Decorative open space is important for making cities livable but uh... lawns ain't it.
this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024
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Also nice to have space between your neighbors for privacy and mental health
This doesn't require single family housing on giant lots. Just well built buildings with proper insulation and sound proofing. I used to think apartments were just noisy until my partner and I moved into our current place. I live on the top floor of a 2 building, 6 unit complex of loft apartments cascading down the side of a hill. The buildings had to be built to withstand the extremely strong winds from the bay, and as such they're solid as fuck.
Despite our downstairs being tile floor our neighbors have told us they haven't heard any noise from us at all. My partner and I started being less concerned about noise and began playing somewhat loud music frequently and yell to each other across the unit. Despite this our downstairs neighbors still haven't heard a peep from us. For a while I genuinely thought our neighbors were just trying to be nice as everyone in our complex is super friendly and gets along well.
One day our neighbor in the adjacent building was woodworking in his garage. Normally the noise wouldn't bother me, but I was focused on something so I shut the window facing the courtyard which made me realize just how soundproof this giant concrete building is, both between units and to the outside world. I couldn't hear our neighbors saw unless I opened the curtains and tried to hear it, otherwise it might as well have been very faint background noise. I really wish buildings like this were the norm for apartments because they provide all the privacy of a single family home with all the benefits of apartment buildings.
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Lawns are a result of setback requirements imposed because people were building structures right up to and sometimes over the street.
Yeah, a garden is better than a lawn but most people don't have the time or care to maintain that. Much easier to just have a mono "crop" that can be relatively easily managed.
Easily managed???
If that were the goal it'd be clover and moss. No mow lawns are the easiest to manage.
Grasses are a huge pain, and simply there because British aristocracy had a hard on for them and we never questioned if it was smart.
I said more easily. It's relative. Also, clover and moss are super location/climate specific. What grows natively in Detroit is going to be much different than Miami or reno or jersey city.
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Especially because British aristocracy was living in Britain, a pretty rainy place, which helps immensely in cultivating grass
Depends on your location and what type of grass you utilize. I for one live in the central plains and have native buffalo grass in the front yard.
I don't have to water it, I mow it down about twice a year, and buffalo grass flowers which is great for my leaf cutter bees.
Grass isn't inherently a problem, the problem is most people only plant grass that isn't native to their locality. Something like buffalo grass is arguably more beneficial to the environment than planting a garden that requires more nutrients and water than the local environment can provide.
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I was about to say golf courses, but then I realized that people actually use golf courses to play golf, which is more then the average lawn is used for.
Hey that’s not true…. Lawns get used all the time for… err….. proving to neighbouring households that the Lawn Owner is rich enough to grow something useless there? Idk tbh
I have a small lot (0.2 acres) with a small lawn, my kids play on it all of the time. It's the only reason I haven't gotten rid of it all and replaced it with native species.
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Golf. Especially driving ranges.
On the grand scheme of things not that bad in comparison to parking and lawns
Yeah it's large and can be quite wasteful but not that bad
Eh I like to take the George Carlin approach to golf courses they're large swaths of land that take a lot of chemicals, and water to maintain by cheap labor hidden just far enough away so rich fucks can hit a tiny white ball with a metal stick into a plastic cup.
I'll agree that overall golf courses aren't the source of the problems, but they're the distillation of how our society is structured to how so many resources and exploited labor go into maintaining the wealthy's way of life.
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Yes, lawns are wasteful.
But there's also water quality and flooding issues associated with using all available land for building.
Grass and dirt absorb water. Rooftops and concrete don't. 1-inch of rain on an acre of grass will be absorbed. Replace that grass with impervious cover and you've got an extra 27,000 gallons of water, or about 2 swimming pool's worth of runoff.
Grass has an extremely low runoff coefficient. The water absorption is almost on par with impervious surfaces. This is because the root system of most turf/gras systems is only a few inches deep. On the other hand native grasses, fescues, and trees are excellent for water infiltration! Rain gardens are also good choices as they promote pollinators. I'm a landscape architect --happy to answer any questions.
Errata: meant to say high runoff coefficient --not low.
It really depends on the specific grass and underlying soils, as you say.
I'm the guy at the City making landscape architects and civil engineers comply with drainage and water quality regulations.
We live off the tears of developers.
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Unrelated to the actual topic, but is anyone else starting to find this "my brother in Christ" meme really irritating? I ain't your brother, and I don't give a fuck about your Christ.
Nah I love it. That's the bit, using it so nonchalantly sort of diminishes the expression. I don't think anyone using the meme gives a fuck about a Christ either
Would you prefer they go back to using the n-word instead?
Edit: maybe the downvote was because you don't know:
From https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-brother-in-christ :
My Brother in Christ is a recaption meme trend using "my brother in Christ" as a slang term put on top of words, most often replacing the N-word, in other meme captions to enhance the original meaning by adding a flair of polite Christianity for humorous effect.
Edit: fixed link.
Without context this is extremely funny though
"I don't like this expression"
"OH YEAH? Then I'm gonna go back to using the N-word"
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My eighth of an acre is entirely clover, dandelions, and weeds. Eventually, I'll get around to planting some vegetables, but my thumb is whatever the opposite of green is. I've started by trying to grow some herbs this spring, half of which are already dead.
Living with no HOA that forces grass on me FTW.
Can't do much about having a car though. No public transportation anywhere near and work is twenty miles away. Believe me, I'd much much rather not drive.
Tbh, my favorite kind of gardening is the kind that thrives on neglect. I love making ecosystems that thrive on their own, without my constant input. There's just something beautiful about seeing life thrive on its own.
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These grass lawns always looks awful. 1 color, 0 personality and no variety.
More plants are always better. Also even better plant a fucking tree.
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It's not like children could use a lawn to play on or anything....
And our Public transit system is totally ready for nobody to have cars.... Our GDP totally won't fall to 10% is what it was before once nobody can go to work.
If only there were easily acessible public spaces where kids could play in. Alas, we had to bulldoze those for lawns and parking lots.
People should live in cities or not at all...
... according to ~~Reddit.2~~ Lemmy.
The one-size-fits-all mentalities frequently preached here (and there) are where I check out of the political ideology.
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people burning fossil fuels to eviscerate co2 absorbing plants twice a week
"My impact on climate is minimal"
Lawns are better than concrete
lawns are shit and they were actually a tool for colonialism. they quite literally came in fashion because rich people in europe were flexin with their wealth because they could spend their land and work force for lawn that looked pretty and contributed for nothing. they even took those same lawn species for america so keeo that same flexing going on.
fuck lawns. Go actually diverse meadow plants that bugs need!
also lawns are insanely unecofriendly despite being plants.
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Lawns beget concrete elsewhere (in the form of parking lots) by being too low-density for walkability.
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I've got 4 cars on my drive way and have run out of room. I do have a large patch of grass next to it, I could probably fit 6 cars there.
Do I purchase and store more vehicles on my grass or purchase more land to store my cars on, so I can protect my lawn?
Giant parking lots and big box stores?
Scotland has a cumulative moorland the size of Jamaica (That's artifical, not natural peat moor) Thats pretty much kept as desolate scrubland just so a few rich people can hunt deer and pheasants without any inconveniences like something for the animals to hide behind. I did a rough calculation and it works out to about one square kilometer per person per single hunting trip being put asside for the entire year.
I use my lawn for growing stuff to eat. Bananas, lemons, passion fruit, onions mostly
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