Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The American Lawn Needs to Die
Dallas Observer ^ | September 30, 2015 | Eric Nicholson

Posted on 09/30/2015 8:49:25 AM PDT by Arec Barrwin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 161-163 next last
To: Arec Barrwin

Agree. I never understood the obsession. I have a 2 plus acre property with probably 3/4 of an acre of grass. The house came with an irrigation sprinkler system installed by the prior owner. It’s been almost 3 years and I’ve yet to turn it on. We live in Massachusetts and usually get enough rain to keep the grass mostly green. But I couldn’t care less when the lawn turns brown in high summer.

I mow it enough for it to look neat, but that’s about it. I fertilize the front grass once a year. With a wife and 3 kids under 10, I have better things to do with my time.

With that being said...the Freeper in me realizes that some people love their lawn, love to fuss over it, and love to have it look like a perfect lush green carpet. That’s ok with me. It’s their water bill.

But it’s the friggin’ busy body Democrats that f it up for everyone by telling you how awful you are, and how much resources you’re “wasting” etc. screw em’


81 posted on 09/30/2015 9:26:02 AM PDT by strider44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

[ Liberal utopian apartments. This is what they think people should live in. It is what all communists force people to live in. ]

This calls for MUZAK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4


82 posted on 09/30/2015 9:26:23 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

The lawn has died where I grew up—in Arizona!

Except on golf courses, of course!!!!


83 posted on 09/30/2015 9:27:10 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin
But at the very least people can water a little less

Move to the Northeast, we have plenty of water and hardly ever have draught condidtions and almost never have dozens of forest fires throughout the state. Besides, we have a net loss of population due to high taxes as the governments are almost all left wing dems with their only focus on welfare programs. We need more people to afford to stay here or we will move South and West and futher strain the water shortages.

84 posted on 09/30/2015 9:27:30 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

We never water in Wisconsin. The rain from the sky takes cre of it. Only the flower beds get water, and only those close to the house. The mowing never stops, however, until the first freeze. Then we get a break until spring.


85 posted on 09/30/2015 9:28:34 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Obadiah
If that were the author's only point I'd be in full agreement, but I have seen liberals jump on this "lawns are an ecological nightmare" bandwagon before, and frankly, this article seems to be a thin attempt to drive that agenda.

For some reason, liberals are never satisfied until everybody is as slovenly and degraded as they are. And then they moan and complain with contempt and envy that the only reason all those hard-working people got to where they are is because of "white privilege". You know, the "rich" stole it off the backs of others so we must tear them down.

Yeah, he's just talking about lawns, but it is a unique metaphorical example of the liberal mindset.

I agree with you and would add this additional viewpoint. Libtards want to get rid of green grass for whatever twisted agenda(s) exist in their vacuous warped minds, but they ignore the amount of carbon dioxide grass takes out of the atmosphere replacing it with oxygen. If carbon dioxide is a global heater then grass is a global cooler.

86 posted on 09/30/2015 9:28:43 AM PDT by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin
He's a liberal elite who douses baby clothes with fire retardant chemicals, worries about snail darters, and frets about yards.

No, he doesn't have a point. He's just ‘in fashion’...

87 posted on 09/30/2015 9:31:49 AM PDT by GOPJ ("The Lives of Others" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

“and 10- or 11-year-old me decided that the next-door neighbor’s lawn “

If you were 10 in 1995, shut up and don’t work about me and my lawn. And stay off it Ahole. In fact, wont even think about it, its none of your business unless you pay my water bill.


88 posted on 09/30/2015 9:32:09 AM PDT by DesertRhino ("I want those feeble minded asses overthrown,,,")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

Maybe the Brady’s were onto something.


89 posted on 09/30/2015 9:34:24 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

Once Hubs and I settle down, this is what we plan to do. A large patio with a space of artificial turf surrounded by trees. A section for a proper garden (irrigated with rain water) and another section for herbs.

The front yard will be gravel and boxes with native plants. More native trees. Almost no maintenance.


90 posted on 09/30/2015 9:35:28 AM PDT by Marie (Hey GOP... The vulgarians are at the gate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Maceman

When I was growing up in Queens, NY, the Italian-Americans always had white rocks and gravel in their yards instead of grass.


91 posted on 09/30/2015 9:35:28 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: I'd like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

No one from the leftist rag Dallas Observer has much of a point.

But I do think that the solution isn’t “no lawn,” but the RIGHT lawn. In Texas, that’s one that’s drought tolerant, like buffalo grass. And don’t demand that it be so pristine.

I visited the GW Bush Library in Dallas last weekend, and the buffalo grass planted there was a soft wheat color, but charmingly wavy and unkempt. That’s how I want my lawn in summer.


92 posted on 09/30/2015 9:36:26 AM PDT by fwdude (The last time the GOP ran an "extremist," Reagan won 44 states.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Maceman

If you think lawn care takes work try maintaining a Zen garden like the one pictured. There’s a reason the obsessively focused and patient Japanese invented them.


93 posted on 09/30/2015 9:37:13 AM PDT by katana (Just my opinions)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Bryanw92
green and smooth as flawless as a golf-course fairway with manicured grass to cushion falls — was the perfect spot for football.

So, right there is a pretty darned good argument for having a lawn if you have kids, or have friends with kids. But there have also been some pretty interesting studies that suggest that major elements of human landscape aesthetics are pretty universal, and are there for a good reason. Take a look at how royalty keep their grounds. It's the same the world over—why? Whatever it is, if kings have always done it that way, you have a pretty good idea of what everyone would do if he had his druthers.

Kings have things neat. They have forests and and gardens. But they also have lawns and nice places to sit down. And their houses are on a high point, overlooking water and distant hills. If someone's going to invade, the king's men have a shot at seeing them coming.

Ordinary people like a view. Notice they pay extra for a house on a rise, rather than in a hollow. Like the king, it makes them feel good to be able to see what's coming—friend or foe. Lawns work great for this consideration—not much to hide behind. As someone pointed out, snakes, snappers, coyotes, bears, as well as human predators, are way easier to spot. So are deer and other valuable prey animals. And so are cute children rolling on the carpet-like grass.

I grew up in a bohemian enclave, in a hilly, rocky area. There was precious little grass. If you rolled, you tended to get poked. When one of our rich bohemian friends had an outdoor party, the families with kids—but poor lawn habits—would eagerly show up so their kids could play on something nice.

Maybe grass is hard to grow in Dallas. But I think there's a reason we have the expression "lawn party."

94 posted on 09/30/2015 9:37:53 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

A patch of green lawn is a nice thing to sink your toes in on a hot summer day. And it doesn’t take much to give the illusion of coolness. That said, green lawns are a dead space. Lawn as we know it, doesn’t support fauna, and absorbs copious amounts of water. Better to have your yard support native flora, so as to support native fauna. Food growing is not included in my comments. Fruit trees and veggie-herb gardens are a good thing.


95 posted on 09/30/2015 9:38:52 AM PDT by Conservative4Ever (ENOUGH!! Man the pitch forks and torches...let the revolution begin!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

Perhaps all of the lawn haters would prefer that to roses, flowers, manicured grass and sources of God’s Creation (what’s left of it)?

Yes I spend thousands on my yard every year, you commies want to take that from me too?


96 posted on 09/30/2015 9:39:20 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (This Hispanic wants a wall, the National Guard, and turrets guarding our border)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

I’ve lived at my home in Missouri for 10 years now and have never once watered or fertilized the lawn. The grass just grows around here whether you want it or not.


97 posted on 09/30/2015 9:39:38 AM PDT by Marko413
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: riri

I’m on a well out here.

A well can give you problems at times but a good well is a real blessing.


98 posted on 09/30/2015 9:40:13 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

I spend less time and money mowing by very large lawn each week than most liberals spend in line at Starbuck’s each week.


99 posted on 09/30/2015 9:40:33 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arec Barrwin

Maintaining them is time-consuming and expensive. They suck up ungodly amounts of water. When it rains, their fertilizer-heavy runoff pollutes waterways. They pit neighbor against neighbor’s kids. They are decadent and unsustainable totems of middle-class prosperity.”

This is an especially tight and compact example of Marxist screed. In a sick way, I really admire the author of this prose....


100 posted on 09/30/2015 9:40:47 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 161-163 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson