bit by bit I've carved out planting beds starting around the perimeter, so now I still have some lawn but can mow it all in under an hour. The first step is absolutely trees. Plan where you want your trees to be, and plant them during your tree planting season (fall where I am).
In the UK. Lawn surrounded by shrubs and other plants that regrow every year.
Vegetable gardens seem like they would be more useful
If you're community minded, a free vegetable garden might help you know your neighbors better.
https://foodisfreeproject.org/
In terms of benefit to the environment:
In terms of benefit to you:
In terms of benefit to you and the environment:
The options are limitless. Basically just don't do a lawn in your front garden and try to have a few other plants on your back lawn if you need to keep it as a children's play area or similar.
Where i live in the UK, victorian homes are like 55% of housing stock and that means most people have front gardens designed for an enclosed space lined by hedge. This allows you to have a completely hidden spot to sit and get fresh air while you drink coffee. Similar to a porch.
::: spoiler Examples https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/designing-a-front-garden/
:::
At risk of sounding like a salesman, why not search some landscaping or garden companies to see nice examples? Here's a really modern one I found when trying to get examples of a hedgey garden: https://www.philhirstgardens.co.uk/our-work/contemporary-front-garden
Natural local plants gardens. They take little maintenance or water.
Vegetable gardens. Cost of groceries would be a motivator.
You can also not rake or otherwise dispose of leaves and other forms of yard waste. A lot of invertebrates depend on fallen leaves to lay their eggs or need them for insulation over the winter. Other animals also use leaves for things too.
I mean, the correct answer is MORE HOUSING. Yes, lawns are bad for the environment in their own right as a monoculture that requires dumping fertilizer and pesticides on it to maintain an "acceptable" quality. But if you are in the US, it is not unlikely that you have mandatory minimum lot sizes, minimum setbacks on all sides of the propety (especially large in the front), and a mandate that the front area must be grass. You also are not allowed to construct more structures on your lot for the purposes of housing, or run any kind of business on your property that might have customers physically visit the space or have any visible impact on the property.
The result is:
Sure, but if you build all around your existing house, how do you get in or out or see through the windows?
This seems like just airdropping our favourite cause into a practical question.
I mean, once we build a single monolithic glass and steel skyscraper to completely encase all the single family homes, we'll begin to exterminate their inhabitants, so they don't need to get in or out, you see?
Seriously - obviously you won't completely encase existing housing in other housing. Exactly how to create a productive, enjoyable environment for everyone will depend on the property, the owner, and what they want to use the space for. This is more art than science, and I certainly can't make universal declarations about how to best do it. But land is valuable because it can be put to productive uses - not just be expensive ornimentation. Of course, there is nothing wrong with ornimentation, so if you want your lawn to be a lawn, or artistic gravel, or whatever, then you are welcome to it. But a great many people, if they were freed legally, would take a great interest in what use the majority of their property could be put to for others' benefit and their own profit.
We need housing. We need small corner stores. We need neighborhood pubs. We need independently owned restaurants. We need art studios and workshops. We need gyms and daycares. We need so many things more than we need empty space on every parcel of land devoted exclusively to looking good (whatever your definition of "good" is).
And the thing is, if a land owner were to more fully develop their property - a small, blocky shop building in front built up to the street; a second residence in the back; a detached shed/workshop; and a space for a compact gypsy wagon, maybe to host guests - then what to do with the remaining "lawn" space would hardly be a question worth asking. Once a space has its landmarks and usefulness and is no longer a vast expanse of nothing, what to do with it becomes obvious. Put in small paths. Put some pavers down and add a pergola for an outdoor space. Put garden beds here, and some grass over there. Maybe a koi pond if you're ambitious.
Happy cake day!
Thank you kind stranger!
the entire debate is set up to promote answers other than this, the correct answer
Assuming you must keep and maintain that land then native plants to support pollinators and/or food for you (i.e. a garden).
In a more urban planning sense, central parks and gardens that give people plenty of space to run about, enjoy nature, and grow things as opposed to private yards is generally the way to go, IMO. Japan, for example, does this (though not enough in all places in Tokyo for example).
Heard something like a moss patch is much better.
It depends on the size and type of plants that you have growing on your lawn.
I will assume that you are referring to classic short green grass lawns but here in the UK that is not how we play.
In our garden we have a weed edge and a good covering of wild flowers amongst the grass which is of varying lengths.
Good for wildlife and the environment.
moss is quite nice
Can't walk across it, it falls apart.
at least in our yard it holds quite nicely, though it also has some grass growing in here and there so maybe it needs both 🤔 though we also dont walk on it constantly but does hold even though we also cut the lawn with driveable lawnmower
Forgive the ai generated image but this gives me some wild ideas for natural yards lol