I appreciate your viewpoint, your garden looks great but that short grass is a barren wasteland for biodiversity. You have to work out what’s important for you, and all sides should respect that. It would be possible to maintain some of it as a native wildflower meadow instead, and keep the overall length managed without using weed killers and poisons and huge amounts of water like grass requires. There’s no such thing as a native weed, but you do have to remove some individuals for diversity and soil health if they grow too large. I do this with brambles and other large light blocking species, as I don’t have the space to support them, even though they’re great for wildlife, they end up having a short term negative biodiversity impact in a small space. Even a small corner or container of wildflower would support native pollinators and vastly improve the health and biodiversity of your entire garden. Get a solitary bee hotel, if they exist in your country. Leave a pile of sticks/logs somewhere for insects. Get a pond if you can. You already compost so that’s good. Nature isn’t meant to be tidy, neat or uniform. But I understand that not everybody can appreciate the value that could be gained from millions of gardens improving thier biodiversity, and that conforming with others and past practices and traditions may be a stronger factor for some people to want to keep their gardens neat. You’re clearly a good gardener, but no wildlife conservationist, you can have both though. It’s not about being intentionally messy, it’s about creating conditions for wildlife to be invited in. Those fully overgrown gardens are probably great for nature, but you are right that they have to consider the size of the space and the proximity of neighbours before doing that, and not being considerate of that can make them a bit of an asshole.
Comment on I'm doing my part
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 1 day agoWow you stepped right into the point and didn’t even notice.
Technically yes, you are composting by throwing food out your window and onto your yard. Technically yes, you are reclaiming space for insects and animals by not maintaining any area outside your house. Functionally, if you want to make compost, you designate a spot or get a container and learn anything about browns, greens, necessary turning, decomposition, and so on. If you want to help insects you might get a sod cutter and turn a section of (or all) of your outdoor space, you learn about what trees or flowers are native to your area and serve that purpose, then you plant. Unless your yard was grassland originally, there’s more work to do than just let it go until code enforcement comes and tells you to stop being a turd.
The most common weed plants are indeed good for pollinators, and spread chicken bones and pizza crusts will eventually add some value to your soil. However, I don’t think they bring you any more credit than, say, helping the bugs in your neighborhood by not cleaning up your food spills or washing your laundry.
Standing around high fiving because youre the nuisance house in the neighborhood who can’t be assed to pick up after yourself is fucking weird. Apparently you (specifically) can do some research so maybe you ARE being intentional, but that is not the general vibe I ever get from the “I don’t even now, you’re welcome neighbors!” threads like this usually devolve into.
ThanksForAllTheFish@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
shiftymccool@programming.dev 19 hours ago
See all that foliage around the lake? That’s why you have fireflies in your yard/desert.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Isn’t it nice? That’s been carefully selected by the HOA with the help of an ecologist. An effort which I have been managing since I joined the board 8 years ago. None of the yards are no mow because you can have both.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
‘HOA Board member’ puts this entire thread of conversation into perfect context.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
Why wouldn’t I be on the board? It’s mostly just my rental properties in here and the other meat farm execs.