Lawn mower blades

Aside from the golf course look, what benefit do you derive from your lawn? In my mind, the grass in front of my house is nothing more than a weed. It serves no purpose whatsoever. If it was up to me, we'd be growing edible vegetables instead (our vegetable garden is in the back yard).

My office is in my house. There are days when I can't leave the windows open because of the more-or-less continuous noise and smell from the landscapers. 5 guys with leaf blowers and giant riding mowers to deal with a 50'x100' lot (with a house on it) is pretty excessive, but that's the norm around here. I mow my lawn in about 5 minutes, using a hand trimmer to get around the trees (another two minutes) and I'm done.

People ask why there are more birds and butterflies in my yard than in theirs. They don't seem to understand the evils of monoculture (see Irish potato famine) and chemical herbicides and pesticides. One neighbor (across the street) just planted tomatoes in front of her house. Very nice, but they are in a garden bed that her landscaper poisons every week. Sheesh. She's also a couple of weeks early putting in the tomatoes - the nights still get pretty cool here, but she'll learn.

Here are some thoughts about the tremendous waste of resources and money that go into a putting green front yard:

formatting link

Reply to
rangerssuck
Loading thread data ...

Aside from the golf course look, what benefit do you derive from your lawn? In my mind, the grass in front of my house is nothing more than a weed. It serves no purpose whatsoever. If it was up to me, we'd be growing edible vegetables instead (our vegetable garden is in the back yard).

My office is in my house. There are days when I can't leave the windows open because of the more-or-less continuous noise and smell from the landscapers. 5 guys with leaf blowers and giant riding mowers to deal with a 50'x100' lot (with a house on it) is pretty excessive, but that's the norm around here. I mow my lawn in about 5 minutes, using a hand trimmer to get around the trees (another two minutes) and I'm done.

People ask why there are more birds and butterflies in my yard than in theirs. They don't seem to understand the evils of monoculture (see Irish potato famine) and chemical herbicides and pesticides. One neighbor (across the street) just planted tomatoes in front of her house. Very nice, but they are in a garden bed that her landscaper poisons every week. Sheesh. She's also a couple of weeks early putting in the tomatoes - the nights still get pretty cool here, but she'll learn.

Here are some thoughts about the tremendous waste of resources and money that go into a putting green front yard:

formatting link
======================================================

I'm with you. My lawn goes au naturale. And dandelion leaves really perk up the stuffing for roast 'possum, too. I've included a recipe in my _Suburban Wildlife Cookbook_.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

rangerssuck fired this volley in news:0197325e- snipped-for-privacy@d19g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

Well, let's see... when the kids want to play a game of pickup football or softball, we have a full-sized field with grass short enough to run effectively on. When I want to fly my sailplanes, I have a place to land gracefully without dinging up the leading edges. When I want to fly my old Telemaster, I have a perfect runway for both takeoffs and landings. When I want to practice my short irons, I have a nice lobbing range. If we just want to get out the easy chairs and sit out by the pond for a while with a cold one, we don't have to wade through ankle-deep "weeds".

My vegetable garden is in back. My play yard is in front. Never the twain shall meet.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

formatting link
Some people have HOAs that say how the lawn must be maintained.

My [small] yard is crabgrass though. I think I sharpened the blade up a bit in 2009. I use Roundup on the difficult edges so trimming with a weedeater is not necessary. The weedeater is a 2-stroke, but it's not the emmisions I care so much about--it's that since fuel left in the weeder will always foul the carb, it has to be drained after every use for it to start properly next time. Too much craptane in modern fuels anymore.

I like to call lawn care "recreational farming". Suburban people spend money on little machines and irrigation and chemicals to plant, raise and harvest a tiny crop--that they don't really do anything with. But they have fun with the challenge, and it keeps them in the suburbs where they belong.

Eventually I plan to move to the US desert southwest, and my lawn is going to be rocks and dirt. I'm just fine with that, quite frankly. Among the highest form of comedies is people who move to a desert and then spend money trying to grow a green lawn.

Reply to
DougC

"Ed Huntress" fired this volley in news:4dcacb5a$0$28681$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

No pesticides, no herbicides, and I only fertilize very lightly once a year when the guy with the big spreader comes to do my back pastures. I dolomite the "yard" once every three years, and leave the rest to nature, except the mowing.

You can choose to live in a "meadow"(to put a rat-infested weed-patch in "new-age" speak), and I won't condemn you for it. So why rale against my keeping my front yard nice?

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Actually, you're quoting Rangerssuck. I'm libertarian about lawns.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Recreational farming is, I guess, fine. My vegetables would likely fall into that category as well - I don't really grow enough to make a significant dent in my food budget and the economics probably don't work out well, but I don't keep track of that money. However, if one is going to go to all the trouble of maintaining a lawn, why not put that effort into something that's useful? Lloyd flies model planes off his lawn, and that is (to me) the best reason to have any sort of lawn (I have to drive 5 miles to the local model airfield). But as far as something nice to look at? If I had property that large, I'd probably till the whole thing and scatter mixed wildflower seeds and let it run wild. Easy enough to mulch a few paths out to sitting areas to avoid having to wade through the brush.

There are places in th US southwest that now have unbearably high pollen counts because of morons who moved there and brought their lawns and trees and flowers. The real (tragic) comedy is that many of these people moved there for the LOW pollen count.

Just to muddy the topic a little more, this just came in my email:

formatting link
The =93Russian dandelion,=94 Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS), is being domesticated at Ohio State University=92s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center=92s (OARDC) Wooster campus and produces high-quality natural rubber in its fleshy taproot. Its performance mirrors the natural rubber produced from Hevea brasiliensis (the Brazilian rubber tree). According to its developers, natural rubber provides performance characteristics not available from synthetic, petroleum- derived rubber for trucking, construction, and aviation tires.

Natural rubber produced from Hevea is the only commodity volume source for tires and rubber industrial products in the world. Current shortage of supply has driven a six-fold price increase since 2002. Tests of TKS rubber produced in Wooster have found the material to be of comparable quality to Hevea rubber. An important additional product of TKS cultivation is ethanol.

The project was announced by Ford on Tuesday, and company engineers are testing the substance to determine its durability. Initially, the research will focus on the substance=92s potential use as a strengthener for impact plastics.

=93Managing weed problems is essential to developing TKS as a commercially viable domestic source of natural rubber in the U.S.,=94 said Bill Ravlin, associate director of OARDC.

Ford could potentially use the substance as a plastics modifier, to help improve the impact strength of plastics. The material might then be used in places such as cupholders, floor mats and interior trim. Ford has previously used sustainable materials in its vehicles including soy foam seat cushions, wheat straw-filled plastic for interior trim and recycled cotton from blue jeans as sound-dampening material

A collaboration including the Ohio State University, the University of Akron, Oregon State University, Cooper Tire and Bridgestone Americas received a $3 million Third Frontier Wright Projects Program grant through the Ohio Department of Development to develop a new industry based on this renewable, domestic source of natural rubber. Most of the funding was targeted to building a pilot-scale processing facility on OARDC=92s Wooster campus that will generate 20 metric tons of rubber per year for industrial testing.

=93It=92s strange to see weeds being grown in perfectly manicured rows in a greenhouse, but these dandelions could be the next sustainable material in our vehicles,=94 said Harris.

Before the dandelion-derived rubber can be put to use, Ford researchers will assess the initial quality of the material to evaluate how it will perform in a variety of plastics that are used in vehicles and to ensure it meets durability standards.

Besides the dandelion, the team also is looking into the use of guayule (a southwestern U.S. shrub) as a natural rubber, which is provided by OARDC and can also be grown domestically.

Reply to
rangerssuck

that's the way mine is. 0 maintenance. i just use pre-emergent or roundup on the gravel driveway.

they sometimes just use green painted rocks. if you squint your eyes real hard, you can pretend it grass.

in a couple of extreme cases, i've seen green painted concrete for the entire front lawn.

regards, charlie phx, az

Reply to
chaniarts

olive and mulberry trees are the worst in this area, and were banned from being sold for quite a few years now. a lot of people pay a bunch every year to have existing trees sprayed so they don't produce pollen.

regards, charlie phx, az

Reply to
chaniarts

Fair enough, especially the sailplanes and Telemaster. My yard is nowhere near big enough for that sort of play, but we do have a paved- runway model field about five miles away. As for wading through the "weeds," it's easy enough to mulch (or mow) paths through a meadow.

To each, I guess, his own.

Reply to
rangerssuck

$0$28681$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

Rat infested? Not around here. There's a balance between the rodent and feral cat populations. We could use some bigger cats, though. Last year a rabbit (I think) devoured my basil crop. Left nothing but bare stems.

Reply to
rangerssuck

formatting link

Our POA has a restriction on the amount you can irrigate. Xeriscape encouraged. We're in the middle of a drought right now, which isn't that uncommon in central Texas. I like grasses which will go dormant in drought, like buffalo. Not a lawn you'd want to lay down and roll on, that's for sure.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

Don't knock it -- basil-fed rabbit is delicious.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Propane weed burning torch works well, is way more fun and doesn't poison the area. Roundup is not the great panacea that it was advertised to be.

formatting link
resistant weeds are going to increase farming costs, and you & I will be feeling that at the market.

Reply to
rangerssuck

We did our back yard in Buffalo grass and it is great. When it gets around to raining it greens up and when] it's dry its brown. Have to mow a few time a year when it's dry and maybe every 3 weeks or so when it's wet. :-) Front yard is some desert plants and some concrete product called "Tuff Turf" 18 x 24 inch blocks

4" tck with a hole pattern and filled with sand. Yep the "desert south-west" is great. !! :-) ...lew...
Reply to
Lewis Hartswick

formatting link

I've heard the fix is to use pure gasoline, none of the alcohol crap. But I've never had a problem year to year with gasoline or gas/oil mix for 2-strokes. They only go bad after several years for me. Maybe I hold my mouth right.

A client wants me to rent a turf cuter for her yard next week and I'm going to bring it to my house afterward and take the front yard turf out. It'll all be perennials and bark some day soon! I abhor grass. I'm allergic to it and it takes time and money and sweat to maintain. I bought a copy of _The Wild Lawn Handbook_ last year and will start on mine this year.

-- Woe be to him that reads but one book. -- George Herbert

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh laid this down on his screen :

Maybe you could take a picture and post it next time you have it setup.

Wayne D.

Reply to
Wayne

Wayne fired this volley in news:Pt_yp.3$oq.1 @newsfe17.iad:

I'll try to remember to. I have a sharpening coming up in a few weeks. We're in a drought right now, and I haven't had to mow in three weeks.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Wayne formulated the question :

I haven't pulled the lawnmower out yet. So I haven't given it a shot yet.

Wayne D.

Reply to
Wayne

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.