A video essay about my complicated relationship with mowing the lawn.
VIDEO: GGC – 64 – Video Essay: My Complicated Relationship With Mowing The Lawn
A video essay about my complicated relationship with mowing the lawn.
A video essay about my complicated relationship with mowing the lawn.
I;m laughing before you even start to say anything. Funny, omg.
Nicely thought and delivered!
I am right there with you. I struggle with the same inner conflict as you have so eloquently stated. My approach has been to cut paths through the fields that follow my most walked areas. I then graze geese and Muscovy Ducks to help keep the mowed areas down. I am now only mowing small areas three times per year. The habitat is precious. More birds, snakes, frogs, preying mantis and other beneficial animals have moved in. And like you stated, the natural trees and native species are settling back in. Please keep us posted.
Great story as always. I think near the top of the list of things I don't miss about stick and brick living is cutting the grass. I never liked it and always hated coming home from work known I had the cut the grass again.
well if you use the old animal munching the grass; then you always have the same guvermint troll fussing about the animal flatulance, much less an occassional beer phart!
we used to live on 20 acres of mostly woods but about 3 acres needed mowing – we are so glad to be able to go hiking or biking or whatever instead of mowing – way more fun and better all around – i am surprised you feel the need to mow as much as you do
buy a hibrid batery lithium mower
Ok, so your going to do what your going to do. But like just about everyone else commenting on here, I will have to tell you some of the things I would do with all that pasture. More then likely I would just let it grow, but then again, a few grazing animals might help with keeping the trees at bay. Pasture chickens at the very least. Look up Joe Salatin on YouTube. So much potential all around you, no need to mow or feed.. So envious.. Enjoy your beautiful place..
how about clover? Dutch clover is fairly short, attracts pollinators, stays green longer and maybe you won't have to mow as often . . .
I mow as well…
Nothing reminds me more of dreary suburban Ottawa than the cacaphony of lawnmowers on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Gad.
I was faced with the choice of whether or not to buy a house 2 years ago. I almost didn't because I just. don't. want. a lawn mower! Well in the end I had to get one, but I chose the old fashioned push type. Even though it's hard work and it doesn't do a nice job. I refuse (so far) to buy a weed whacker. I'm surely one of those neighbors that would be scorned. Except that now i live in a more sane part of Canada, so I doubt anyone really gives a care.
I plan to replace huge sections of grass with clover.
Someday I'll get chickens and move them around so they scratch up the yard and eat the plants and poop all over.
My parents moved to rural Ontario. It's bloody astounding to watch their two neighbors ride tractor mowers to cut their gigantic, empty yards. It takes each of them two days to finish it. So there is almost never a quiet day of the week. What a waste of land!
Ok Zen. And what is a zen?
grass grows, uses up soil nutrition – how do you replace that?
I hate mowing. Id rather mulch all of it
Make a pond and just landscape while having a lot of plants for wildlife like a wild garden
Sun screen. Sun hat. Ear muffs. Maybe music or audible books.
That is exactly what I think about it, so I have grown a lot of trees, and when that happens, the grass below stays calm and I may reduce the mowing frequency from once a month to every other month, and slowly the grass turns to native flowers below them. Even so, not so lucky as you to sit down for hours on the cart, almost everyone has to do it standing going up and down hills by hand with a grass mowing stick (motoguadaña)
I compare maintaining grass to growing a terrible and pointless vegetable that would cost me time and money but give me nothing in return. Who would grow an inedible tomato that needs to be cutback every week?
The first time my dad let me do the mowing and trimming alone was when I was in 6th grade. I enjoyed the responsibility and pride in making the quarter acre and tree line look the best in the neighborhood. It gave me 2-3 hours to think to myself and be outside. I did this up to junior year in highschool when my dad let me refresh the mower with new parts and adjustments. A month later my parents decided to hire a landscaper who did the neighbors yards and sold the decade old mower I had just refreshed and took great pride in. It's funny to me how something most adults consider a chore brought the young me such joy and now I dream of the day of finally being able to afford my own land and taking up the responsibility of mowing once more.
Why not plant wildflowers? It would attract bees and help pollinate your crops.
Same sentiments. A chore when younger but now I look forward to cutting the grass. It's always nice to have a small groomed area to play in – volleyball net, badminton, etc.
Staaahp
Y not bag it and keep it as ur own spent hey?
Lol the grass in back yard looks like a rainforest and my cat loves it
I mow a lot at my place to create fire breaks around the yard and critical spots like outbuildings, the garden, and the hay yard. I also mow because of rattlesnakes– the mowing doesn't keep them away but you can see them in short grass so you're less likely to step on one. I like the idea in the comments here to use grazing animals to do this kind of mowing– but you'd need fencing to keep the grazing animals out of buildings and gardens and off roads. You also need to be sure they graze evenly and don't cause erosion. And you'd need to feed them through the months when there isn't enough to graze– which varies depending on the part of the world you live in and on the changing weather.
I also mow for exercise– I use a push mower instead of a riding mower, and I mow long walking trails so I can walk fast with the dog or jog for exercise (in long grass I have to walk slowly so I don't step on a rattlesnake). Grazing animals couldn't be used to create the walking paths.
So at the moment I'm stuck with mowing. Too bad electric mowers are pretty much as noisy as gas-powered, and the batteries don't last very long.
The only thing that actually matters in mowing the grass, is that long grass lures Ixodidae ticks. And in this country, you need lots of paperwork and obey strict rules to have farm animals like sheeps to eat grass. We are forced to be trapped.
Lol Interesting. I never thought of it that way.
Thanks
I've come to feel the same way about pulling weeds. Hot and boring as a kid, peaceful time alone with my thoughts as an adult, while being productive.
sure glad to see I am not the only one thinking these crazy thoughts…I can totally relate too funny