A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
See, I did the whole "leave the leaves" thing last year and it completely killed the vegetation under my big maple tree. It was kind of nice since it gave me a chance to replace that grass with clover, but now I don't want the clover to die.
It's been a year and we still have maple leaves from last year that haven't decomposed. Not quite sure what I'm supposed to do.
If you have a backyard full of trees/shade, they will never dry.
Leave them over winter which is when they provide key shelter/food. Winter is killing the grass anyway, and then mow them in the spring to shred them and help them decompose. We mow ours in june and they were gone a month later.
It's one big maple in the front yard, and it only killed the grass in a circle under the thickest part of the canopy. Come spring we had a brown circle that only dandelions were growing in with grass doing just fine outside the circle.
I do think part of the problem could have been the extremely wet fall & winter we had. Felt like the rain never stopped.
Leaving all of them is in itself a human impact on the environment, you wouldnt find a single maple in a forest, but you also wouldnt find a field in a forest. if youre concerned about bugs I'd still be removing at least some leaves
really theyre a resource I'd collect them for compost heaps
A cool solution I’ve seen is mowing the leaves, then raking them across the yard. sounds counter intuitive but they break down/blow away wayyyy faster is smaller pieces, while still cycling their nutrients back into the local ecosystem
Wait, being lazy is good for the environment? I'm in.
You can even use this argument to avoid mowing the lawn.
Then what am I supposed to do with this body grooming kit?
Wrong place to leave a habitat for bugs.
What a terrible mental image you have inflicted on me.
If humans did literally nothing ever at all, the world would be teeming with a lot more life.
The question in my mind is more about whether the local environment serves us without sacrificing too much of the natural environment, and a high maintenance cosmetic lawn doesn't serve me or nature at all.
It's like fighting my instinct. I want to clean it up but I want birds to have bugs to eat in the spring. So I just compromise and do it in a way that pleases no one.
Composting?
Leaving the leaves on the ground but painting them to match the grass. It's a real pain in the ass to get the shading right.
Lpt: Just paint the grass at the same time, colour matching won't be a problem ;)
They're called leaves because you're supposed to LEAVE THEM!
Why don't you make like a tree and LEAVE (your lawn unraked to support the ecosystem)
My wife has gotten used to this but some of the neighbors still judge a bit. Then again, we're the house with the hummingbirds and tons of other nesting migratory birds as well as the house with lightning bugs
Yes
Yeh just get the leaves off any pavement, steps or walkways or sidewalks. When I was a little kid I would wander the neighborhood with a rake or a snow shovel, etc. Sometimes old ladies would pay with money and tip with cookies.
Don't listen to those kids. If you have to, just give them a snack
I honestly hate raking, and I love the sounds of autumn. Unfortunately I'm surrounded by retirees whose sole form of purpose is lawn care and they just call my landlord to force me to do it cuz it's "bad for the grass" or some other dumb shit.
Telling your tenants what they can and cannot do with their rented property should be some kind of violation of the right to quiet enjoyment of property.
This and the HOA shit is really weird to me. America is all like "we highly value our personal freedom and private property" but then HOA's and landlords come in and want to tell you exactly what you have to do with your yard. What the hell?
Yes but part of the American dream is buying a house, having it skyrocket in price, and sell it for multiples of the original price. And if your neighbourhood looks anything but pristine, you're preventing these people from achieving their dreams! Will no one think of these poor people's investments?
That must be more right than what I used to think, because it's certainly not any kind of freedom.
I don't think there's a place in the West that demands more obedience and denies more freedoms in the average man's life than USA does.
Telling my neighbours I'm studying successional plant communities over the next 10 years, and never gardening again
The biggest issue for me is when neighbors rake their leaves and my leaves blow over to them. I feel terrible about it.
Quit stealing my leaves, neighbor! Those are MY leaves!
When will this meme die?
Mr Beckham doesn't seem to be a good man when you scratch past the brand he's been cultivating.