When I moved in, I told my neighbor I only mow my yard once every 2 weeks. Something I read that said it would help the bees. He’s done the same to match. We also have lightning bugs now, which I didn’t notice the first year.
Are you supposed to do it more? When I lived with my parents and had access to a yard that's about how much we did it (cause it was annoying to do it more)
Some people mow twice a week. Lawn is basically their hobby.
Is your neighbor Hank Hill by any chance?
If Hank Hill was my neighbor he would probably ask if he could take care of my yard just so he wouldn't have to look at it.
Much, much less. The city I live in wants to promote biodiversity and has adapted their mowing schedule for this. Large parts of public greenery are only mowed once or twice per year. Other parts 6 times a year. Some parts are mowed 20 times a year, e.g. fields for kids to play on, or where it would be a safety issue (e.g. high growth blocking view around a corner), but that’s just a small portion.
Also in some parts they only partially mow, to create spaces where there are different heights of greenery. They also sowed a lot of mixed flowers, which looks really nice.
I usually have to mow once a week when we're not in drought, otherwise the lawn gets too high, but during the heat of summer I don't have to mow at all because the grass goes dormant.
what exactly is "too high"? because if you mowed once a week here you'd be tilling the fucking soil
Too high for me is when even at the tallest setting my lawn mower struggles to cut which is probably like 6+ inches as a guess. Usually the first mow in the spring is difficult if I attempt "no mow may".
I don't understand how you'd ever be 'tilling the soil' unless you don't know how to adjust your mower height, maybe you could elaborate?
5 inches at a minimum, at least in most spots
Before I bought a house, I only knew once a week when I was growing up. Seemed to be based on the neighborhood (upper Midwest).
I aim for once every 2 years lol.
I think my neighbor doesn't like me, but I got butterflies for days
Every two weeks? That’s ridiculous??? We only do it twice a season.
My yard is a hot mess and the fireflies have started showing up.
Also rabbits, and there’s a fox den nearby and they show up occasionally.
I don’t like the fox because it took a huge hairy musty shit in my window well, it was putrid. I don’t know if he pooped into the well like an outhouse, or popped with his little head poking out.
Shit on the entrance to his burrow to assert dominance
Lmao fox shit
Your house gets to have a yard?
You guys get to have a house?
So lawns are the reason people don't vote. They are distracted by mowing. And the ruling class likes it. I get it.
We mow just often enough to stop the township from sending angry letters. So about once a month of that.
The city I used to work for tried banning mowing certain times of year, and had to back down due to all the lawsuits coming in.
My current city is trying to ban leaf blowers (they're terrible in like 8 different ways), but that's also very difficult.
Township here just doesn't want a shaggy lawn. It still takes them awhile to send the letters. In summer we get it mowed once a month (or once they send a warning), winter we just don't mow. It doesn't grow enough.
Mines currently wildflowers, bunnies and at least one mole.
I used to love sitting out back and watching them in the old house I was in. Now I'm an apartment dweller and the only bugs I see outside regularly are paper wasps.
We need a federal law against requiring grass lawns. People need to be legally protected when they want to replace with native/edible plants.
I don't know how to tell you gently.
It's No-Mow-May.
Tell the HOAs to get stuffed and put the mower away for a few weeks.
I've already seen quite a few mason bees buzzing around in my yard.
That looks nothing like my yard but still don't see as many LBs as I used to. People blame yards like the one here and pesticides, but I don't know. I felt like in the 80s and 90s there was an even bigger obsession with manicured yards and people found the most toxic stuff they could get their hands on to spray around their homes. Still had tons of lightening bugs then.
There are a lot of factors. I've heard light contamination is harmful for lightbug populations. And the modern LED streetlights are much brighter than in the 90s
That is actually kind of beautiful. Unless you are on the ground of course
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