It's a bit of a stereotype than people have a thing about their lawns - correctly cut, no dead spots, perfect shade of green all over. In recently years this has been touted as a way to prevent ticks, though many of our neighbors with perfect lawns still seem to have tick problems. And the Search for the Perfect Lawn has been going on (at least here in the Northeast) far longer than ticks have been a problem.
But why?
When you think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. No Mow May taught us that mowing the lawn actually destroyed needed habitat and food sources for pollinators. With that understanding, it becomes hard to justify the "save the bees" t-shirts while cheerily grinding dandelions under our mower blades each spring.
Those of us with animals may frustrate our neighbors when the lawn is knee high, but what sense does it make, with prices so high, to knock it down and then turn around and pay for hay? While the goats aren't great about getting a nice, even trim job down, they love the grasses around our house. Even more, they love the weeds that grown up in it, which gives us the perfect reason not to worry about having that crisp, monotonous green throughout the whole yard! And no weed killing chemicals on our lawn - what grows, grows
Finally, with concerns about food shortages and more people putting in gardens since CoVid, lawns seem like a waste of space. Most of our front lawn this weekend will be going under the tiller to make way for compost and seedlings. We could plant on the back side of our property, true. But not only does this interfere with the sheep's grazing rotation, it would be difficult to water when needed and a pain to weed. This way, we can step out the front door and pull a few weeds ever time we come in and out of the house, which will save on the overall work load.
Why make things harder than they need to be? All it will cost us is a lawn that we will no longer have to mow regularly, taking one more thing off our work load. Will we miss the pretty emerald-colored mat?
I'm guessing in the winter, while we are eating all the vegetables from the garden, our absentee grocery bill will look a whole lot prettier.
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