I wonder is it something specific to the USA or in other countries people are obseessing over nit having them in the lawn?
I’m in France and every though WE are far from having wild urban meadow or meadow at all, I’ve never heard of people and HOA complaining about dandelion before learning nolawn mouvement on the internet.
Definitely a thing in the US. People spend lots of money to have chemicals poured onto their lawns every year, summer and winter, to keep the weeds away. All of those chemicals have to go somewhere. Probably the groundwater and streams and other bodies of water. Not good.
I know people who mowed down carefully their lawn and spray them with presticide but they never had a issue with having dandelions, daisies and other common grass flowers, they are usually considered part of the lawn.
It’s a weird culture a lot of emphasis on freedom and protecting your home but then you just “ok then” when the local busy body comes around. It’s your land get them told
I love your line of thinking. Lawns don’t feed the ecosystem, flowers do! But here in the US dandelions and clover are not a critical part of their diet. Native plants are the critical part of their diet - e.g. Native maple trees that bloom first!
They are far from the worst weeds, i wouldn’t go eradicating them like you should invasive plants (I leave both in my lawn anyways). But if we are looking to support our bees and ecosystem, then we should be re wilding our yard and growing native plants
Lawns became symbols of the elite in England, as wealthy landowners sought to show off their gains via the most ostentatious displays possible outside stately homes.
Colonizing landowners were keen to replicate the look of a manicured English garden. As such, English imperialism is somewhat to blame for lawns being created around the world, where they became a status symbol, and a sign of wealth and well-to-do.
That is the point. You’re basically trying to say “Look how rich I am, I can afford to have all this land dedicated to looking pretty and not being useful for anything else”
It goes back to the origin stated here. It was desirable because they could afford to effectively waste a lot of acreage on a crop that had no benefit. Simply for show.
The point from from old England’s perspective is that keeping the grass at 2 cm requires a whole bunch of resources and people, so only the rich could afford it. Even today, any neighborhood with weeds growing instead of a 2cm lawn is instantly classified as lower class. There often is no practical use or sometimes use for games or walking is when forbidden because it’s a status symbol only.
It’s like asking what’s the point of owning a Bugatti Chiron that can go 400 kph when you’re stuck in the same traffic jam anyway.
Maybe overall, but my little Chihuahua/dachshund is too short to deal with taller plants. When we go for a walk by areas with natural growth or even unmowed lawns, he either has to leap through it or walk in the road. I’m sure there are some other options he would be fine with, I don’t think grass is necessary, but he is definitely not just as happy with any other kind of nature.
was intended to be a meme based on the “are you a nerd test” where half the questions were about “are you on a PC with no case”, while my PC is running with no case because of longlasting troubleshooting shitposted with reddit front page emojis.
Yeah, I don’t even get mad at them any more. They are hardcore survivors and proliferators, and will have a welcome haven in my lawn to piss off dick neighbors like in the post
Protein contains amino acids, and some of these amino acids are essential. That means the organism can not make them; they have to get them in food. Dandelion pollen is low in valine, isoleucine, leucine and arginine, essential amino acids for honey bees.
Dandelion is consider a poor quality source of protein for bees.
That’s true, but it’s better than no flowers. I see this comment pop up pretty regularly in reference to dandelions as a source for pollinators as if eliminating the flower would be of little impact. Dandelions are one of the first flowers to show up for the pollinators, even if they don’t provide the best food for insects it’s still something, especially in sterile modern suburban landscapes. .
That link lists the first foods for pollinators. Lots of things on that list which surprised me. We’re replanting our yard with native plants this year. If you like birds and wildlife this is the best way to attract them.
I also learned this year dandelions aren’t native to North America.
They’re technically an invasive species in North America. Been around long enough now that they could maybe be considered native. If you’re looking to do a natural lawn in NA, though, you should probably still consider them a weed.
That’s a good point, and I fact I keep forgetting. Probably because the people who typically take issue with them aren’t concerned about native species (if they were, they wouldn’t like the grass either).
Dandelions actually do important work for your lawn. They break up the hardened soil to make the ground softer for the grass to grow in. Letting dandelions grow will lead to a more beautiful lawn.
I like dandelions. I’d let them grow even without the additional benefits just because they’re pretty. And also fun for kids when the seeds mature and you can pluck them and blow them into the wind.
I completely agree. But for all those that want the lawn to be beautiful and healthy it’s good to have that knowledge about them. They’re useful and good looking. And you can make shitty wine from them.
I don’t see why it would have to be though. A bunch of oddballs could certainly get together and create one to protect diversity in their neighborhood from a normie invasion.
For the same reason why very few companies are worker owned co-ops: people suck and capitalism doubly so. That’s why we very rarely can have nice things.
In the case of HOAs, the bad ones (which are the vast majority of them) exist to extract profit (in the form of increasing property values, fining anyone who doesn’t follow their petty rules, and sometimes even take someone’s home for breaking the aforementioned rules) and exert as much control over people as possible.
In the US at least, laws regarding HOAs are a grotesque combination of under-regulation and regulations specifically crafted to FACILITATE abuse rather than discourage it.
Perhaps, but as long as there is no law that says you can’t have an HOA that fines you for having a McMansion with a monoculture lawn instead of a natural one, it’s at least possible in theory.
I pay an HoA, its like $30 a year. While they dont encourage it, they dont care either. They really dont do anything except twice a year they bring out garbage trucks/dumpsters to the nearby school to dump/recycle things too big for a trash can.
In Germany the city does that at least in smaller cities. Twice a year you can put all stuff that doesn’t go into regular trash out at the street and it gets collected. Think broken furniture, old electronics etc. People empty their garages and basements of all the stuff that accumulated. It’s common to have a walk through the neighborhood on these days to see if there is some cool stuff in there. Got my first skateboard that way as a teenager.
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