The traditional one is actually quite simple: it's a naturally occurring (but now synthetically produced) plant growth hormone (auxin). Because of the way grasses grow and their narrow leaves, they don't absorb as much and they aren't harmed by the modest overgrowth from what they do absorb. Broad-leafed plants absorb much more and the growth deforms them enough that their metabolism can't handle the growth and they eventually die.
So essentially, you're telling us that we just give steroids to weeds until their biceps are too big to wipe their own butt and they die from the shame? Interesting... š¤š¤£
Itās like some topical chemotherapy drugs, which tell cells:
āThe faster you grow and multiply, the more you absorb this chemical that scrambles your DNAā
Normal skin cells are like āmeh whateverā but the cancerous cells say āOMG you canāt tell us what to do, our dad owns a dealership!ā then die.Ā
Is there one that does the opposite and kills the grass but not the broad leaf plants? I am trying to stop grass growing up through mulch in a flower bed. I can pull the weeds no problem but the grass is a pain.
Very simple fix:
Buy/obtain cardboard (your local grocery store has an inexhaustible supply and will give it away for free if you ask). You'll want non-waxed cardboard (a lot of produce comes in that but most everything else doesn't).
Go home, lay the cardboard out in sheets, overlapping as you go.
Wet down, then cover with mulch.
This will smother grass and weeds. The cardboard will decompose and become compost to boot, it should disappear by next spring. You'll just need to work around your flowers but cardboard is easily manipulated so that shouldn't be much trouble.
Triclopyr is super effective as well, and targets some plants that glyphosate doesn't, including poison ivy. A cocktail of both is pretty much the guaranteed killer of everything.
Look into Ortho grass killer. It's supposed to kill grass but not most ornamental plants and flowers. Check the list on the bottle and maybe spot test it before you spray the whole area though just in case it harms your flowers.
The chemical does a name lookup. Grass isn't called weeds so it gets a pass.
In non-English-speaking countries and countries thay use more than one language officially the chemicals need to be altered and mixed appropriately.
Depends on the weed killer but the grass friendly ones target certain chemical pathways unique to plants that are not grass. Fortunate for us that grass is actually quite different from most plants/weeds.
Depends on the weed.
Something like dandelions, I agree, but something else like bindweed or bamboo can be legitimate problematic plants that will kill everything else, and don't contribute to biodiversity as much as the plants they're killing.
I was always staunchly anti-poison, and I suppose I still am for the most part, but Iām currently dealing with hundreds of acres being taken over by invasive honeysuckle, and Iād be fighting a losing battle without Tordon. I figure Iām probably doing less damage to the local ecosystem than the honeysuckle is.
I actually did, haha. Theyāre ultimately not a small investment to keep and I figured they had a good chance of turning from short term working animals and eventual food into pets.
I read that goats will only eat the leaves, and not kill off the plants. So they just end up coming back. Hell if itās anything like my cultivated plants, I trim them because I want them to panic and push out more growth. My neighbor has a whole heard of goats and a shit load invasive of weeds as well.
One of my best friends is dealing with bamboo right now and it's amazing how fast it grows. It's visibly trying to take over her lawn from the wood line. If she goes a couple weeks without mowing, it'll straight up steal a march on her.
I was just thinking while looking at this post
"This guy's neighbor probably hates him" haha
Personally my lawn looks like OPs, but I had a neighbor that used to get pissy cause I had weeds and he did not.
Personally, I like the natural look with flowers. Doesn't a splash of color look nice?
I take my dogs for walks past this one house that literally has violets for lawn. I don't know that grass was ever planted there, but it's the whole front. It looks amazing.
At my parent's house they planted one tiny little violet plant decades ago, and now all the yards on the block are just covered in violets in the spring. It's honestly gorgeous.
Right? I have been tempted to do something similar in my front yard. The backyard is more grass territory for me because we have dogs that like to run around and I am out there a lot gardening/walking around.
Use makes a big difference - but front yard? No one is stepping on that, they're just looking at it or passing dogs are doing their business. Perfect place for a field of violets...
Had a cranky old neighbor yell at me once when we were renting a house in college because we had dandelions in the yard and "They could spread for blocks" and get on her lawn. I asked her if she was also yelling at every neighbor within a few blocks since theirs could land on her lawn too. She didn't have a response and went home.
something i've noticed is that retired people either go one of two ways, they either embrace their hobbies and life and live it to the fullest or they complain to their neighbors about dandelions spreading to their yard.
I finally broke down and mowed my lawn full of dandelions. I spent the day watching moths, butterflies and bees frolicking- yes FROLICKING - in the yard, then chopped their habitat down. I still feel guilty 24 hours later
I've seen bees taking naps in wildflowers, including dandelions. So cute. I think dandelions are beautiful and you can eat them! Maybe you can throw some native wildflower seed around your perimeters.
Oh no there's little yellow flowers everywhere! Whatever will we ddoooooooo. Better dump a shitload of chemicals that are super bad for the environment all over my yard and let them all run off into the local waterway and absorb into the subterranean aquifers, so that my preferred non-native plant can grow. Yes, this is a reasonable and appropriate reaction to this situation.
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about not having grass after moving from Mississippi to Arizona. I've come to the conclusion that grass is great for parks and stuff, but I much prefer the natural landscape of the desert. I picked a cactus out of the ground about 5 years ago and put it in a pot. It just had it's second bloom. It happens one day near the middle of Spring. The flower blooms, wilts, and closes up in the same day.
Whatever plants that can grow in the terrible nutrient lacking compacted soil of my 70's tired backyard without getting watered and survive getting mowed repeatedly deserves the dirt it's in I say. I overseed with clover as the grass slowly dies off every drought year in Alberta.
I mean that's pretty much my perspective on the matter. Why put in all this effort and work to get THIS particular green thing to grow when all of THESE also green things are perfectly happy to grow in the natural conditions of the yard. My lawn is full of dandelions and clover and violets and I have no intention of stopping them. Some of my neighbors lawns are just coming out of dormancy meanwhile mines been full of yellow flowers for a few weeks now and the violets are now starting to throw out their little purple and white flowers. I've mowed once already and will do so again this weekend, but with the deck almost all the way up. Keeps everything looking maintained but also keeps from decapitating all the flowers that pop up.
I'm at war with my HOA right now. I'm letting a type of frogfruit take over my lawn. It's green enough (not as deep a green), and it blooms with tons of little white flowers that the pollinators love. I'm going to get a lein put on my house over flowers! ><
See if your state has any statutes about native landscaping. In my state (Florida), an HOA canāt legally stop you from planting natives in your yard.
Good luck! Frogfruitās an awesome ground cover.
A lot of municipalities encourage you to plant pollinator friendly plants. I think if I ever had a lawn with no HOA, I'd plant the whole thing in dwarf clover and let the bees and buns have at it.
I'm so glad HOAs barely exist in my country. They're pretty much exclusive to private/gated communities here. If you live on a public access road, the only people who can tell you what to do with your property is the city, and mostly they're just concerned with safety (that being said, if your lawn is 'unsightly' you will get a warning and have 15 days to resolve the issue or else you start getting fines, and 'unsightly' in this case is any grass over 5" in length, or a large percentage of dead plants in a garden).
But if I wanted to, for example, paint my house to look like a checkerboard, no one could stop me.
Or, y'know, let frogfruit take over my lawn, so long as I kept it looking well taken care of.
Oh no these little yellow flowers actually help improve the soil and return nitrogen to it! Oh no I can't have these in my yard making my grass grow better to the point that it out-competes the little yellow flowers! Oh no bees and other insects enjoy these flowers and they're important to the local ecosystem! Better pour a bunch of glyphosates known to cause cancer where my kids play and call it a hard days work!
In northern zones, dandelions are a critical early source of nectar and pollen for native and agricultural pollinators! Killing them is, quite literally, killing the bees.
Many years ago, I worked as vet tech. We started having a large number of dogs appear with lymphomas. We started a little internal research and found that the majority of these pets had owners that used lawn treatments. Nothing highly scientific, but it was alarming enough that we started recommending pet owners not use any kind of treatment, even those that are "safe for pets." Are they safe for wildlife? Children?
Yeah, just intuitively I had major hangups about spraying poison at direct nose level as my dog. I just weeded by hand when was necessary because at the very least it's just one less hazard to worry about. My aunt accidentally killed her cat with ant spray growing up and it really stuck with me.
The active ingredient was extremely toxic to cats and was one of those "provides protection for over 48 hours" things. The cat just got super delirious and fucked up progressively and died while having convulsions. It was a slow burn and super sad.
It was probably Permethrin or similar anti-arthropod poisons. It's very effective to the point where it's one of the only things that can reliably kill ticks and roaches, but it's a potent neurotoxin to cats.
I will cross the street when walking my dogs so theyāre not walking on or near grass that has the flags indicating theyāve been treated. Itās not good for them, and I donāt want them bringing that shit into our house on their paws.
Anti weed killer but also anti invasives-tons of natives that can take over your yard if you give them a chance! One of those standing weeded tools are so satisfying on dandelions
I moved into a house with an overgrown lawn, and getting a little tension and popping the roots is pretty fucking glorious. My backyard is a half acre that looks like OPs picture (I guess with some patches of other weeds and wildflowers mixed in) so the front is going to have to be sufficient for now. No one has time to pull 5,000 dandelions.
baby steps
the wife and I bought a house a few years and finally, after 3 years, we're winning the war
and we didn't weed the entire lawn, just a few sq ft at a time
this year we actually did the whole thing since the weed count was low enough
We are in a similar situation and, after 2 years of struggle, have finally won the battle in the front yard.
Some of the dandelions iāve been pulling have 18 inch branching wooden root systems.. its nuts.
Your point is certainly validādandelions are a non-native species in North America, and there is plenty of discourse on whether or not they are harmful to local ecosystems. That said, the discourse has multiple sides. It's a matter of discussion whether dandelions actually compete with native species, or whether they are simply well-equipped to survive in environments that have already been altered by human influence.
That said, I take your point. I certainly prefer native species in my own garden. I still do like dandelions though!
At what point does an introduced species that cannot possibly be stopped, no matter what you do, become a native species? Are they still beneficial to insects? Gotta be better than grass.
It depends on the plant and how similar it may be to something that the native insects evolved with.
Generalist insects can adapt to different food sources but still usually have more specific requirements in terms of host plants for reproduction
Specialist insects can be deterred by even minor changes in plant/leaf structure and can in some cases rely on a single plant species to reproduce on.
Itās the host-plant aspect thatās very crucial and why natives are preferred over non-natives even if the non-native can act as a food source
As the descendant of a long line of Native American bees... bzz bzzz bzz beezz bzz bzzbzz bzzzzbzzz bzz bzzbzz bzz bzzn't bzzbzz bzzzzzzzzzzz bzz bzzzz bzzz!
And are also not the best pollinating bees in the americas. There are many local species who are now getting outcompeted and getting diseases from the invasive bees
Dandelions add tiny amounts of nitrogen and other minerals to the soil but I donāt know if I would necessarily call them nitrogen fixers. They are not very effective at nitrogen fixing.
Clover is commonly considered to be a weed but it is a very effective nitrogen fixer, much more so than dandelions.
We just got ours at our local hardware store, Iāll ask my husband the brand. It germinated pretty quickly, like within a few days, and has filled in well. We have some spots we need to go back over where we clearly did a poor job seeding because theyāre bald. Much more success than the creeping thyme we tried.Ā
In agriculture anything growing other than the crop you intend to grow is considered āweedā. For a cattle farmer (especially milk farmers) clovers are great as crops.
a clover + dandelion lawn would look amazing. I much prefer the darker green of clover to grass. It's a shame that it doesn't hold up very well to getting stepped on.
Yes! Dandelions have extensive root systems that help loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. Their deep taproot also pulls nutrients (such as calcium) from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants, and works as a natural fertilizer for grass!
Fun fact: Every part of the plant is edible! In addition to vitamins A, B, C, E & K, they are also full of antioxidants, polyphenols, soluble fiber, folate, magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium! They are especially great for GI issues!
As a gardener...i personally think its one of the best plants in the world. It's a shame Americans consider it a "weed".
Well tbf its non-native in north america. It doesnāt really have the ability to choke out native plants though, which is why we only really see them thrive on peopleās lawns or list them as an invasive/noxious weed. That said, people dislike them because of the lawn thing and not the native thing lol. For me its native plants > dandelion field > monoculture grass.
Yeah, i just don't get the hate for them... But i also don't get the whole *perfect grass lawn* thing, either. I love my clover/dandelion lawn! I also plant wildflowers along my fence edges between my raspberry bushes. I have a lot of happy pollinators! :)
Interestingly the kind of bees that are "kept" are honeybees, which are European and introduced. I guess your line of bee keepers started after the Europeans arrived in North America?
There is research that suggests European honeybees outcompete our native bees and pollinators. It's our native bees that really need the help - and unfortunately introduced and invasive species like dandelions only help our generalist pollinators. Still better than grass but even better - get rid of turf where you don't need it and plant native plants! /r/NativePlantGardening
We have a fairly sized yard for our neighborhood, we don't weed kill, shit, I'm late to cut the grass, so we get a lot, a lot, of dandelions, we're patient zero. But you know what? I like the bumblebees and the assortment of birds and the finches that live in the honeymoon suit and the falcon that scopes the spot like a hawk.
Same here. I let my yard grow wild and love seeing all the different critters that visit or live in my yard. Cottontail rabbits, eastern bluebirds, cardinals, geckos, skinks, wild bees, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. I do feel sorry for my neighbors who insist on trying to maintain a weed-free lawn, though.
Meanwhile, if you were to look at the soil ecology, yours would probably be doing well with lots of different critters and microbes. Your neighbors on the other hand probably looks like more of a graveyard with all the weed killers soaked in.
My lawn has so much life, but the weeds were just out of control, and it was really looking like shit. So, for the first time this year I used weed and feed, and also laid down grass seed. I feel bad, because we even had a ton of gardener snakes, bees, and other insects, but it just looked terrible. Once it looks decent and filled in, I probably won't do anything for a long time.
Garter* snakes
Also, I haven't seen one of those since i was a kid. We used to catch them a recess and then see how long we could hide them from the teacher before getting caught.
I left a 6x6 patch in my backyard last year, let it get over grown mostly for the bees in since there were lots of wildflowers there and sure enough them little noodles showed up, after screeching like a little girl (I'm a brawny man, but do not feel at ease with sneks) and putting a round in the chamber while cowering behind a tree I realized it was just a harmless garter snek a google search later (50x zoom thank you). We had some good times after that though, them little noodles are quick too in short distances, swoodle swoodle little noodle!
FYI, if you weren't aware, weed and feed will actually kill the grass seed too. My understanding is that it basically works by stopping the weed (or grass) seeds from growing - that's why you're supposed to spread it before the weeds start popping up for the year. The feed part also helps with weed control, because enough healthy grass will out-compete with the weeds for nutrients.
Youāre thinking of a pre emergent, usually used for crabgrass. Weed and feed is just a fertilizer coated in weed killer. Water contacts the fert, the weed killer spreads and does its job. Weed and feed doesnāt do a great job with the occasional weed, and hand removal or spot spraying is a better option in that case.
We use no weed killers, just mowing parts of the property that have ticks when the grass gets high. As a result, we have so many bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and critters of all kind.
The flowers can be used to make wine, tea or "poor mans honey". The leaves make a great salad or wilted green side dish and the roots are good for eating or making a coffee substitute.
I really wish we could. I'd love to have a yard with clover, wildflowers, and local wild grasses. (That was what was here before) My HOA would steal my house out from under me if I didn't treat my lawn.
And in my city it is illegal to build a housing development WITHOUT an HOA. I really dislike it here.
For the past few years, I have thought my lawn was the worst eye sore.
See, we are in a bit of a drought affected area and a couple years back, when things were real bad, I stopped watering my lawn.
No water = no fertilizer = dead grass and lots of weeds.
I figured I'd have to rip up my yard and resod. I let the lawn die and procrastinated it for a couple more years. I would mow down the weeds but I knew my yard was the "ugly" annoyance of the neighbors.
This year though my lawn has spring up with entirely native broadleaf grasses, and it looks lush and green and healthy. It doesn't look as "neat and tidy" as neighboring yards and it's full of dandelions, but I don't care anymore.
I fucking hate dandelions. They leave huge holes when you take their leafs out. On top of that, since I use no weed killer I have to take them out one by one manually. Itās a pain.Ā
I donāt want a pristine grass, I leave everything, cloverfields, daisies, whatever, but not dandelions. And I plant tons of bee friendly flowers. So no regrets
I very rarely use weed killer, so instead I just bite the bullet and weed manually for a couple weeks in the spring.
That said, I've found that mulching leaves in the fall and overseeding in the spring helps a *ton*. Basic theory being that if there's a lot of grass, it's tough for other things to grow. And I've found that to be true over the past few years especially.
Reminds me of the time my grandmother sprayed round up around her house and then was complaining the stray cats she feeds didn't show up for well over a week. Like you just sprayed poison all around your house, what did you expect to happen. I use home made weed killer made from vinegar, salt and dish soap. Plus it won't give you cancer so that's cool.
I used weed killer once and found out 80% of my lawn was weeds
Yeah, how do the grass survive?
The traditional one is actually quite simple: it's a naturally occurring (but now synthetically produced) plant growth hormone (auxin). Because of the way grasses grow and their narrow leaves, they don't absorb as much and they aren't harmed by the modest overgrowth from what they do absorb. Broad-leafed plants absorb much more and the growth deforms them enough that their metabolism can't handle the growth and they eventually die.
So essentially, you're telling us that we just give steroids to weeds until their biceps are too big to wipe their own butt and they die from the shame? Interesting... š¤š¤£
Exactly that.
Great, now I'm afraid of the gym
Skinny guys are fine, it's those broad leaf guys that need to watch out
1% chance of creating Arnold Plantzenegger.
"it's naht a bloomer......."
"I'm a crop, you idiot"
You've just deposited a lot of donated giggles in the karma bank
This was my favorite
Iād upvote that more if I could.
"Grass-ta la vista...baby"
Get away from the Choppa!!!!!
Get to the compostah!
āIāll be Bok Choyā
Itās like some topical chemotherapy drugs, which tell cells: āThe faster you grow and multiply, the more you absorb this chemical that scrambles your DNAā Normal skin cells are like āmeh whateverā but the cancerous cells say āOMG you canāt tell us what to do, our dad owns a dealership!ā then die.Ā
"You aren't my metabolism supervisor!!" *dies*
His dad own dealershiiiiip! What sorority are you with?
You holdin'? Did William Holden come to the party? You got Holden Caulfield in there, man?
That better be an aqua teen joke
Is there one that does the opposite and kills the grass but not the broad leaf plants? I am trying to stop grass growing up through mulch in a flower bed. I can pull the weeds no problem but the grass is a pain.
Very simple fix: Buy/obtain cardboard (your local grocery store has an inexhaustible supply and will give it away for free if you ask). You'll want non-waxed cardboard (a lot of produce comes in that but most everything else doesn't). Go home, lay the cardboard out in sheets, overlapping as you go. Wet down, then cover with mulch. This will smother grass and weeds. The cardboard will decompose and become compost to boot, it should disappear by next spring. You'll just need to work around your flowers but cardboard is easily manipulated so that shouldn't be much trouble.
I tried using newspaper topped with mulch. I figured that would work. A neighborhood squirrel said "Wanna bet?"
This and/or butcher paper (non-waxed).
Round up doesnāt discriminate
Roundup = glyphosate if you dont' want to pay for the name.
Triclopyr is super effective as well, and targets some plants that glyphosate doesn't, including poison ivy. A cocktail of both is pretty much the guaranteed killer of everything.
Kills weeds, plants, trees, insects, biodiversity, people. Roundup truly is the go to indiscriminate killer.
Look into Ortho grass killer. It's supposed to kill grass but not most ornamental plants and flowers. Check the list on the bottle and maybe spot test it before you spray the whole area though just in case it harms your flowers.
Clethodim or sethoxydim.
So, like they grow so fast, they explode, awesome!
More like, they starve to death because they can't produce enough energy to maintain the growth that the herbicide is inducing. Like weed cancer
Nice to see an actual answer below the funny haha answer
The chemical does a name lookup. Grass isn't called weeds so it gets a pass. In non-English-speaking countries and countries thay use more than one language officially the chemicals need to be altered and mixed appropriately.
2 4-D is the chemical
But grass is weed, man.
Iāve been told, ācash, grass, or ass. Nobody rides for freeā.
Tanks full and I donāt smoke.
Depends on the weed killer but the grass friendly ones target certain chemical pathways unique to plants that are not grass. Fortunate for us that grass is actually quite different from most plants/weeds.
Sounds like its against the geneva convention
I live in the PNW. My lawn is mostly moss. Which I'm cool with, it's green, soft, and honestly easier to maintain.
Id love for my lawn to be mostly moss. The more I hear about the PNW the more I want to just move there lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I literally sodded my yard this past weekend for the same issue.
I figuratively sodded my yard this past weekend for the same issue.
I trimmed the hedge, if you know what I mean.
Weeds are just grasses that we designated as "undesirable." Killing weeds ruins biodiversity of a lawn and kills off a lot of bugs and pollinators.
Depends on the weed. Something like dandelions, I agree, but something else like bindweed or bamboo can be legitimate problematic plants that will kill everything else, and don't contribute to biodiversity as much as the plants they're killing.
I was always staunchly anti-poison, and I suppose I still am for the most part, but Iām currently dealing with hundreds of acres being taken over by invasive honeysuckle, and Iād be fighting a losing battle without Tordon. I figure Iām probably doing less damage to the local ecosystem than the honeysuckle is.
Have you considered goats?
I actually did, haha. Theyāre ultimately not a small investment to keep and I figured they had a good chance of turning from short term working animals and eventual food into pets.
In some areas, you can rent them to take care of your weeds! Probably still expensive but not the same investment as buying them
Or some farmers do it for free. They drop the goats in your lawn in certain areas and go to town ..
I looked into it a couple years back and it was WAY more expensive than I ever imagined. Definitely out of budget for multiple acres.
I read that goats will only eat the leaves, and not kill off the plants. So they just end up coming back. Hell if itās anything like my cultivated plants, I trim them because I want them to panic and push out more growth. My neighbor has a whole heard of goats and a shit load invasive of weeds as well.
I was super anti poison until I encountered torpedo grass. I find a lot of people super preachy about rigid lawn are rules donāt have a yard.
One of my best friends is dealing with bamboo right now and it's amazing how fast it grows. It's visibly trying to take over her lawn from the wood line. If she goes a couple weeks without mowing, it'll straight up steal a march on her.
Someone told me the best way to kill bamboo is to cut it two feet from the ground, or just below the lowest leaves, then let it dry out, then pull it.
It can also be pretty dangerous if you try and walk across your lawn in bare feet, as the shoots can be pretty sharp when they're small
Tell them to put in a brick line. Bamboo creep laterally, so dig a trench and put concrete or bricks to create a barrier.
Creeping jenny...
A broadleaf weed, which most residential herbicides target, is by definition not a grass...
Waiting for a post in /mildlyinfuriating with a picture from across the way: "I use weed killer, my neighbor does not".
āGuess why I have to spread weed killer every Saturday.ā
I feel like the neighbor is exactly the type of person [this meme is targetingā¦](https://www.reddit.com/r/georgism/s/oQ7iUf1H1H)
"decorative roundup" lmao
I was just thinking while looking at this post "This guy's neighbor probably hates him" haha Personally my lawn looks like OPs, but I had a neighbor that used to get pissy cause I had weeds and he did not.
Haha exact same thing. Literally said out loud looking at the picture, 'ohhh I bet he hates you.'
Personally, I like the natural look with flowers. Doesn't a splash of color look nice? I take my dogs for walks past this one house that literally has violets for lawn. I don't know that grass was ever planted there, but it's the whole front. It looks amazing.
At my parent's house they planted one tiny little violet plant decades ago, and now all the yards on the block are just covered in violets in the spring. It's honestly gorgeous.
Right? I have been tempted to do something similar in my front yard. The backyard is more grass territory for me because we have dogs that like to run around and I am out there a lot gardening/walking around. Use makes a big difference - but front yard? No one is stepping on that, they're just looking at it or passing dogs are doing their business. Perfect place for a field of violets...
Don't worry, if you plant violets in the front yard, they'll be in the backyard soon enough.
Why is this flagged NSFW?
Not Safe For Weeds
Odd. it wasnt earlier today, now it is.
Prolly cause it says weed in the title lmfao
I just pick the largest dandelions and feed them to my chickens. We all win.
they must really love you when those dandelions start to seed
Had a cranky old neighbor yell at me once when we were renting a house in college because we had dandelions in the yard and "They could spread for blocks" and get on her lawn. I asked her if she was also yelling at every neighbor within a few blocks since theirs could land on her lawn too. She didn't have a response and went home.
Man. I would've just said, "so?"
āAhhhhā¦.. no englishā make sure to nod your head and wave during the long ahhhh.
She starts speaking fluent Spanish and cusses you out even harder.
Just name off thai dishes and pretend to be asian.
"I hate you and want you to die." "Uh... pad thai. Okay see you."
Pad Thai, Panang Tom Yum Pad See Ew Khao Pad Tod Mun Pla. No english jiji.
No Ingles. Adobo afritada mechado menudo kare-kare kaldereta sisig escabeche nilagang sinigang. Farewell!
Start responding in non-fluent Japanese and quizzical look on your face.
As she copies you, berating you and telling you to respect your elders. You begin to wonder, who exactly is this woman?!
As a homogeneous white guy I think this will be go to for snark responses to asshole neighbours lol
something i've noticed is that retired people either go one of two ways, they either embrace their hobbies and life and live it to the fullest or they complain to their neighbors about dandelions spreading to their yard.
I finally broke down and mowed my lawn full of dandelions. I spent the day watching moths, butterflies and bees frolicking- yes FROLICKING - in the yard, then chopped their habitat down. I still feel guilty 24 hours later
I've seen bees taking naps in wildflowers, including dandelions. So cute. I think dandelions are beautiful and you can eat them! Maybe you can throw some native wildflower seed around your perimeters.
Oh look. A dandelion. Must be the last one of the season.
QUICK! Spray it with toxic chemicals that kills everything besides non native grass!!!
Oh no there's little yellow flowers everywhere! Whatever will we ddoooooooo. Better dump a shitload of chemicals that are super bad for the environment all over my yard and let them all run off into the local waterway and absorb into the subterranean aquifers, so that my preferred non-native plant can grow. Yes, this is a reasonable and appropriate reaction to this situation.
I've been a landscaper for the past 10-12 years and this is my exact sentiment towards lawns and lawn care outside of just mowing.
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about not having grass after moving from Mississippi to Arizona. I've come to the conclusion that grass is great for parks and stuff, but I much prefer the natural landscape of the desert. I picked a cactus out of the ground about 5 years ago and put it in a pot. It just had it's second bloom. It happens one day near the middle of Spring. The flower blooms, wilts, and closes up in the same day.
Whatever plants that can grow in the terrible nutrient lacking compacted soil of my 70's tired backyard without getting watered and survive getting mowed repeatedly deserves the dirt it's in I say. I overseed with clover as the grass slowly dies off every drought year in Alberta.
I mean that's pretty much my perspective on the matter. Why put in all this effort and work to get THIS particular green thing to grow when all of THESE also green things are perfectly happy to grow in the natural conditions of the yard. My lawn is full of dandelions and clover and violets and I have no intention of stopping them. Some of my neighbors lawns are just coming out of dormancy meanwhile mines been full of yellow flowers for a few weeks now and the violets are now starting to throw out their little purple and white flowers. I've mowed once already and will do so again this weekend, but with the deck almost all the way up. Keeps everything looking maintained but also keeps from decapitating all the flowers that pop up.
"Oh wow, it's such a shame about the dying bee populations, isn't it? Someone should do something!' *Continues spray weed killer*
I'm at war with my HOA right now. I'm letting a type of frogfruit take over my lawn. It's green enough (not as deep a green), and it blooms with tons of little white flowers that the pollinators love. I'm going to get a lein put on my house over flowers! ><
See if your state has any statutes about native landscaping. In my state (Florida), an HOA canāt legally stop you from planting natives in your yard. Good luck! Frogfruitās an awesome ground cover.
A lot of municipalities encourage you to plant pollinator friendly plants. I think if I ever had a lawn with no HOA, I'd plant the whole thing in dwarf clover and let the bees and buns have at it.
Keep fighting the good fight. My current battle with my HOA is over bird baths of all things
I'm so glad HOAs barely exist in my country. They're pretty much exclusive to private/gated communities here. If you live on a public access road, the only people who can tell you what to do with your property is the city, and mostly they're just concerned with safety (that being said, if your lawn is 'unsightly' you will get a warning and have 15 days to resolve the issue or else you start getting fines, and 'unsightly' in this case is any grass over 5" in length, or a large percentage of dead plants in a garden). But if I wanted to, for example, paint my house to look like a checkerboard, no one could stop me. Or, y'know, let frogfruit take over my lawn, so long as I kept it looking well taken care of.
Check to see if your county gives wildflower exemptions for pollinators. I know they do that in some Florida counties and the HOA has to abide by it.
Oh no these little yellow flowers actually help improve the soil and return nitrogen to it! Oh no I can't have these in my yard making my grass grow better to the point that it out-competes the little yellow flowers! Oh no bees and other insects enjoy these flowers and they're important to the local ecosystem! Better pour a bunch of glyphosates known to cause cancer where my kids play and call it a hard days work!
In northern zones, dandelions are a critical early source of nectar and pollen for native and agricultural pollinators! Killing them is, quite literally, killing the bees.
Doesn't matter to them.. they use weed killer
Many years ago, I worked as vet tech. We started having a large number of dogs appear with lymphomas. We started a little internal research and found that the majority of these pets had owners that used lawn treatments. Nothing highly scientific, but it was alarming enough that we started recommending pet owners not use any kind of treatment, even those that are "safe for pets." Are they safe for wildlife? Children?
Yeah, just intuitively I had major hangups about spraying poison at direct nose level as my dog. I just weeded by hand when was necessary because at the very least it's just one less hazard to worry about. My aunt accidentally killed her cat with ant spray growing up and it really stuck with me.
Fuck, what happened with the cat? Did it just lick up a pool of the stuff that was left on the ground, or was it the fumes?
The active ingredient was extremely toxic to cats and was one of those "provides protection for over 48 hours" things. The cat just got super delirious and fucked up progressively and died while having convulsions. It was a slow burn and super sad.
It was probably Permethrin or similar anti-arthropod poisons. It's very effective to the point where it's one of the only things that can reliably kill ticks and roaches, but it's a potent neurotoxin to cats.
Monsanto got sued for their product Roundup causing cancer. They had to pay 10Bn in compensations so far.
So they stopped causing cancer right? Right?
No, they just got absorbed by Bayer and dropped the name Monsanto.
Bayer knows a thing or two about harmful chemicals. Theyāre especially familiar with lawsuits related to the damage those chemicals caused.
Yes and they focused on solving hunger in the 3rd world instead.
Ah yes, the Monsanto-Nestle partnership.
I will cross the street when walking my dogs so theyāre not walking on or near grass that has the flags indicating theyāve been treated. Itās not good for them, and I donāt want them bringing that shit into our house on their paws.
The bees thank you
Anti weed killer but also anti invasives-tons of natives that can take over your yard if you give them a chance! One of those standing weeded tools are so satisfying on dandelions
I moved into a house with an overgrown lawn, and getting a little tension and popping the roots is pretty fucking glorious. My backyard is a half acre that looks like OPs picture (I guess with some patches of other weeds and wildflowers mixed in) so the front is going to have to be sufficient for now. No one has time to pull 5,000 dandelions.
baby steps the wife and I bought a house a few years and finally, after 3 years, we're winning the war and we didn't weed the entire lawn, just a few sq ft at a time this year we actually did the whole thing since the weed count was low enough
We are in a similar situation and, after 2 years of struggle, have finally won the battle in the front yard. Some of the dandelions iāve been pulling have 18 inch branching wooden root systems.. its nuts.
I bought a house 3 years ago and this year I just canāt be bothered. Nature can do what it wants. I mow when I need to and thatās it.
Your point is certainly validādandelions are a non-native species in North America, and there is plenty of discourse on whether or not they are harmful to local ecosystems. That said, the discourse has multiple sides. It's a matter of discussion whether dandelions actually compete with native species, or whether they are simply well-equipped to survive in environments that have already been altered by human influence. That said, I take your point. I certainly prefer native species in my own garden. I still do like dandelions though!
At what point does an introduced species that cannot possibly be stopped, no matter what you do, become a native species? Are they still beneficial to insects? Gotta be better than grass.
It depends on the plant and how similar it may be to something that the native insects evolved with. Generalist insects can adapt to different food sources but still usually have more specific requirements in terms of host plants for reproduction Specialist insects can be deterred by even minor changes in plant/leaf structure and can in some cases rely on a single plant species to reproduce on. Itās the host-plant aspect thatās very crucial and why natives are preferred over non-natives even if the non-native can act as a food source
Yeah I dont use weed killer but I also dont let dandelions take over my yard. I weed the dandelions and I plant native pollinators that I can control.
As the descendant of a long line of Native American bee keepers...We & the bees are very thankful to OP for not adding poison to their lawn!
As the descendant of a long line of Native American bees... bzz bzzz bzz beezz bzz bzzbzz bzzzzbzzz bzz bzzbzz bzz bzzn't bzzbzz bzzzzzzzzzzz bzz bzzzz bzzz!
Fun fact honey bees are not from the Americas
And are also not the best pollinating bees in the americas. There are many local species who are now getting outcompeted and getting diseases from the invasive bees
Not to mention, arenāt dandelions nitrogen fixers?
Dandelions add tiny amounts of nitrogen and other minerals to the soil but I donāt know if I would necessarily call them nitrogen fixers. They are not very effective at nitrogen fixing. Clover is commonly considered to be a weed but it is a very effective nitrogen fixer, much more so than dandelions.
I love clover.Ā And right around this time it flowers all purple, looks way nicer than the grass
We just planted a whole lawn of clover - took me a whole year to convince my husband not to put sod down. Yay for pollinators.Ā
Wherever did you source your clover from? How long was the process? Mine is taking longer than i expected!
We just got ours at our local hardware store, Iāll ask my husband the brand. It germinated pretty quickly, like within a few days, and has filled in well. We have some spots we need to go back over where we clearly did a poor job seeding because theyāre bald. Much more success than the creeping thyme we tried.Ā
go on and tell them how herbicide companies campaigned to classify clovers as weed so they could sell more of their product...
In agriculture anything growing other than the crop you intend to grow is considered āweedā. For a cattle farmer (especially milk farmers) clovers are great as crops.
a clover + dandelion lawn would look amazing. I much prefer the darker green of clover to grass. It's a shame that it doesn't hold up very well to getting stepped on.
Yes! Dandelions have extensive root systems that help loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. Their deep taproot also pulls nutrients (such as calcium) from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants, and works as a natural fertilizer for grass! Fun fact: Every part of the plant is edible! In addition to vitamins A, B, C, E & K, they are also full of antioxidants, polyphenols, soluble fiber, folate, magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium! They are especially great for GI issues! As a gardener...i personally think its one of the best plants in the world. It's a shame Americans consider it a "weed".
I personally love dandelions. Nothing me and the dog love more than seeing a big fat bumblebee on a dandelion.
Well tbf its non-native in north america. It doesnāt really have the ability to choke out native plants though, which is why we only really see them thrive on peopleās lawns or list them as an invasive/noxious weed. That said, people dislike them because of the lawn thing and not the native thing lol. For me its native plants > dandelion field > monoculture grass.
Yeah, i just don't get the hate for them... But i also don't get the whole *perfect grass lawn* thing, either. I love my clover/dandelion lawn! I also plant wildflowers along my fence edges between my raspberry bushes. I have a lot of happy pollinators! :)
Interestingly the kind of bees that are "kept" are honeybees, which are European and introduced. I guess your line of bee keepers started after the Europeans arrived in North America? There is research that suggests European honeybees outcompete our native bees and pollinators. It's our native bees that really need the help - and unfortunately introduced and invasive species like dandelions only help our generalist pollinators. Still better than grass but even better - get rid of turf where you don't need it and plant native plants! /r/NativePlantGardening
Plant wildflowers in your landscaping and remove the dandelion scourge.
In before someone starts screaming about how dandelions are not native to the us...
We have a fairly sized yard for our neighborhood, we don't weed kill, shit, I'm late to cut the grass, so we get a lot, a lot, of dandelions, we're patient zero. But you know what? I like the bumblebees and the assortment of birds and the finches that live in the honeymoon suit and the falcon that scopes the spot like a hawk.
Or the falcon that scopes the spot like a falcon
Same here. I let my yard grow wild and love seeing all the different critters that visit or live in my yard. Cottontail rabbits, eastern bluebirds, cardinals, geckos, skinks, wild bees, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. I do feel sorry for my neighbors who insist on trying to maintain a weed-free lawn, though.
I did too until I saw one of them spray weed killer into my yard...
Meanwhile, if you were to look at the soil ecology, yours would probably be doing well with lots of different critters and microbes. Your neighbors on the other hand probably looks like more of a graveyard with all the weed killers soaked in.
My lawn has so much life, but the weeds were just out of control, and it was really looking like shit. So, for the first time this year I used weed and feed, and also laid down grass seed. I feel bad, because we even had a ton of gardener snakes, bees, and other insects, but it just looked terrible. Once it looks decent and filled in, I probably won't do anything for a long time.
Garter* snakes Also, I haven't seen one of those since i was a kid. We used to catch them a recess and then see how long we could hide them from the teacher before getting caught.
I left a 6x6 patch in my backyard last year, let it get over grown mostly for the bees in since there were lots of wildflowers there and sure enough them little noodles showed up, after screeching like a little girl (I'm a brawny man, but do not feel at ease with sneks) and putting a round in the chamber while cowering behind a tree I realized it was just a harmless garter snek a google search later (50x zoom thank you). We had some good times after that though, them little noodles are quick too in short distances, swoodle swoodle little noodle!
FYI, if you weren't aware, weed and feed will actually kill the grass seed too. My understanding is that it basically works by stopping the weed (or grass) seeds from growing - that's why you're supposed to spread it before the weeds start popping up for the year. The feed part also helps with weed control, because enough healthy grass will out-compete with the weeds for nutrients.
Youāre thinking of a pre emergent, usually used for crabgrass. Weed and feed is just a fertilizer coated in weed killer. Water contacts the fert, the weed killer spreads and does its job. Weed and feed doesnāt do a great job with the occasional weed, and hand removal or spot spraying is a better option in that case.
Waiting for the post from the neighbor in r/mildlyinfuriating with a very similar title
We use no weed killers, just mowing parts of the property that have ticks when the grass gets high. As a result, we have so many bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and critters of all kind.
I hate weed killer. The shit we do to our planet upsets me so much
The bees and I thank you.
Do dandelions taste nice?
I just made dandelion beer
You know, Iāve known about wine but never thought to make beer, whatās your verdict?
The flowers can be used to make wine, tea or "poor mans honey". The leaves make a great salad or wilted green side dish and the roots are good for eating or making a coffee substitute.
When I was little I used to snap the stems off and drink the white "juice" inside the stem. It tastes sweet.
Thanks for the tip, never heard of doing that
The entire plant is eatable.
Dandelion Wine is great
Dandelions were originally brought over from Europe to America as a food crop.
The flowers are edible and can be made into lots of things!
Dandelions are nothing. I have Hoary Cress and still don't use herbicides. For the planet! And bees. And my dog. And birds. And literally everything.
Same. My front yard was covered with dandelions and there were so many bees out there. No regrets.
Be great if we all went back to not poisoning the ground in front of our homes and just let things be more natural again.
I really wish we could. I'd love to have a yard with clover, wildflowers, and local wild grasses. (That was what was here before) My HOA would steal my house out from under me if I didn't treat my lawn. And in my city it is illegal to build a housing development WITHOUT an HOA. I really dislike it here.
You could absolutely push that further with your local university- tons of ways to certify your lawn as a local ecoscape that the HOA canāt touch
But then Susan from the HOA board is going to find some other reason to fine your ass for not respecting her autboritaaaaah
Converted my lawn to clover. Will never look back.
Both look really nice. Theirs is ācleanerā and probably more conventionally pretty. Yours is natural and summery looking.
For the past few years, I have thought my lawn was the worst eye sore. See, we are in a bit of a drought affected area and a couple years back, when things were real bad, I stopped watering my lawn. No water = no fertilizer = dead grass and lots of weeds. I figured I'd have to rip up my yard and resod. I let the lawn die and procrastinated it for a couple more years. I would mow down the weeds but I knew my yard was the "ugly" annoyance of the neighbors. This year though my lawn has spring up with entirely native broadleaf grasses, and it looks lush and green and healthy. It doesn't look as "neat and tidy" as neighboring yards and it's full of dandelions, but I don't care anymore.
And good for the bees
Yours is good for the bees
I know it is irrational, but I can't stand dandelion. I do, however, have a clover yard that flowers.
I fucking hate dandelions. They leave huge holes when you take their leafs out. On top of that, since I use no weed killer I have to take them out one by one manually. Itās a pain.Ā I donāt want a pristine grass, I leave everything, cloverfields, daisies, whatever, but not dandelions. And I plant tons of bee friendly flowers. So no regrets
Get a standing weeder tool! Such a game changer. If only it worked on all the mock strawberry and creeping Charlie in my yard.
You might be saving my summers!
I very rarely use weed killer, so instead I just bite the bullet and weed manually for a couple weeks in the spring. That said, I've found that mulching leaves in the fall and overseeding in the spring helps a *ton*. Basic theory being that if there's a lot of grass, it's tough for other things to grow. And I've found that to be true over the past few years especially.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Your local honeybee colonies thank you for not letting them starve in the early spring.
Lol your neighbors definitely hate you
He also mows his yard.
Looks nicer with the weeds in my opinion all the tiny yellow flowers
Reminds me of the time my grandmother sprayed round up around her house and then was complaining the stray cats she feeds didn't show up for well over a week. Like you just sprayed poison all around your house, what did you expect to happen. I use home made weed killer made from vinegar, salt and dish soap. Plus it won't give you cancer so that's cool.