The world is cruel and ugly. There are plenty of justifiable things to be upset and distraught over. I don’t want to hear about those. I want to know what bizarre out of left field takes you have that infuriates you.
I’m still upset about Tenochtitlan falling and being buried. I’m a gringo, I shouldn’t have an opinion about Lake Texcoco being drained centuries ago.
Loud lawnmowers. Ass hats who maintain the classic American yard. Every Saturday morning on cue, the whole neighborhood erupts into noise. It’s so loud.
Everyone in my area has about a quarter acre of land, yet here come the zero turn riding mower guys, mowing their grass too low, every weekend, just to water it the next day.
They are loud, disruptive, and just remind me we are slowly killing the planet every day for vainity yards.
I have a reel mower from the 1950’s I found and fixed up. I got a lot of compliments the first summer I used it, it has self shapening blades and works mostly well. Folks were shocked I was using it, one lady stopped and even gsve me a “you get it girl!”, like what? It’s a quarter acre people, and takes me 30-40 mins. Why do they need giant gas guzzling, louds stinky mowers? After a few years with the reel mower, I did get an electric line trimmer, … I’m crazy, but sometimes I mow most of my very small lawn with it when I dont want to fix and use my reel mower. It’s quiet, it doesnt smell, and I have control to skip over dirt/sparse patches. I can leave areas longer where I see native plants popping up. I feel like im working with the land, not just decimating it.
They ride these giant mowers up and down the street, they mow dirt just the same as they mow field. I literally get triggered everytime I hear one start up, so often, it’s a running joke in the house. It’s a quarter acre lots here, not baseball fields.
Perfect lawns, but then its just bittersweet growing wild on the edges taking over trees.
I also hate bittersweet. Like, really really hate bittersweet. It kills everything and takes over gardens. Invasive garbage that may seem like a cool plant to the unknowing eye, but it is invasive garbage everyone just looks past as it kills our native trees and plants, suffocating the life forms they parasite off from. I have to stay vigilant to keep it from my yard. It is persistent, it’ll tear your house down if you let it.
I hate lawnmowers and bittersweet. These things make me feel distraught.
I agree with you. There’s something a little nostalgic about lawnmower noise, but if you live without it for a while it’s so much nicer. I don’t have lawns at any of my house- crushed coral and desert dirt- but it’s been nice to see everyone get irritated with draining gas and fixing carburetors every year and switch to electric mowers which are mutch quieter.
I can tell you’re not a homeowner.
What the fuck else are people supposed to do with their yard?
If you don’t cut the grass, it grows and eventually you’ll start getting brush. Not to mention lots of idiots have HOAs which mandate they cut the grass.
Reseed with clover and then plant moss and native flora. Its good for helping out bees and other pollinators and invites other wildlife into your yard if live up against woods like I do. I’ve seen rabbits, raccoons, deer, flocks of turkey, and even a bobcat once.
HOAs can eat my whole ass.
And today on Lemmy we learned that bees thrive on the right amount of the nutrient sterol 🐝 😊
Man, it’s telling how many of you believe things because you never tried them yourselves.
Get out into the real world. Get some experience.
Plant native species! Anything but lawn grass!! For the love of insects and ecological diversity.
Have you tried this?
Where I live, native species is brush that will eventually cover my entire house.
Edit: yes I am trying this right now. I’ve planted a bunch of native species in one area of my front yard. They seem to be taking well, next summer I will plant some more in a other part. Mulch around the natives helps to keep the weeds and grasses down.
There are often more than one native species of plant. And repairing a yard ecosystem takes time and care and attention. I understand folks have little spare time with full time jobs and whatnot, but an imperfect naturalized yard is better than a sterile grass monoculture that requires a ton of mowing.
So… I should go through all of that trouble because you don’t like hearing lawnmowers?
I’m curious what planet you are from where you think anyone would do that.
Brush that will cover your house is likely not a native.
What makes you think that?
Native pants tend to have checks and balances in their environment. Kudzu, eastern honeysuckle, English ivy, vining nightshade, all of them will eat your house if you take them out of their native environment.
I explained how I do my yard in the comment. I don’t let it go crazy, I maintain it. I have made four garden beds here since getting the house, and that’s in addition to the four already here. Both for flower and vegetables. I have a potted plant corner, and a “track” where the grass grows low or turns to dirt from my son doing laps around the house and playing baseball in the back. If I was a millionaire (I’d move) I’d like to put stone on the “track” he made because it follows the natural curves of the yard. The front yard is sparse, it’s so dry and like sand, I don’t have to mow that side, I hit it with the trimmer if it gets wild. I’ve seeded with clover and a native grass type. I keep a small patch over grown, circling around a tree, maintain it with weeding, and give space back for the insects. It’s filled with purple flowers most of the year. A typical lawn care person would just mow it over.
What I’m getting at, is folks with brown grass they still mow weekly. Whether its going to rain or not, weather their grass is long or not, they mow it to check it off their list. Every weekend. Then, if you look, some houses like this, there’s invasives just growing everywhere on the edges of their properties. So lazy. To mow ones lawn, fat ass on a riding mower for less than a quarter acre of lawn, just mow it and put it away, while thier tree line suffers with invasives.
My goal is to have no grass, but my son’s track and baseball area, and the rest garden. As it stands I only have to mow maybe 40% of my yard, and I’ll be damned if I’ll fall in line to get a riding mower to kill beneficial plants every weekend, while leaving the harmful ones.