ListWise

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Weed Care

No, it’s not lawn care, for me it’s weed care.

I would like to renew my objection to the lawn formerly now, in writing, and verbally later, for anyone that cares to listen to me go on and on about how much I dislike lawns. I’m sure I’m alienating more readers with these words, but, well, the fear of alienating people from my blog has never stopped me before, so why start now.

A friend at work loves his lawn. He goes on endlessly about how he cares for it. It seems that every other weekend is devoted to the care of his grass. I just don’t see the appeal. I would love to plow mine up and put in an endless garden. I would have one spot of grass large enough so that 3 or 4 people lay out on in the sun. Beyond that, I don’t need anymore grass.

If you haven’t figured it out already, I spent the afternoon mowing and trimming and sweeping. It all seems so pointless. I met one of my neighbors who lives a block away from me for the first time on Sunday. She was walking her dog and I was just finishing up painting for the day. She stopped to talk about the paint job and we introduced ourselves. She has a great garden. I’ve watched it grow and admired it. She has some iron sculpture in it, and boarders made from different materials. She even has a few salvaged porch newel posts in it. I told her how much I loved it because she didn’t have any grass. She said that was the goal.

I know, gardens need weeding and tending, but there is a payoff. You get a nice garden to look at. Birds want to come in your yard. You get fresh flowers when ever you want them. What do you get with a lawn? You get to mow it, and you get to spend a lot of money on fertilizer, lawn mowers, and other noisy mechanical things so you can care for your grass. Again, I just don’t see the appeal.

7 comments:

Jocelyn said...

we are anti-lawn here too. lots of city folks are because they are so darn small it's a joke to even own a lawnmower. We have a manual push mower. They are environmentally not good too.

The whole lawn obsession thing reminds me of a famous quote by Henry Miller (I think it was) that the French don't care if there houses are painted(unlike Americans). I bet they don't care if their lawn is perfect either!

Paulo said...

I totally agree with you. I've decided I never want to have to mow a lawn, and it really bothers me that in a lot of places, you HAVE to mow your lawn or you can get a fine. That sort of nonsense contributes to my never wanting to "own" a home, either. If somebody else is going to dictate how my lawn has to look, it wouldn't seem like something of mine.

Like yourself, I wouldn't mind having a big garden, though. I don't own the house where I live now, so I don't mow (the landlord does), but I did plant a bunch of cilantro in the back yard. I love that stuff.

SmilingJudy said...

I am pro-small-lawn; can't quite buy into 'no lawn'. Some good points here.

JAXTER said...

I would LOVE to get rid of my lawn, even though it is pretty small, but my dogs love it so much I don't have the heart...though maybe I'll get rid of it in front where they don't really spend much time. I am all for you removing your lawn...once you are finished painting that is.

Jennifer said...

Lawns are overrated. I would very much like to have no grass (or at least dig it all up and plant something that only gets 3-4 inches high) and all garden. I am working on that in the front yard piece by piece--I took a 20' x 20' plot for a vegetable garden this year. I'll expand it a bit next year. I will still have *some* grass, though... so my dog can go potty in peace. :)

Anonymous said...

there's a whole movement to replace lawns, which are extremely unsustainable, with native grasses and wildflowers. DO IT!!!!!!

http://www.lesslawn.com/index.html

slateberry said...

When I bought my house and was out mowing for the first time with a push mower, a neighbor actually came out an applauded me. He said the po had a service with giant machines, and the lawn had been manicured, fertilized, and irrigated to within an inch of its life.
Gack! Irrigation systems are stupid. I have to get it blown out every fall. When I buy an air compressor, I'm going to get one big enough to tackle the blowout too.
The front lawn is slowly being taken over by my strawberries, raspberries and perennials. I love edibles! The side lawn I'm keeping for badminton, but I'm not gonna baby it.
Long rant, bottom line: I agree!