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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Issue is, these US-style lawns are often mandated in ways they disallow most other things, unless you want hefty fines.
I'm in Europe, and at least I can have little flowers within the grass, can plant any trees as long as they won't damage any buildings or cables, and otherwise I can customize my own garden. I could even plant vegetables if the dogs didn't stamp it, and wouldn't be so cheap and readily available in the supermarket it doesn't worth to look after them (once I did grew chili in pots since they're more scarce in the supermarket).
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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.
When I was a kid, we used our lawn, our friends lawns, and neighbor's lawns constantly. After school, we would be out there playing games like tag, red light, football, Frisbee, or some other excuse for running around outside, until we gad to go on and have dinner and then work on homework.
Having those yards kept us kids sane, and probably our parents too, as we had places to burn off energy, and get out of their hair for awhile.
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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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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.
Plant a bunch of trees, put down some mulch. Walk away for a year, with no worries. Once a year, add mulch. Enjoy providing habitat for birds and small mammals, plus the shade and privacy, for zero maintenance.
Look up mini-forest, micro-forest, tiny-forest, research. Crazy how a few trees changes a landscape for animals.
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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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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
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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?
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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people burning fossil fuels to eviscerate co2 absorbing plants twice a week
"My impact on climate is minimal"
Giant parking lots and big box stores?
Yo, this is Fuck Cars. We're not advocating building Mega City One over here.
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