Now that you know why we have grass lawns check out this video and find out about The Curious Case of Sun Sneezing: ua-cam.com/video/OYLf6g0Z4ZE/v-deo.html
I knew a lady that was fined for growing wheat in her yard instead of grass. Another guy got a ticket for keeping chickens. I got a notice to control the dandelions in my yard, so I made a salad with the greens and coffee with the roots. Also went ahead and smoked the chamomile. What can you do with short cut grass? You can't eat it. If you let it grow more than a few inches tall, you will get complaints for "disturbing the aesthetics of the community". Useless crop.
+Kevin Benoit That's right! In fact the city had more control over my property than I did. I had a nice long chit chat with a gentleman from bylaw (nice guy btw) about some of the more obscure property laws like if you plan on painting your house or fence, you have to use neutral colours that blend in with the neighbourhood. Any bright, neon colours would result in a fine and you'd have to paint everything again. There is a law for almost every aspect of owning a house in the city.
It's almost like when you're living in close quarters with other human beings you can't just be a self absorbed dick about everything. You might have to take the equally valid desires of other people into consideration. So rules protecting property values have been put in place to prevent assholes from turning one property on the block into a shit hole and making it difficult for others to sell their homes.
I personally hate grass lawns, or specifically how we are supposed to keep the grass cut short. I like the way the flowers and weeds look in my yard. Let my neighbors keep their flat green carpet while I have a mini meadow in front of my house. Plus I like watching butterflies, bees, and other creatures traveling between the flowers.
Ohhhh, so close, but you don't say why we have "grass" lawns. The Levitt home lawns were a grass/clover mix. The clover remained a bright green longer than grass and would fix nitrogen into the soil. Indeed, back in those days, "grass" seed purchased in stores deliberately included clover for those reasons. So, when did we get grass lawns rather than a grass/clover mix? Get ready to gnash your teeth. It has everything to do with a fertilizer executive who wanted to expand his market. He figured out that if he could promote pure "grass" lawns without clover, then he'd be able to sell a hell of a lot more fertilizer since grass depletes nitrogen from the soil and therefore requires frequent treatments. He was right. Broadleaf "weed" killers would take out the clover, leave the grass, and make us dependant on fertilizers ever since. I grew a clover lawn once to see how it would do. The neighbors complained, but it was beautiful, and it did indeed stay greener much longer than their lawns during the scorching mid-west summers.
Robert Lawton. Growing up in a rural setting, even as a boy I saw the time, expense and waste of suburban lawns as status quo ridiculousness. So many aren't even utilized for any activity at all.. It's just another industry, another obligation. Many people believe that a wild grass lawn is a haven for vermin, thereby anything but short grass is unhealthy, unsanitary for lack of a better word. That is part of the (illogical) justification for lawn regulations here in the US.
Never understood lawns. Grew up in the woods. Trees don't need mowing. Trees provide shade. Shade kills grass. No grass to mow. Problem solved. Quit cutting down trees to plant ridiculous energy consuming lawns. Besides, tree houses were epic fun as a kid. What can you do with grass? Oh yeah, mow it. Enjoy your lawns.
My trees need mowing. I almost killed myself last fall pruning a branch out of one. It is a good thing I had the ladder I was on tied to the tree. Because when that sucker swung back it shook the whole tree.
Yeah, that sounds much better. Instead of grass, walking around on dusty dirt or after a recent rain, getting the bottoms of my shoes caked with thick mud.
I asked myself why we cut grass a few months ago, its an extreme waste of fresh water, and the amount of gas we use here in the United States alone to run lawnmowers is insane. I did research and apparently there are blends of grass and artificial grass created to grow only to a certain heights and stay greener longer. Why is this not a pushed topic? The amount of time and money you would save would be crazy, and it would help our carbon footprint significantly.
Not all of us have your green thumb. I do some recreational gardening and I have to say that if I had to grow all of my own food I'd starve. Gardening is something easy to talk about, and much harder to actually do.
Paul Frederick the hardest part of gardening is the initial setup. Most homes come pre installed with things once considered luxuries, like microwaves and running water, the same idea could be implemented when it comes to things like recycling irrigation systems and wicking planters. Such pre fabricated gardens are included in plans for "green housing" projects like earthships. Also, in the context of full scale suburban communities, people could grow one specialized crop and contribute to a community food bank program. Also our education could easily include horticulture courses, or even more detailed subsections within existing biology subjects. This all sounds superfluous, but I can make another comment if necessary about all of the problems this could fix comprehensively. The food you buy is already heavily subsidized, the majority of the earths pollution comes from our unsustainable agriculture model, etc etc
+Ben Mitchell Have you ever heard of the Malthusian Theory of population? He turned out to be wrong because he did not foresee some modern agricultural techniques that we developed. But he ultimately may turn out not to have been entirely wrong. It really depends on if we can continue managing to keep up with our population growth by developing new technologies to increase food production. So far we've been able to. But some resources remain finite. Like irrigation water. Sustainability is a trickier business than many imagine it to be. I do not see decentralizing food production being the answer to the kind of efficiency we require either.
Ben Mitchell , Most municipalities have zoning rules that ban growing wheat and vegetables so you won't be allowed to replace even part of your lawn with food gardens unless you live in an agriculturally zoned district
I live in California. for the last 4 years you can get a ticket for watering your lawn due to the drought. But they can also ticket you for having an unkept lawn. I never got a ticket but got several warnings for having a dead lawn. Finally it started raining here and they've lifted their watering bans.
Bluekoinu Nah, the profits on produce suck. 2% maybe? The one I work at makes its big profits from value added products. Smoothies, coffee bar, hot food bar, ready made meals, rotisserie chx, etc.
+r315r4z0r That is a load of bull. Each season has different plants you can grow and you can easily preserve the excess in a variety of ways to enjoy the bounty of your garden year round. I worked for a co-op some years back and we grew a wide variety of plants through out the year. Members would be able to get one or two big brown bags of fresh produce every week from basically mid-spring to late fall and that was with just a small couple acre farm serving several dozen members. Plus any ground that isn't paved or mostly clay or solid stone will have no problem with drainage. A garden would be just as good if not better than a grass lawn on that front.
because the grass is shit here in AZ lol. it doesn't matter how well you take care of it, it is always dry and prickly. I went to Ohio once and felt nice grass for the first time and almost cried at how nice it was
+Jonathan Weathersby It's only dry and prickly if you don't water it enough or have a rougher type of turf. Lush lawns are totally possible here and do exist, they're just not as common because it takes a butt-load of water to sustain a proper one in the desert. The guy talking about "status symbol lawns" a few comments up is kind of right
If you go up to Anthem and scottsdale a lot of places out there have a tiny part of there lawn for grass and what's stupid is that small spot if You don't trim it right the HOA will fine you like crazy.
Thank you Simon! This was my first job as a kid and back in the 80s and 90s funded my GI Joe, Nintendo and music hobbies. Using various lawn mowers and weed eaters taught me a lot about doing a good job, enduring less than ideal conditions and turning my brain off of thinking about the work and just doing the task at hand. Now I live in Arizona and instead of mowing the lawn I use a leaf blower to take care of the yard. The grass is replaced by small rocks or pebbles but essentially its the same type of work. I do this on the side with working a regular day job. I will tell you that there is a great satisfaction after seeing the end result. Usually it last just a couple of days and needs to be done the next weekend or every other weekend.
So this is the reason i have to spend four hours a week mowing down some crappy and patchy plants? Thanks, suburbia, You've managed to give me yet another reason to hate you.
+Andrew Knackstedt Try growing dandelions, they are edible, and if you prepare them right they taste good. And they are a good way to shake a fist at suburbia provided they aren't illegal to grow in you yard.
uh ... grass also helps drainage. pure dirt exposed to the sun tends to get really hard and impervious to flash rains which leads to pooling and exposure to buildings. Grass is a cheap way to keep the soil somewhat softer allowing for quicker drainage. Provided you know you don't live in a desert ...
+Michael King So will things like gravel and other rocky aggregates of that nature though of course the one usually still ends up needing to do weeding at regular intervals to avoid creating a wild rock garden lol.
Michael King Flowers require more water than turfgrass to keep healthy. Trees are deep rooted therefore will not absorb water right away therefore making your point invalid.
i took a break from lawn videos and primping my lawn to watch this. i sure love my beautiful KBG lawn, it is a ton of work but it's an accomplishment i get to enjoy daily :)
Why do we have grass lawns? So that way I can watch tv, drink a cold beer, and yell at my son to "get out there and mow the damn lawn!" while I watch videos about why we have grass lawns, and still feel like I accomplished something. That's why!
I knew there was a reason I resented doing mowing my lawn. I already refuse to water it I don't care what color it turns. doing my part to help the environment
Yah sure... people just need to be better caretakers of their our land and world and not get rich taking advantage of the earth. Plant trees and helpful plants and full age for the area you live at. Be careful not to waste resources. Use only what you need. Spent less time on your phone online etc. Plant a garden and fruit trees. Planting grass is a good thing. Just don't waste it or be stupid planting grass in dumb areas and wasting water to take care of it. Stop building cities on good farm land and cutting down forests. This earth of ours cab still be saved. Ours lives as well. Dying in space and wasting resources going their is just dumb. Maintaining our satalites and helping things work more efficient is all we need. No more Mars colonization or other planet nonesense. Waste of earth's resources again and a scam to promote wasteful science. We have the ability and tech too feed the world and heal it's nature. It's all our choice to be good stewards. Science should be more to help life here and now. :)
+Zach Stevens you know the Earth is doomed right? True story. In some millions of years the sun goes nova. That will destroy all humans, animals and plants on Earth. So... .to be good stewards we need to get ourselves, and the others, out of here. Nearby planets like Mars are just a stepping stone. However, I do agree in general with stewardship of the Earth and many people are very disconnected from their food and the cycle of life and death. Im in a city now so don't grow any food but in younger days we had a 1/2 acre garden and 1/2 acre potatoe patch. I would also challenge, respectively, on planting grass vs planting native species. You can look into the idea of a "forest garden". Food producing local plants are much easier to keep. However, if you want certain tastes like wheat for pasta then you are bringing in a foreign species. Most pretty grass lawns are foreign to the areas the lawns are in. Would you not prefer native plants? Arranged decoratively yes, but not just dull repetitive grass.
not exactly if you know the cycle of water also there are water butts which connect to the drainage and collect rainwater in to a large butt for gardening purposes
I live in Maine. I've never watered or fertilized the grass growing in my yard. Neither have my neighbors. Don't forget there are vast portions on the United States where the only work you have to do is mow the damn stuff.
Boss - reminds me of Dune where water was scarce on the planet but the royalty would have palm trees to show their wealth. A palm tree's daily water requirement could hydrate a family for an entire year on the desert planet Arrakis. The citizens loathed the palm trees knowing what they represented.
Boss I live in Scottsdale too, and in my opinion grass lawns are a waste of water and space. It looks nice while driving by, but that's where the pros end.
Ifeel like here in germany (and europe in general, i would assume) we tend to have less front lawn, but a quite significantly bigger backyard. Coming from a small village it seemed kinda necessary to have grass on your property, since you would also have some animals. Chicken or pigs were quite common as housestock and that changed only in the last century, so most old houses were designed with animals in mind.
The original reason, I have picked up here and there, is that originally European landowners got status from having property that wasn't used to grow stuff they needed. I also have heard that the original mix included clover and stuff we consider weeds, like dandelion. And don't forget that a century of advertising and brainwashing has happened.
My parents went for the "mow it every other week & let nature do its thing," resulted in a really cool variety of plants in the grassy sunlit areas and lush moss carpets on the shady side. Some of the plants even reminded me of teeny tiny wheat. Raspberry and blueberry plants started growing a few years ago too, just spread there by the birds. Nearly everyone in the neighborhood clearly spends a lot of money keeping their lawns pretty green, but no one ever complained to us. Those lawns are prettier, I admit, but get up close to my parents' lawn and you get to see a cool variety of plants and flowers! Still love the lush moss carpet on the shadiest side of the house too, parents even whistfully remark on if only they could get that kind of lush moss coverage all over the lawn. Soooo soft, and no need to mow it...
I always got a kick out of my father-in law telling stories of when he was a kid growing up during the great depression such as he would have to sweep the dirt outside his home or shack. He was raised on a small farm in Warner Robins Ga. and had the responsibility as a young lad to kill any grass or weeds that dared to sprout in the yard. It was a chore to rid the unwanted grass for fear of ticks and fleas. It's funny now that he is 82 years old and still owns the same house he grew up in surrounded by the grass his family found so useless he been cutting all these years he can't live without. Life has a way of changing you for the better, as I found the grass is greener on the other side of life!
I always thought a better alternative to vast lawns was to letting most of it reforest. A house with a 10m x 10m lawn surrounded by a some flowering perennial beds in an otherwise forested lot would be quite appealing to me.
A lot of things are wastes of spaces and resources. But we live in the US, a massive nation. I live in Texas particularly, there ain't such a thing as a waste of space, cuz the space never ends lmao!
Andyity, so when I want to play football with my friend I should go and step all over the vegetables,and kill them? Also Wouldn't gardens require more work while a commercial farm can seed and harvest all that in 10 seconds? I mean like harvest in 10 then wait a month.
A.J. Deutsch fuck football. I'm really just referring to people's yards and there is nothing wrong with working hard to grow your own food it's satisfying.
"We're not allowed to have pretty things. Art and beauty are meaningless. We must live as cold, emotionless, robots which calculate every action and only do what is deemed to be the most logical and efficient." I hate you and I hate everyone that thinks like you. You are legitimately a danger to humanity.
Lawns are symbols of how rapacious and short-sighted the average person can be. I live in the Rocky Mountains which is a beautiful, dramatic, and surprisingly ARID landscape. Short, hardy grasses grow profusely in some places in the mountains but they are predominately xeric like most every plant found here. Free flowing surface water and subsurface aquifers are at a premium and heavily dependent on sufficient snowmelt. There’s a very fine balance to this dry ecosystem but the flora and fauna are supremely well adapted. Enter people, dragging their invasive sod behind. Now, if the basic needs of a sparse human population were all that were drawing on the water supply, it would occasionally be a problem but hardly dire. We are, however, shipping a truly staggering amount of water out of the mountains to cities and suburbs which are planting invasive lawns as though they belong here. They don’t belong. This would be fine if municipalities would enforce the lawn watering restrictions they occasionally think to enact. They don’t enforce it. Ok. Then surely a population with so much information at their fingertips at least practices the best possible method of watering a lawn which is to do it at night when evaporation loss is lowest and fresh oxygen to the roots is most beneficial. Nope. Not one vain homeowner in 1000 does it that way. I personally know a family that used an extra 15,000 gallons of precious water in just 90 days last year to try and green their lawn. News flash: we really need that water THIS year because it’s barely snowed and that’s trouble. I hope that Bermuda grass lawn brings everyone joy after my cabin has burned to the ground with no water to fight the fire. Which was nearly the case several times over the last decade. With every ill advised lawn we plant in the West, the chance that real mountain folk will be forced to suffer catastrophic loss grows. South Africa is having an unprecedented and deadly water crisis and Americans are planting lawns in places where they should never grow. It just paints such a dire picture of how much we will waste to appeal to our stinking vanity when others have so little.
It was fun watching folks in Colorado Springs try to keep their fancy KY Bluegrass and Fescue going during the water rationing. I had Bermuda grass and it did fine.
When I moved out west to LA from the east coast the difference in the amount of lawns is amazing. In LA where there was a long drought people have replaced lawns with fake grass, gravel or sand. Some add rocks and cacti. If done right its beautiful!
+Sara3346 lawn is a buffer. It keeps wildlife from camping out on my house doors. Plus trees too close to the house don't let roofs dry out, and that causes problems. I had one house where squirrels were using trees to gain access to the house. Exterminating them became quite an issue over time. Lawn also allows use of property. It is better than mud, or dust. Which are the other options when there is no lawn.
Here in Colorado, if you don't water your lawn: grass+no watering=dead grass and a gross looking yard. It's like a prairie desert out here. I'm definitely looking into different sorts of landscaping and/or setups that require less water and are more realistic. It feels like such a waste, watering some sandy dirt every day :/
Oh Hol my back yard is the flatirons, so the mule deer keep it tidy! There are definitely some beautiful hardscapes around! Most of our front yard is rock and bushes.
Oh Hol collect local species and transplant them. Local grasses and shrubs will be able to handle local conditions, helping with water retention. Lucky for you, your local high altitude plants tend to be low growing and drought resistant. I drive all over my state collecting local indigenous plants many endangered, and it pays off with the abundance of fauna that enjoy my "landscaping" techniques.
Aaaannnndd another bonus fact! I'm not entirely sure about other states, but here in SC I was told by our realtor that we legally could not sign for our home until grass was on the property. We built a new home in a new area, so sod had to be laid before we could move in. Reason for that is it aids in irrigation, prevents erosion, and keeps excess water away from the foundation of the home. Without grass you could be looking at possible foundation problems down the road.
The stories and legends about absinthe are centered around Chech Absinthe which was the equivalent of moonshine (and with lots of dangerous metals) compared to French absinthe. Absinthe was never banned outside of prohibition, but there was a name change. Now producers of absinthe actually say "Absinthe" as the demonization of the spirit has largely gone away. It is a truly wonderful spirit if you like very herbaceous liquors and liquorice.
I just wanted to thank you guys for all the amazing content you make, and for giving me inspiration for my Latin project (an informational documentary which I did in the style of one of your videos)!
fwiw dept - you mentioned mowing the lawn every weekend (!) when I lived in central new york on a large lot, I had to mow 1/3 of the yard every night of the week, allowing one day for rain. do not miss it!!
Not only are lawns a MASSIVE waste of resources, man-hours, and space- they're also an ENORMOUS cause of allergic reactions with many people (including myself) allergic to grass pollen. We should popularize rock lawns interspersed with gardens- the rocks protect the soil from evaporation, while gardens can be used to grow edible food... Having grass lawns when there is still so much food insecurity even in the United States (where something like 1 in 4 children live in poverty) is simply not morally acceptable. We should all plant gardens, and hire fleet-farming companies (like gardening companies, but they only grow food crops, and take a portion of the produce grown as payment- which they market and sell to local organic restaurants) to take care of them for us... It would generate actual paying JOBS for people while fighting world-hunger and saving everyone else time to do other things...
I enjoy taking care of the lawn and keeping things looking nice. Not enough people care about how their homes look, and you don't even have to have a good looking lawn to make the home itself look presentable.
Would there be a shockwave if a high explosive was detonated in space or a vacuum? If not, then how close can you get to a stick of dynamite without being injured?
Explosives are explosive because they have their own oxidizers in them. That's why they work. You can throw a stick of dynamite underwater and it will still blow up. That's not because the explosive sucked any oxygen out of the water either. Sticks of dynamite have no gills on them.
still there wouldn't be a shock wave, well maybe, space is not a true vacuum. it would be an interesting experiment and probably already been done. my guess is you would be sent flying and spinning until your brain gets squished by blood. I was talking about making fire to light the fuse in space. would need to use electricity or a blowtorch. there would be next to nothing keeping you from moving in the opposite direction of the blast but also nothing stopping the blast from moving around you also. Was up for 2 days when i first replied.
I'm currently in the middle of killing off my front lawn. It''s too small to do anything with, so I don't feel the need to regularly mow grass. There are plenty of ground cover plants that only grow to 3-6" high, so I'll be replacing the grass with something easier to maintain.
We have a massive park outside our house, across the road. But for some reason ALL the little grass hoppers like to live in our 12ft square front lawn. And guess what grass hoppers like to eat.
Where I come from, the fields surrounding my home town are the lawns. Grass can grow wildly with no bullshit consequence, and in fact, wild grasses are deeply respectable.
future flea I don’t criticize people for choosing to live in squalor, though I find the idea of it ridiculous. I find it amusing that you elevate your beliefs above those choosing to live in a house.
I live next to a wood, and designed my garden to blend in with it, planting small trees shrubs and ground cover. The result is that I never have to weed, dig, or pick up fallen leaves. I just have to trim the shrubs and trees when necessary. I grew everything 1m away from the boundary with other neighbours to avoid arguments and do not let anything grow too high except for the occasional small tree which are grown further into the garden. I use a lot of evergreens that don't drop leaves. I have virtually no lawn. My neighbours think I am crazy. But I am not mowing grass twice a week in the summer, watching it dry out and turn yellow, trying to fill up vast flower beds with a few potted geraniums from the garden centre, or complaining that these sparse beds are being used as kitty litter by the local cats. My dog can crash and dig around the garden without causing any disturbance. I get tons of wildlife . But best of all I don't have to moan about all the leaves falling from beach, chestnut and sycamore trees that grow in the woods at the back of my garden. The leaves drop, they break down, and feed my shrubs. I don't have to worry about low levels of light that prevent flowers from blooming. Why do my neighbours think I am crazy for not struggling to keep a lawn and a few dozen marigolds? I have no idea.
Thomas Woelki you will also be a widow soon as they will die off from lack of protein amino acids you can only get from some form of meat consumption. also, plants have value too! you spare the cow but eat the carrots... smh :/ ;)
Wow, people are still parroting that myth? I thought it died in the 90s along with the 'tofu turns men into women!' garbage. It is no harder to stay healthy as a vegan than as an omnivore, and their diet tends to be a lot better balanced than self proclaimed 'carnivores' with their meat heavy diets.
This is a really longwinded video to say the following: 1) "Why do we have lawns?" Because people think they look pretty. 2) "Why do people think they look pretty?" Because it's a status symbol rooted (rimshot) in wartime strategy. 3) "Why can't I just let my lawn be wild and not take care of it because it's a waste of water?" You can. It's called 'fucking up your ability to sell your house'. If you don't want to take care of a dog, don't buy a dog. If you don't want to take care of a lawn, don't get a lawn. 4) "But I think the green grass looks stupid." See the above point. But green lawns aren't the only attractive thing to look at. Rock gardens or gravel or cobblestone also look nice. You don't specifically have to have a well-manicured lawn, but letting your house look like shit is the fastest way to keep your house from selling. Also, if it's a gated community house, it's probably in your contract to take care of it.
Actually, in many locations you're required to keep a grass lawn to certain standards (including grass height) or risk legal action, and no, that's not just gated communities or even particularly rich ones (and can go for entire counties). This has happened to people that decided to use their lawns to grow food, for example. Welcome to the land of the "free".
DynamicWorlds Do what my neighbors did across the street from me. Replace their real lawn with a fake lawn. It always looks good now. Never have to cut it. Never have to water it. Never need fertilizer. It's pretty much zero maintenance. You can't even tell the difference. It's not like the completely fake green astroturf of the past, like on Brady Bunch.
Sure, once I burn every young adult fiction book written after 1950. Also, all the video games. Perhaps skis, too. Fuck it, I will burn down everything I personally don't like that I think is a drain on the economy, and then you can burn down everyone's lawn,. Btw, I'm thinking about burning down all the youtube comments. Also, there i a very simple fix to California's water problems: privatize water and don't provide subsidies to anyone for it.
What is the alternative in a suburban neighborhood? I can't think of anything else that would be appropriate and still serve the same functions. You can comfortably drive or walk on it and it doesn't track much inside of the house. What else is there that would do that just as well? 100% serious question bc I cnt think of a single thing that could replace it w/o being even more ridiculous!
I live in the southern us and paint melts off houses in the summer. Plus it would have to be crazy thick and crazy expensive or it would get torn up real fast!
In Australia, all new builds are required to have a rain water tank installed. If you're worried about the mains water usage, have a rain water tank installed (You can have them buried or placed under the house, if on piers) then watering your garden is free. With the use of herbicides, there is no real need, though it is easier. Always try and prepare a garden bed by weeding then applying layers of newspaper and mulch then letting the mycelium do the rest. There are many organic weed killers out there that will not harm us or the environment via runoff. They just take longer to take effect and may need a few more doses. This may sound hypocritical, but I own my own pest control business here in Australia, however my property is organically certified where I produce most of the fruit and veg which my family consume and I also share/trade with others. The moral here is that there are ALWAYS options, it may just take a little longer or a more refined search to find them.
If the amount of water your lawn uses bothers you, then install subsurface watering, which is way more efficient and does not throw water all over your sidewalks, etc.
+Dane Clark I guess it must big a big thing in those gaudy cookie-cutter neighbourhoods in Murica. The most I've ever seen someone do to their lawn is water it in dryer areas. A lawn is a lawn is a lawn, they grow fine without fertiliser and no one cares about the odd dandylion.
Here in the desert oasis of Nevada, our lawns are mostly rock and desert plants and terrain due to water bills and prices being high and that it would keep with the terrain looks of a desert. We still however, have to pick weeds and sift through rocks by hand to remove dead leaves and other things.
This is an interesting and informative video, but it really is wrong. It makes it sound like if Abraham Levitt has put slabs of concrete in front of homes, we'd all be living with parking lots for yards. But it's not just precedence that creates a trend. It's the the use people find in it. People took to lawns, not because they are brainless sheep, but because lawns are an easy way to get a nice looking yard where the kids can play safely. Almost anything you can replace lawns with will either look worse, be harder to maintain, or won't allow kids to play on it. Lawns satisfy all three of those desires.
I just have to say that I'm a new subscriber and it's a shame I haven't found this channel earlier. Video's are entertaining and informative, love them. Also had to mention this particular video hits close to "home". I run my own small landscaping route and currently live in one of the Levitt houses that's mentioned in the video... Haha 😆 I was born and raised in the area and everyone is crazy about their lawns.
Thirty years ago we moved into a house with grass lawns. The electric bills in the summer months were around $375.00 a month five months a year. I reforested the property with hardwood trees and holly bushes. Now the lot has around 150 trees ranging in age from 30 years to 1 year old. The shade they provide makes the use of our air conditioner unnecessary. The property is covered with a tree canopy and the the grass is completely gone. The electric bills over the same time period now run about $115.00 a month. The trees do not require any of the maintenance issues the grass lawn required. Mowing, watering, application of chemicals, and weed control are completely unnecessary. david .
I live in northern michigan, way way out in the deep forest. Used to have a grass lawn but recently have decided to let it go and let nature reclaim it. Almost all of the grass is gone and it has been replaced by many different kinds of lush green moss. Different colorful mushrooms and wildflowers also sprout up. In the areas not quite so heavily shaded wild raspberry bushes have begun to spread. Who knew being lazy would result in an enchanted dell that looks like something out of an old Disney movie? If you live in a densley wooded area and your lawn is heavily shaded, just let nature take it's course and you'll be surprised at how beautiful it is. Saves money, work, and water, too.
Bonus bonus fact. Lawns were assiduously avoided in most rural homes of the American South until well into the 1960s and early 70s. Most homes back then were wood framed (often of very resinous old heart pine) and occasionally log structures (pine or oak). Grass growing near the house was a serious fire hazard. Between free range chickens, a yard rake (for leaves), and a small gardening hoe, the yard around a house was kept a pristine patch of bare earth shaded by a few trees. My grandmother kept just such a yard herself until the mid-sixties. The open ground was good for outdoor chores and was safer for children to play on because snakes and large stinging insects (like cow ants) were more visible. Where possible a rural home would be situated with a pond not far from the south (porch side). When the wind blew across ithe water, the air temperature could drop several degrees, which made life more bearable on at hot southern summer's night.
I live in north Florida on Amelia Island and I have huge oak and magnolia trees with a few pines around the edges. Right now the leaves have fallen and we are leaf covered. We don't use commercial fertilizer....we have lots of sand....kinda natural.
You went from French castles straight to levitt town. I always thought it had a lot to do with English lawns on country estates, for the purpose of recreation and mosquito control (i.e. less wild means less mosquitos)
I'm lucky. I only have to mow my lawn like 2-3 months a year. Still snowing here in the Northern Rockies, grass is still brown, and trees haven't even budded yet. Our "Spring" is June and "Summer" is late July to August. Snow returns in September on. Easiest. Lawn. Ever.
Ever since moving into a house with artificial turf we have never looked back. It always amuses me to see my neighbors sweating and straining over mowing while having a less than perfect lawn & pouring so much water. & I must say my lawn doesn't look fake since it has a mixture height, greens and has a twinge of brown, in fact I didn't realize it was fake until my boyfriend pointed it out during the open house!
I despise grass lawns. Always have. So, I decided to turn the front & back yards of my 52'x110' suburban property into a Community Garden! I grow countless Delicious & Holistic Herbs, as well as Chilies, Tomatoes, Potatoes etc. I never forget about the Honey Bees either. They have Wildflowers planted Special for them! "Grow Food, Not Lawns".
What is an alternative to grass,for your lawns? I guess you could have bushes or hedges, but like you said with the tree's, any taller plant obstructs your view. Are there low growing alternatives to grass?
Now that you know why we have grass lawns check out this video and find out about The Curious Case of Sun Sneezing:
ua-cam.com/video/OYLf6g0Z4ZE/v-deo.html
I knew a lady that was fined for growing wheat in her yard instead of grass. Another guy got a ticket for keeping chickens. I got a notice to control the dandelions in my yard, so I made a salad with the greens and coffee with the roots. Also went ahead and smoked the chamomile. What can you do with short cut grass? You can't eat it. If you let it grow more than a few inches tall, you will get complaints for "disturbing the aesthetics of the community". Useless crop.
Gravijta Dang where do you live
Alberta, Canada. Recently moved to the country from the city and couldn't be happier about it! :)
It's against the law to do what you want with your property? Sounds awful haha
+Kevin Benoit
That's right! In fact the city had more control over my property than I did. I had a nice long chit chat with a gentleman from bylaw (nice guy btw) about some of the more obscure property laws like if you plan on painting your house or fence, you have to use neutral colours that blend in with the neighbourhood. Any bright, neon colours would result in a fine and you'd have to paint everything again. There is a law for almost every aspect of owning a house in the city.
It's almost like when you're living in close quarters with other human beings you can't just be a self absorbed dick about everything. You might have to take the equally valid desires of other people into consideration. So rules protecting property values have been put in place to prevent assholes from turning one property on the block into a shit hole and making it difficult for others to sell their homes.
I personally hate grass lawns, or specifically how we are supposed to keep the grass cut short. I like the way the flowers and weeds look in my yard. Let my neighbors keep their flat green carpet while I have a mini meadow in front of my house. Plus I like watching butterflies, bees, and other creatures traveling between the flowers.
As long as it doesn't become a fire hazard...which requires less water than keeping a short cut grass green looking under the summer sun.
Ohhhh, so close, but you don't say why we have "grass" lawns. The Levitt home lawns were a grass/clover mix. The clover remained a bright green longer than grass and would fix nitrogen into the soil. Indeed, back in those days, "grass" seed purchased in stores deliberately included clover for those reasons.
So, when did we get grass lawns rather than a grass/clover mix? Get ready to gnash your teeth. It has everything to do with a fertilizer executive who wanted to expand his market. He figured out that if he could promote pure "grass" lawns without clover, then he'd be able to sell a hell of a lot more fertilizer since grass depletes nitrogen from the soil and therefore requires frequent treatments. He was right. Broadleaf "weed" killers would take out the clover, leave the grass, and make us dependant on fertilizers ever since.
I grew a clover lawn once to see how it would do. The neighbors complained, but it was beautiful, and it did indeed stay greener much longer than their lawns during the scorching mid-west summers.
It's really nice to see all the pollinators that the clover attracts too.
Robert Lawton Ferb I think I know what were growing this summer...
Robert Lawton why did your neighbors complain?
Nice post. I'm looking into doing this as well. I was wondering if you ever have to mow your clover lawn?
Robert Lawton. Growing up in a rural setting, even as a boy I saw the time, expense and waste of suburban lawns as status quo ridiculousness. So many aren't even utilized for any activity at all.. It's just another industry, another obligation. Many people believe that a wild grass lawn is a haven for vermin, thereby anything but short grass is unhealthy, unsanitary for lack of a better word. That is part of the (illogical) justification for lawn regulations here in the US.
I miss living in Arizona. Gravel yard with one or two large rocks strategically placed amongst several cacti. No watering, no mowing, no problem.
Never understood lawns. Grew up in the woods. Trees don't need mowing. Trees provide shade. Shade kills grass. No grass to mow. Problem solved. Quit cutting down trees to plant ridiculous energy consuming lawns. Besides, tree houses were epic fun as a kid. What can you do with grass? Oh yeah, mow it. Enjoy your lawns.
My trees need mowing. I almost killed myself last fall pruning a branch out of one. It is a good thing I had the ladder I was on tied to the tree. Because when that sucker swung back it shook the whole tree.
''Tis a darn shame we ate all the mammoths, they could have mowed those trees for you fairly well I imagine.
Yeah, that sounds much better. Instead of grass, walking around on dusty dirt or after a recent rain, getting the bottoms of my shoes caked with thick mud.
My property is wooded and I have a lot of moss. In places it is like a lawn. Did I say I had a lot of moss?
Because trees can fall on houses. Also roots get under houses. You need to keep them somewhat away from the house.
I asked myself why we cut grass a few months ago, its an extreme waste of fresh water, and the amount of gas we use here in the United States alone to run lawnmowers is insane. I did research and apparently there are blends of grass and artificial grass created to grow only to a certain heights and stay greener longer. Why is this not a pushed topic? The amount of time and money you would save would be crazy, and it would help our carbon footprint significantly.
I really appreciate this channel cus it is the " 'why' question we all drove our parents crazy with encyclopedia" #loveit
sara davenport no #levit
jayrod jones thanks
Ahh... true love on the internet.
Crow T. Robot lol
Replace lawns with self sustaining food gardens and watch what Happens to the economy
Not all of us have your green thumb. I do some recreational gardening and I have to say that if I had to grow all of my own food I'd starve. Gardening is something easy to talk about, and much harder to actually do.
Paul Frederick the hardest part of gardening is the initial setup. Most homes come pre installed with things once considered luxuries, like microwaves and running water, the same idea could be implemented when it comes to things like recycling irrigation systems and wicking planters. Such pre fabricated gardens are included in plans for "green housing" projects like earthships.
Also, in the context of full scale suburban communities, people could grow one specialized crop and contribute to a community food bank program.
Also our education could easily include horticulture courses, or even more detailed subsections within existing biology subjects.
This all sounds superfluous, but I can make another comment if necessary about all of the problems this could fix comprehensively. The food you buy is already heavily subsidized, the majority of the earths pollution comes from our unsustainable agriculture model, etc etc
+Ben Mitchell Have you ever heard of the Malthusian Theory of population? He turned out to be wrong because he did not foresee some modern agricultural techniques that we developed. But he ultimately may turn out not to have been entirely wrong. It really depends on if we can continue managing to keep up with our population growth by developing new technologies to increase food production. So far we've been able to. But some resources remain finite. Like irrigation water. Sustainability is a trickier business than many imagine it to be. I do not see decentralizing food production being the answer to the kind of efficiency we require either.
Ben Mitchell , Most municipalities have zoning rules that ban growing wheat and vegetables so you won't be allowed to replace even part of your lawn with food gardens unless you live in an agriculturally zoned district
Utopiar Anaco unless we the people opt to change it
You get a bonus fact, you get a bonus fact, everyone gets a bonus fact!
KiesKo Enterprises lmao
KiesKo Enterprises lol!
this is what i think when my retired neighbors mow their lawns at 6am every fucking sunday lol
City's pass laws against chemicals, watering, ect that make lawns "pretty" then write tickets when the lawn is "unkept" AMERICA!
sirnik84 I don't get that, why would you water your lawn if you get rain regularly?
sirnik84 sometimes consistent rain doesn't happen, but some sprinklers are automatic and water lawns despite rain
I live in California. for the last 4 years you can get a ticket for watering your lawn due to the drought. But they can also ticket you for having an unkept lawn. I never got a ticket but got several warnings for having a dead lawn. Finally it started raining here and they've lifted their watering bans.
Reason number one that people without green fingers, or are hardly at home should get rid of the lawn.
Brock Mak and do what with the space? concrete?
As a lawn care professional, I found this video enlightening and informative--thanks!
Watching this right after mowing my front lawn
me too
Джозеф sure, when can you come over?
Ethan Mc Clelland My lawn is covered in snow.
MoStLy1aWaKE Mine also, you live in Canada?
Squee She I live just south of Toronto. We are currently sitting at temperatures of 15 degrees today and yesterday.
Such a waste. It's just grass. Should go towards an edible garden; they're much more beautiful and useful.
But, but think of the profits the grocery stores would lose! The profits, man, the profits!
*goes into sobbing hysterics*
Bluekoinu Nah, the profits on produce suck. 2% maybe? The one I work at makes its big profits from value added products. Smoothies, coffee bar, hot food bar, ready made meals, rotisserie chx, etc.
plant a fruit tree, get fruit in the autumn and kids can climb it
Edible gardens are only useful for maybe a few weeks of food. Grass lawns provide drainage and prevent flash flooding all year long.
+r315r4z0r That is a load of bull. Each season has different plants you can grow and you can easily preserve the excess in a variety of ways to enjoy the bounty of your garden year round. I worked for a co-op some years back and we grew a wide variety of plants through out the year. Members would be able to get one or two big brown bags of fresh produce every week from basically mid-spring to late fall and that was with just a small couple acre farm serving several dozen members. Plus any ground that isn't paved or mostly clay or solid stone will have no problem with drainage. A garden would be just as good if not better than a grass lawn on that front.
They don't in Arizona ....they have neat rock lawns and cool succulent , palm, and cacti gardens.
SailorJenova And some fireants as pets as well.
because the grass is shit here in AZ lol. it doesn't matter how well you take care of it, it is always dry and prickly. I went to Ohio once and felt nice grass for the first time and almost cried at how nice it was
+Jonathan Weathersby
It's only dry and prickly if you don't water it enough or have a rougher type of turf. Lush lawns are totally possible here and do exist, they're just not as common because it takes a butt-load of water to sustain a proper one in the desert. The guy talking about "status symbol lawns" a few comments up is kind of right
If you go up to Anthem and scottsdale a lot of places out there have a tiny part of there lawn for grass and what's stupid is that small spot if
You don't trim it right the HOA will fine you like crazy.
That sounds like a cacti garden, not a lawn. Thats kind of like saying a "dry lake".
Thank you Simon! This was my first job as a kid and back in the 80s and 90s funded my GI Joe, Nintendo and music hobbies. Using various lawn mowers and weed eaters taught me a lot about doing a good job, enduring less than ideal conditions and turning my brain off of thinking about the work and just doing the task at hand.
Now I live in Arizona and instead of mowing the lawn I use a leaf blower to take care of the yard. The grass is replaced by small rocks or pebbles but essentially its the same type of work. I do this on the side with working a regular day job. I will tell you that there is a great satisfaction after seeing the end result. Usually it last just a couple of days and needs to be done the next weekend or every other weekend.
Ever just walked on soft grass? Yeah it's great
Ben Buckreis other people's dogs shitting on it ruins it for me
IonIsFalling7217 why not build a fence around it if it causes problems
no. grass is not soft lol
You don't live in Florida do you? The grass doesn't feel so soft when you're getting stung by fire ants.
Primalxbeast southern part of Texas. yeah fuck ants.
So this is the reason i have to spend four hours a week mowing down some crappy and patchy plants? Thanks, suburbia, You've managed to give me yet another reason to hate you.
And you can't even grow anything productive, like vegetables or spices...
+Andrew Knackstedt
Try growing dandelions, they are edible, and if you prepare them right they taste good. And they are a good way to shake a fist at suburbia provided they aren't illegal to grow in you yard.
I let the dandelions grow as I'm told they are the first food for bees in the spring. :) Haven't tried eating them ... yet.
4 hours? You are obviously using the wrong equipment. And create a garden for veggies and spices somewhere.
Mona Irwin Early leaves make great salad greens, roots can be roasted and made like coffee. Flowers can be made into jelly and they're pretty.
uh ... grass also helps drainage. pure dirt exposed to the sun tends to get really hard and impervious to flash rains which leads to pooling and exposure to buildings. Grass is a cheap way to keep the soil somewhat softer allowing for quicker drainage. Provided you know you don't live in a desert ...
Tom St Denis also the root structure keeps soil in place.
Tom St Denis flowers and trees and shit can do that also and don't require as much work
Tom St Denis unless you live in california
+Michael King So will things like gravel and other rocky aggregates of that nature though of course the one usually still ends up needing to do weeding at regular intervals to avoid creating a wild rock garden lol.
Michael King Flowers require more water than turfgrass to keep healthy. Trees are deep rooted therefore will not absorb water right away therefore making your point invalid.
i took a break from lawn videos and primping my lawn to watch this. i sure love my beautiful KBG lawn, it is a ton of work but it's an accomplishment i get to enjoy daily :)
Who else just lets the rain water there grass and let it gets nutrients from the soil?
Ben Buckreis me, all I have to do is trim it everyone in a while.
Ben Buckreis Yeah, really.
I guess it depends on where you live. In drier areas, grass just dies if it isn't watered.
piranha031091 It does. My family lives in Louisiana. The only time it's ever dry is between August and November. Three months.
Ben Buckreis I do that too, mowing lawns is bullshit. what a waste of time and energy
Why do we have grass lawns? So that way I can watch tv, drink a cold beer, and yell at my son to "get out there and mow the damn lawn!" while I watch videos about why we have grass lawns, and still feel like I accomplished something. That's why!
You guys make really good thumbnails for your videos.
I knew there was a reason I resented doing mowing my lawn. I already refuse to water it I don't care what color it turns. doing my part to help the environment
I just spent 7 minutes watching a video about grass lawns. What am I doing with my life...
Frederik N haha lol learning I think ;)
Gaining a way to get out mowing the lawn again by siting how unproductive it is compared to the space program.
Yah sure... people just need to be better caretakers of their our land and world and not get rich taking advantage of the earth. Plant trees and helpful plants and full age for the area you live at. Be careful not to waste resources. Use only what you need. Spent less time on your phone online etc. Plant a garden and fruit trees. Planting grass is a good thing. Just don't waste it or be stupid planting grass in dumb areas and wasting water to take care of it. Stop building cities on good farm land and cutting down forests. This earth of ours cab still be saved. Ours lives as well. Dying in space and wasting resources going their is just dumb. Maintaining our satalites and helping things work more efficient is all we need. No more Mars colonization or other planet nonesense. Waste of earth's resources again and a scam to promote wasteful science. We have the ability and tech too feed the world and heal it's nature. It's all our choice to be good stewards. Science should be more to help life here and now. :)
+Zach Stevens you know the Earth is doomed right? True story. In some millions of years the sun goes nova. That will destroy all humans, animals and plants on Earth. So... .to be good stewards we need to get ourselves, and the others, out of here. Nearby planets like Mars are just a stepping stone. However, I do agree in general with stewardship of the Earth and many people are very disconnected from their food and the cycle of life and death. Im in a city now so don't grow any food but in younger days we had a 1/2 acre garden and 1/2 acre potatoe patch.
I would also challenge, respectively, on planting grass vs planting native species. You can look into the idea of a "forest garden". Food producing local plants are much easier to keep. However, if you want certain tastes like wheat for pasta then you are bringing in a foreign species. Most pretty grass lawns are foreign to the areas the lawns are in. Would you not prefer native plants? Arranged decoratively yes, but not just dull repetitive grass.
Unfortunately, "war" qui non est "mysterious reasons" . (I looked that up - had to study Latin in school but had to cheat to get a pass, 50%)
More info than I'd ever expect to know about lawns yet still so tight and concise. Keep it up!!
What a waste of water.
Keep in mind that public residential water use is only about 10% in the US as it is. Agriculture is where it really tends to gets wasted.
You need to come down off your Seahorse.
Michael Pappano sure some water is wasted but lawns also help recharging the underground water sources when it rains.
not exactly if you know the cycle of water
also there are water butts which connect to the drainage and collect rainwater in to a large butt for gardening purposes
neeneko
How is growing food a waste of water, but growing grass, a useless crop, not?
I live in Maine. I've never watered or fertilized the grass growing in my yard. Neither have my neighbors. Don't forget there are vast portions on the United States where the only work you have to do is mow the damn stuff.
Maine is pretty great!
John Public like my house. 2 acres of radioactive mutant grass. Even the stuff you forget to water grows just fine.
I live in Scottsdale, where having grass is a legit status symbol for people to show off they are rich.
Boss - reminds me of Dune where water was scarce on the planet but the royalty would have palm trees to show their wealth. A palm tree's daily water requirement could hydrate a family for an entire year on the desert planet Arrakis. The citizens loathed the palm trees knowing what they represented.
Boss I live in Scottsdale too, and in my opinion grass lawns are a waste of water and space. It looks nice while driving by, but that's where the pros end.
Boss I would have a synthetic lawn if I lived their
Yep, good ol gravel for most
Yep I live in Anthem I know how you feel and if you don't up keep it ever day the good old HOA finds you $100 lol
I thought he was just gonna say, so American males can compete who has the better lawnmower.
Simon, the whole point of going to the moon was to get that sweet sweet moon grass. Please do a video on this topic.
I'm here because it's 1am and I'm on youtube searching "why is grass everywhere"
I've lost it
Ifeel like here in germany (and europe in general, i would assume) we tend to have less front lawn, but a quite significantly bigger backyard. Coming from a small village it seemed kinda necessary to have grass on your property, since you would also have some animals. Chicken or pigs were quite common as housestock and that changed only in the last century, so most old houses were designed with animals in mind.
The original reason, I have picked up here and there, is that originally European landowners got status from having property that wasn't used to grow stuff they needed. I also have heard that the original mix included clover and stuff we consider weeds, like dandelion. And don't forget that a century of advertising and brainwashing has happened.
My parents went for the "mow it every other week & let nature do its thing," resulted in a really cool variety of plants in the grassy sunlit areas and lush moss carpets on the shady side. Some of the plants even reminded me of teeny tiny wheat. Raspberry and blueberry plants started growing a few years ago too, just spread there by the birds. Nearly everyone in the neighborhood clearly spends a lot of money keeping their lawns pretty green, but no one ever complained to us. Those lawns are prettier, I admit, but get up close to my parents' lawn and you get to see a cool variety of plants and flowers! Still love the lush moss carpet on the shadiest side of the house too, parents even whistfully remark on if only they could get that kind of lush moss coverage all over the lawn. Soooo soft, and no need to mow it...
I always got a kick out of my father-in law telling stories of when he was a kid growing up during the great depression such as he would have to sweep the dirt outside his home or shack. He was raised on a small farm in Warner Robins Ga. and had the responsibility as a young lad to kill any grass or weeds that dared to sprout in the yard. It was a chore to rid the unwanted grass for fear of ticks and fleas. It's funny now that he is 82 years old and still owns the same house he grew up in surrounded by the grass his family found so useless he been cutting all these years he can't live without. Life has a way of changing you for the better, as I found the grass is greener on the other side of life!
I always thought a better alternative to vast lawns was to letting most of it reforest. A house with a 10m x 10m lawn surrounded by a some flowering perennial beds in an otherwise forested lot would be quite appealing to me.
Grass is a waste of space and resources. Grow food not lawns.
A lot of things are wastes of spaces and resources. But we live in the US, a massive nation. I live in Texas particularly, there ain't such a thing as a waste of space, cuz the space never ends lmao!
Andyity, so when I want to play football with my friend I should go and step all over the vegetables,and kill them? Also Wouldn't gardens require more work while a commercial farm can seed and harvest all that in 10 seconds? I mean like harvest in 10 then wait a month.
A.J. Deutsch fuck football. I'm really just referring to people's yards and there is nothing wrong with working hard to grow your own food it's satisfying.
"We're not allowed to have pretty things. Art and beauty are meaningless. We must live as cold, emotionless, robots which calculate every action and only do what is deemed to be the most logical and efficient."
I hate you and I hate everyone that thinks like you. You are legitimately a danger to humanity.
Lawns are symbols of how rapacious and short-sighted the average person can be. I live in the Rocky Mountains which is a beautiful, dramatic, and surprisingly ARID landscape. Short, hardy grasses grow profusely in some places in the mountains but they are predominately xeric like most every plant found here. Free flowing surface water and subsurface aquifers are at a premium and heavily dependent on sufficient snowmelt. There’s a very fine balance to this dry ecosystem but the flora and fauna are supremely well adapted.
Enter people, dragging their invasive sod behind. Now, if the basic needs of a sparse human population were all that were drawing on the water supply, it would occasionally be a problem but hardly dire. We are, however, shipping a truly staggering amount of water out of the mountains to cities and suburbs which are planting invasive lawns as though they belong here. They don’t belong. This would be fine if municipalities would enforce the lawn watering restrictions they occasionally think to enact. They don’t enforce it. Ok. Then surely a population with so much information at their fingertips at least practices the best possible method of watering a lawn which is to do it at night when evaporation loss is lowest and fresh oxygen to the roots is most beneficial. Nope. Not one vain homeowner in 1000 does it that way. I personally know a family that used an extra 15,000 gallons of precious water in just 90 days last year to try and green their lawn. News flash: we really need that water THIS year because it’s barely snowed and that’s trouble. I hope that Bermuda grass lawn brings everyone joy after my cabin has burned to the ground with no water to fight the fire. Which was nearly the case several times over the last decade. With every ill advised lawn we plant in the West, the chance that real mountain folk will be forced to suffer catastrophic loss grows.
South Africa is having an unprecedented and deadly water crisis and Americans are planting lawns in places where they should never grow. It just paints such a dire picture of how much we will waste to appeal to our stinking vanity when others have so little.
I assumed it was a neo-classical thing, not rooted in medieval warfare, so that's interesting.
It was fun watching folks in Colorado Springs try to keep their fancy KY Bluegrass and Fescue going during the water rationing. I had Bermuda grass and it did fine.
When I moved out west to LA from the east coast the difference in the amount of lawns is amazing. In LA where there was a long drought people have replaced lawns with fake grass, gravel or sand. Some add rocks and cacti. If done right its beautiful!
Anyone else here from the ages of 15-35 not care one bit about grass lawns in suburbia?
Now tell me how much property you own, kid.
Now how about you tell me why people want to buy property with lawns on them in the first fucking place?
+Sara3346 lawn is a buffer. It keeps wildlife from camping out on my house doors. Plus trees too close to the house don't let roofs dry out, and that causes problems. I had one house where squirrels were using trees to gain access to the house. Exterminating them became quite an issue over time. Lawn also allows use of property. It is better than mud, or dust. Which are the other options when there is no lawn.
Paul Frederick or you can use clovers or some other kind of thing that is not actually grass.
@@1pcfred
>mud or dust
Why not just replant the damn thing with native plants lmao
The bonus facts are better than the main topic. Keep them coming!
Here in Colorado, if you don't water your lawn: grass+no watering=dead grass and a gross looking yard. It's like a prairie desert out here. I'm definitely looking into different sorts of landscaping and/or setups that require less water and are more realistic. It feels like such a waste, watering some sandy dirt every day :/
Oh Hol my back yard is the flatirons, so the mule deer keep it tidy! There are definitely some beautiful hardscapes around! Most of our front yard is rock and bushes.
Oh Hol collect local species and transplant them.
Local grasses and shrubs will be able to handle local conditions, helping with water retention.
Lucky for you, your local high altitude plants tend to be low growing and drought resistant.
I drive all over my state collecting local indigenous plants many endangered, and it pays off with the abundance of fauna that enjoy my "landscaping" techniques.
Aaaannnndd another bonus fact! I'm not entirely sure about other states, but here in SC I was told by our realtor that we legally could not sign for our home until grass was on the property. We built a new home in a new area, so sod had to be laid before we could move in. Reason for that is it aids in irrigation, prevents erosion, and keeps excess water away from the foundation of the home. Without grass you could be looking at possible foundation problems down the road.
Tomorrow I Want to Find Out: what's the deal with absinthe? there are so many claims and misinformed facts it sounds right up your alley
The stories and legends about absinthe are centered around Chech Absinthe which was the equivalent of moonshine (and with lots of dangerous metals) compared to French absinthe. Absinthe was never banned outside of prohibition, but there was a name change. Now producers of absinthe actually say "Absinthe" as the demonization of the spirit has largely gone away.
It is a truly wonderful spirit if you like very herbaceous liquors and liquorice.
I love how pressed your shirt is. I approve this.
I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself.
John Simon Lol never heard that one before.
Joke is so stale it's as hard as a brick
Too far.
Wow, 12 years late with that joke.
Hahaha fuck
I just wanted to thank you guys for all the amazing content you make, and for giving me inspiration for my Latin project (an informational documentary which I did in the style of one of your videos)!
Why Do We Grow Plain Trees instead of Fruit Trees?
fwiw dept - you mentioned mowing the lawn every weekend (!) when I lived in central new york on a large lot, I had to mow 1/3 of the yard every night of the week, allowing one day for rain. do not miss it!!
Not only are lawns a MASSIVE waste of resources, man-hours, and space- they're also an ENORMOUS cause of allergic reactions with many people (including myself) allergic to grass pollen. We should popularize rock lawns interspersed with gardens- the rocks protect the soil from evaporation, while gardens can be used to grow edible food... Having grass lawns when there is still so much food insecurity even in the United States (where something like 1 in 4 children live in poverty) is simply not morally acceptable. We should all plant gardens, and hire fleet-farming companies (like gardening companies, but they only grow food crops, and take a portion of the produce grown as payment- which they market and sell to local organic restaurants) to take care of them for us... It would generate actual paying JOBS for people while fighting world-hunger and saving everyone else time to do other things...
Where are these rocks going to come from? Don't assume there are rocks everywhere. There's none here.
rubbish, if the lawn is mowed regularly the grass plants of course develop no flowers so there's no grass pollen at all.
I enjoy taking care of the lawn and keeping things looking nice. Not enough people care about how their homes look, and you don't even have to have a good looking lawn to make the home itself look presentable.
Would there be a shockwave if a high explosive was detonated in space or a vacuum? If not, then how close can you get to a stick of dynamite without being injured?
ryanraymond321 There's shrapnels.
wouldnt light or have the nessicarry oxigen it would empart force maybe enough to damage you if you could get it lit
Explosives are explosive because they have their own oxidizers in them. That's why they work. You can throw a stick of dynamite underwater and it will still blow up. That's not because the explosive sucked any oxygen out of the water either. Sticks of dynamite have no gills on them.
still there wouldn't be a shock wave, well maybe, space is not a true vacuum. it would be an interesting experiment and probably already been done. my guess is you would be sent flying and spinning until your brain gets squished by blood.
I was talking about making fire to light the fuse in space. would need to use electricity or a blowtorch. there would be next to nothing keeping you from moving in the opposite direction of the blast but also nothing stopping the blast from moving around you also.
Was up for 2 days when i first replied.
Yes, explosives usually produce enough gasses for a shock wave to travel though in space. Although, it probably wouldn't travel as far.
I'm currently in the middle of killing off my front lawn. It''s too small to do anything with, so I don't feel the need to regularly mow grass. There are plenty of ground cover plants that only grow to 3-6" high, so I'll be replacing the grass with something easier to maintain.
We have a massive park outside our house, across the road. But for some reason ALL the little grass hoppers like to live in our 12ft square front lawn. And guess what grass hoppers like to eat.
Where I come from, the fields surrounding my home town are the lawns.
Grass can grow wildly with no bullshit consequence, and in fact, wild grasses are deeply respectable.
The idea that you are looked down uppon in america if you dont have your own giant home that you wont use half of is rediculas
future flea I don’t criticize people for choosing to live in squalor, though I find the idea of it ridiculous. I find it amusing that you elevate your beliefs above those choosing to live in a house.
I live next to a wood, and designed my garden to blend in with it, planting small trees shrubs and ground cover. The result is that I never have to weed, dig, or pick up fallen leaves. I just have to trim the shrubs and trees when necessary. I grew everything 1m away from the boundary with other neighbours to avoid arguments and do not let anything grow too high except for the occasional small tree which are grown further into the garden. I use a lot of evergreens that don't drop leaves. I have virtually no lawn. My neighbours think I am crazy. But I am not mowing grass twice a week in the summer, watching it dry out and turn yellow, trying to fill up vast flower beds with a few potted geraniums from the garden centre, or complaining that these sparse beds are being used as kitty litter by the local cats. My dog can crash and dig around the garden without causing any disturbance. I get tons of wildlife
. But best of all I don't have to moan about all the leaves falling from beach, chestnut and sycamore trees that grow in the woods at the back of my garden. The leaves drop, they break down, and feed my shrubs. I don't have to worry about low levels of light that prevent flowers from blooming. Why do my neighbours think I am crazy for not struggling to keep a lawn and a few dozen marigolds? I have no idea.
You can save a lot of money on lawn equipment if you marry a vegan.
Thomas Woelki you will also be a widow soon as they will die off from lack of protein amino acids you can only get from some form of meat consumption. also, plants have value too! you spare the cow but eat the carrots... smh :/ ;)
Thomas Woelki and lose a lot of sanity and freedom
Zach Stevens you can get all aminos from plants. its just easier with animals
Sure, the vegans die off, that must be why there's more and more of them.
Wow, people are still parroting that myth? I thought it died in the 90s along with the 'tofu turns men into women!' garbage.
It is no harder to stay healthy as a vegan than as an omnivore, and their diet tends to be a lot better balanced than self proclaimed 'carnivores' with their meat heavy diets.
Proud to live in Tokyo... no lawns here
This is a really longwinded video to say the following:
1) "Why do we have lawns?" Because people think they look pretty.
2) "Why do people think they look pretty?" Because it's a status symbol rooted (rimshot) in wartime strategy.
3) "Why can't I just let my lawn be wild and not take care of it because it's a waste of water?" You can. It's called 'fucking up your ability to sell your house'. If you don't want to take care of a dog, don't buy a dog. If you don't want to take care of a lawn, don't get a lawn.
4) "But I think the green grass looks stupid." See the above point. But green lawns aren't the only attractive thing to look at. Rock gardens or gravel or cobblestone also look nice. You don't specifically have to have a well-manicured lawn, but letting your house look like shit is the fastest way to keep your house from selling. Also, if it's a gated community house, it's probably in your contract to take care of it.
Actually, in many locations you're required to keep a grass lawn to certain standards (including grass height) or risk legal action, and no, that's not just gated communities or even particularly rich ones (and can go for entire counties).
This has happened to people that decided to use their lawns to grow food, for example.
Welcome to the land of the "free".
DynamicWorlds
Do what my neighbors did across the street from me. Replace their real lawn with a fake lawn. It always looks good now. Never have to cut it. Never have to water it. Never need fertilizer. It's pretty much zero maintenance. You can't even tell the difference. It's not like the completely fake green astroturf of the past, like on Brady Bunch.
Sure, once I burn every young adult fiction book written after 1950. Also, all the video games. Perhaps skis, too. Fuck it, I will burn down everything I personally don't like that I think is a drain on the economy, and then you can burn down everyone's lawn,. Btw, I'm thinking about burning down all the youtube comments.
Also, there i a very simple fix to California's water problems: privatize water and don't provide subsidies to anyone for it.
Bro, your profile is weeb shit.
That last comparison, AWESOME! :D
What is the alternative in a suburban neighborhood? I can't think of anything else that would be appropriate and still serve the same functions. You can comfortably drive or walk on it and it doesn't track much inside of the house. What else is there that would do that just as well? 100% serious question bc I cnt think of a single thing that could replace it w/o being even more ridiculous!
Green Plastic
I live in the southern us and paint melts off houses in the summer. Plus it would have to be crazy thick and crazy expensive or it would get torn up real fast!
Some people have said a clover and grass mix. Because the clover fertilizes the grass.
How about clover?
Sara3346 it would look good but crush flat and look bad as soon as you stepped on it let alone drive on it.
In Australia, all new builds are required to have a rain water tank installed.
If you're worried about the mains water usage, have a rain water tank installed (You can have them buried or placed under the house, if on piers) then watering your garden is free.
With the use of herbicides, there is no real need, though it is easier. Always try and prepare a garden bed by weeding then applying layers of newspaper and mulch then letting the mycelium do the rest. There are many organic weed killers out there that will not harm us or the environment via runoff. They just take longer to take effect and may need a few more doses.
This may sound hypocritical, but I own my own pest control business here in Australia, however my property is organically certified where I produce most of the fruit and veg which my family consume and I also share/trade with others.
The moral here is that there are ALWAYS options, it may just take a little longer or a more refined search to find them.
in Germany, you HAVE to have a certain percentage of your property covered with lawn
I did Nazi that coming.
Rasen mähen, immer #rasenmähen
I loved the comparison between the amount of work to go the moon and the amount of work mowing lawns. That is mind boggling.
how do people not like these videos? just curious
Haters gonna hate. ;-)
today i found out why i reckon hahahaha, keep it up Sole!
If the amount of water your lawn uses bothers you, then install subsurface watering, which is way more efficient and does not throw water all over your sidewalks, etc.
Who the hell weeds and fertilises their lawn?
Me
Me?
I'll show myself the door.
Waste of time, energy and resources.
You just go right ahead and rent...
+Dane Clark I guess it must big a big thing in those gaudy cookie-cutter neighbourhoods in Murica. The most I've ever seen someone do to their lawn is water it in dryer areas. A lawn is a lawn is a lawn, they grow fine without fertiliser and no one cares about the odd dandylion.
You have such a soothing voice.
it's funny how the green screen software is having trouble with your beard. I am losing focus on what you are saying and focusing on the beard
And the glare on side of the glasses.
Here in the desert oasis of Nevada, our lawns are mostly rock and desert plants and terrain due to water bills and prices being high and that it would keep with the terrain looks of a desert. We still however, have to pick weeds and sift through rocks by hand to remove dead leaves and other things.
You have grass because you don't Plant Tomatoes!
This guy's videos are great. Well done.
This is an interesting and informative video, but it really is wrong. It makes it sound like if Abraham Levitt has put slabs of concrete in front of homes, we'd all be living with parking lots for yards. But it's not just precedence that creates a trend. It's the the use people find in it. People took to lawns, not because they are brainless sheep, but because lawns are an easy way to get a nice looking yard where the kids can play safely. Almost anything you can replace lawns with will either look worse, be harder to maintain, or won't allow kids to play on it. Lawns satisfy all three of those desires.
Mitch Johnson I don't have kids and tend to not want them around. plus constantly having to mow is a pain in the ass some days.
Is it just me or are these videos getting continuously better?
because earth has grass?
this was interesting considering its my livelihood and my pride to maintain lawns and the landscaping for my town
Zero dislikes I'm so early xD
I just have to say that I'm a new subscriber and it's a shame I haven't found this channel earlier. Video's are entertaining and informative, love them. Also had to mention this particular video hits close to "home". I run my own small landscaping route and currently live in one of the Levitt houses that's mentioned in the video... Haha 😆 I was born and raised in the area and everyone is crazy about their lawns.
alright so if everyone keep their lawns growing wild for 2 years we'll be able to send another guy to the moon
Thirty years ago we moved into a house with grass lawns. The electric bills in the summer months were around $375.00 a month five months a year. I reforested the property with hardwood trees and holly bushes. Now the lot has around 150 trees ranging in age from 30 years to 1 year old. The shade they provide makes the use of our air conditioner unnecessary. The property is covered with a tree canopy and the the grass is completely gone. The electric bills over the same time period now run about $115.00 a month. The trees do not require any of the maintenance issues the grass lawn required. Mowing, watering, application of chemicals, and weed control are completely unnecessary.
david
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Because dirt lawns look like shit........
I live in northern michigan, way way out in the deep forest. Used to have a grass lawn but recently have decided to let it go and let nature reclaim it. Almost all of the grass is gone and it has been replaced by many different kinds of lush green moss. Different colorful mushrooms and wildflowers also sprout up. In the areas not quite so heavily shaded wild raspberry bushes have begun to spread. Who knew being lazy would result in an enchanted dell that looks like something out of an old Disney movie?
If you live in a densley wooded area and your lawn is heavily shaded, just let nature take it's course and you'll be surprised at how beautiful it is. Saves money, work, and water, too.
grass not grars
"You're watching the Today I Found Out Youchube Channol" 😂😂
Instead of grass lawns, we should use that wasted space to grow marijuana instead.
You should start a movement. You can call it, "say no to grass".
+Jascha Bull literally laughed out loud!
But wouldn't that require even more maintenance?
Yes it would but at least you get a benefit out of it LOL
+A V replied to wrong guy, friend.
Bonus bonus fact. Lawns were assiduously avoided in most rural homes of the American South until well into the 1960s and early 70s. Most homes back then were wood framed (often of very resinous old heart pine) and occasionally log structures (pine or oak). Grass growing near the house was a serious fire hazard. Between free range chickens, a yard rake (for leaves), and a small gardening hoe, the yard around a house was kept a pristine patch of bare earth shaded by a few trees. My grandmother kept just such a yard herself until the mid-sixties. The open ground was good for outdoor chores and was safer for children to play on because snakes and large stinging insects (like cow ants) were more visible. Where possible a rural home would be situated with a pond not far from the south (porch side). When the wind blew across ithe water, the air temperature could drop several degrees, which made life more bearable on at hot southern summer's night.
I really like the thick grass found in warm climates, like Centipede grass.
I love your very informative videos to start my day. I really enjoy your channel.
I live in north Florida on Amelia Island and I have huge oak and magnolia trees with a few pines around the edges. Right now the leaves have fallen and we are leaf covered. We don't use commercial fertilizer....we have lots of sand....kinda natural.
You went from French castles straight to levitt town. I always thought it had a lot to do with English lawns on country estates, for the purpose of recreation and mosquito control (i.e. less wild means less mosquitos)
I'm lucky. I only have to mow my lawn like 2-3 months a year. Still snowing here in the Northern Rockies, grass is still brown, and trees haven't even budded yet. Our "Spring" is June and "Summer" is late July to August. Snow returns in September on. Easiest. Lawn. Ever.
Ever since moving into a house with artificial turf we have never looked back. It always amuses me to see my neighbors sweating and straining over mowing while having a less than perfect lawn & pouring so much water. & I must say my lawn doesn't look fake since it has a mixture height, greens and has a twinge of brown, in fact I didn't realize it was fake until my boyfriend pointed it out during the open house!
First of all, thank you for uploading in 60FPS
Loved the Bonus facts bit of this video.
I despise grass lawns. Always have. So, I decided to turn the front & back yards of my 52'x110' suburban property into a Community Garden! I grow countless Delicious & Holistic Herbs, as well as Chilies, Tomatoes, Potatoes etc. I never forget about the Honey Bees either. They have Wildflowers planted Special for them! "Grow Food, Not Lawns".
What is an alternative to grass,for your lawns? I guess you could have bushes or hedges, but like you said with the tree's, any taller plant obstructs your view. Are there low growing alternatives to grass?