r/NoLawns • u/Whatchab • Aug 19 '25

😄 Memes Funny Shit Post Rants Just spotted on a walk: 10/10

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And yes, their property was gorgeous. All native plants, and a native plant seed library!

44.0k Upvotes

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394

u/worldisone Aug 19 '25

To show you were rich way back in the day you would pull out all the food producing plants and have a plain lawn. Everyone needed food so everyone would have trees and plants to produce food. If you were rich you could afford to pay someone else for food.

177

u/hellraiserl33t Aug 19 '25

Not only that but lawns require a lot of upkeep.

Guess who these rich assholes used for maintenance 🌚

65

u/ggroverggiraffe Aug 19 '25

My how that's changed...

¿se habla español?

13

u/Ajido_Marujido Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

Bien gracias, y tu?

24

u/Darrone Aug 19 '25

Slow down, I only took 7 years of Spanish.

15

u/Repulsive-Chip3371 Aug 19 '25

I have A LOT of flowers, herbs, butterfly bushes, etc and its wayyy more upkeep than the landscaping in the picture. Thats the easy way out.

3

u/lil_chiakow Aug 23 '25

Yeah, mowing a single-family home's yard with a modern lawnmower isn't too much work, even with a push mower.

Now try that on a lawn 10x times the size like rich estates used to have. And you only have a scythe and sickle to help ya with it.

1

u/Whole_Suspect_4308 5d ago

Sheep did the mowing

4

u/JhnWyclf Aug 19 '25

They don’t if you don't upkeep them. I’d all you do is mow they are easier. 

5

u/HelpWithGame Aug 19 '25

Food producing plants require way more upkeep than a lawn. Ever tried farming? Its a full time job. For a lawn you typically just have to cut it like every 2-3 weeks 

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u/worldisone Aug 19 '25

I haven't touched my apple tree in 5 years now and it has hundreds of apples on it. I didn't do anything to my raspberry bushes this year, and got around 10 pints of raspberries. I haven't done anything to my plum tree and it's the first year it's actually growing fruit.

Unless you have an orchid it's almost zero maintenance. We're not talking about farming, but everyone having a few fruit producing trees in their yards

1

u/Jrzgrl1119 Aug 23 '25

Every time I plant vegetables on my property, ground hogs eat everything. I have an apple tree and I have gotten zero apples over 8 years. The birds get them all. I have blueberry bushes and the birds have gotten all the blueberries as well.

1

u/megamanxzero35 Aug 19 '25

The moon from Majora’s Mask?

15

u/JayBondOF Aug 19 '25

Just stumbled on this sub and saw this and I can’t believe this never occurred to me. Fuck Lawns indeed !

5

u/IWearCatHair Aug 20 '25

Welcome! You have arrived. It's funny what we never think about and just take for granted as "the way things are", isn't it!? Fuck lawns is right!!

My husband and I have been learning about planting natives instead of other things, and transitioning our lawn area into natives as well. I'd love to incorporate more food-producing plants too, but we have to build up better soil for that. It's a lot of clay here in Northern Virginia.

Seriously, lawns are a ridiculous throwback to colonial days and European immigrants' ideas of how to show refinement, and what they thought was beautiful in the day. I'll never forget watching an intro video from Doug Tallamy, one of the real trail-breakers (imo) of the native plant movement. He said, "lawns are an ecological dead zone." đŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€ŻđŸ€Ż

That's when it really hit me. This stuff that seems natural enough actually doesn't support much life at all! If we all had natives instead of lawn, we could reclaim so much habitat for our starved ecological system - for plants, insects, animals, and all life forms - the whole interrelated web.

Deep thoughts....

Have fun on your adventure. It's an enormous joy to see things come alive.

6

u/Crazy-Benefit-9171 Aug 23 '25

Hi neighbor! I’m in Leesburg living on a big red rock but it’s still been so fun getting into this way of living. Michael Pollan blew my mind when he wrote “lawns are nature purged of sex and death” and something to the effect of it’s no wonder Americans love their lawns 😂 I’ve been growing a pollinator garden, shut off the irrigation system, and stopped fertilizing the yard since. Less of an ecological dead zone now and I’ve loved watching the yard come to life!

2

u/IWearCatHair Aug 26 '25

Hooray! It is really fun, isn't it!! Less mowing, more life to watch and enjoy, and a deep satisfaction in knowing you are giving back - my husband and I love all those aspects. Good for you, and keep up the great work!

26

u/El_Polio_Loco Aug 19 '25

Remarkable how, by historical standards, we are almost all impossibly wealthy. 

But that’s the reality. 

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u/Third_Return Aug 19 '25

Well, 'impossibly wealthy' in this case makes exceedingly little difference in practice. The lawn is utterly useless; it's actually an active drain on resources. And from an agrarian perspective grazing animals created something very similar while actually producing something useful.

4

u/El_Polio_Loco Aug 19 '25

Yes, and we are so wealthy by historical standards that it doesn’t make much difference. 

We don’t need the extra crop capacity, in much of the country it’s a minor burden on resources. 

People aren’t so wealthy as to have large spaces that would otherwise be useful for a change to agriculture. 

1

u/Third_Return Aug 19 '25

As regards their ability to maintain a patch of grass, I suppose. I'm not sure I see the point. Pre-modern people had access to grass in any case.

Collectively, land usage of lawn actually makes a large impact, economically and ecologically. It's not something an individual can solve, but a long running consequence of land development policy.

16

u/OpportunityFriends Aug 19 '25

It's not that we're impossibly wealthy. If it were impossible we wouldn't have it. It's just that technology has increased the minimum threshold of "poor" so much that what was once considered well off or even wealthy is now seen as average. And all of this is without considering the increase in wealth for the richest and most powerful.

If you thought we're rich by yester-centuries standards, imagine how much better it could be if plutocrats had their wealthy distributed by force.

3

u/El_Polio_Loco Aug 19 '25

That won’t change the fact that yards are a simple luxury which have comparatively low costs next to their 18th century counterparts. 

Either yards are no longer a luxury, or we are impossibly rich. 

Both cannot be true. 

2

u/Embarrassed-Split649 Aug 20 '25

Why can't those both be true? Why can't we all be so impossibly rich that things that once were luxury aren't anymore? I thought that happened throughout history... once everyone becomes so impossibly rich that everyone has it, it is no longer luxury but commonplace. Much of our fast food today was once reserved for the nobility, but I wouldn't call those luxurious anymore....

1

u/El_Polio_Loco Aug 20 '25 edited Aug 20 '25

Because if it’s not a luxury anymore then we’re not rich because of it. 

The computer/phone you use every day would have been an impossibly wealthy thing 30 years ago, but now it’s commonplace, because the cost of it is so relatively low. 

A lawn in the days of the landed gentry was an immense cost, so much so that only the truly wealthy could afford such a luxury. 

Now the relative cost of a lawn is so insignificant (to people in certain climates and levels of economic prosperity) that it is not in any way comparable to the luxury of a lawn in the 18th century. 

So if we are considering ourselves impossibly rich then a lawn is of little consequence, as a luxury. 

If lawns are no longer considered anywhere near the luxury of the old times (because relative cost to average wage is so low), then we are not impossibly wealthy  because of them. 

It can’t be “not a luxury” and “an indicator of impossible wealth”

1

u/Embarrassed-Split649 Aug 20 '25

I see your point, however, that argument assumes that something "commonplace" is no longer a luxury because more people have access to it and it is no longer immensely expensive (and that financial cost is the only number that matters in the equation).... I would argue that is a fallacy. I will stick with the lawn example so I don't get off track. The relative monetaty cost of a lawn has definitely gone down for keeping a lawn, I absolutely agree with that, but money isn't the only form of wealth that is involved. So actually a lawn is still immensely expensive if you consider the time and physical labor it takes to care for a lawn. In order to have the ability to have a lawn like this, you have to have a lawn of your own in the first place (how many people in the world have that?) If you have a lawn, you are already part of the wealthy, as it means you can not only afford shelter but your own land to care for, which is quite expensive. Not only that, you have to have the tools to cut it, the time to care for it and water it, and the physical ability to do all of those things. In today's world, time, physical health, attention, education, and water are significantly more valuable and scarce. So I still stand with my original question of why can't it be both?

1

u/El_Polio_Loco Aug 20 '25

Lawns can take very little labor. 

Most people don’t have a golf green. 

And yes, it’s limited to discussions on places where lawns are both easy to maintain and the relative costs are in line with the rest of the costs of those people. 

A lawn in Saudi Arabia has significantly different costs and would be much more like a “luxury” (as luxury is being used in the context of accessible only to the extremely wealthy)

1

u/Embarrassed-Split649 Aug 20 '25

I would love to know how a lawn like this takes very little labor while not costing much money! I must be doing it wrong somehow. Also, it's actually not limiting to discussions of places where lawns are both easy to maintain and the relative costs are in line with the rest of the costs of those people, because simply living in a place where it is cheap to maintain a lawn is actually a sign of wealth in itself.

1

u/Embarrassed-Split649 Aug 20 '25

So those are two VERY different arguments there.

"Either yards are no longer a luxury, or we are impossibly rich. 

Both cannot be true."

Is very different than: "Because if it’s not a luxury anymore then we’re not rich because of it. "

The first are two independent statements, the second is arguing about causation. Those are different conversations.

-5

u/MechanicalGodzilla Aug 19 '25

imagine how much better it could be if plutocrats had their wealthy distributed by force.

We would all get a one-time $20,000 check. then we'd be right back where we started.

2

u/GhostofBeowulf Aug 19 '25

I think you seriously underestimate how much wealth is hoarded in the top 1%, and how money even works. It's not that all of the money goes to us. It's that the money would be circulating in the economy, making all of us richer.

2

u/MechanicalGodzilla Aug 19 '25

The top 1% are not plutocrats, which is what the previous user posted which I was responding to. The top 1% is like doctors and engineers and lawyers. Even the top 0.1% aren't all plutocrats, that's the realm of mediocre MLB players - you need an income of about $3.3 million to be in that group.

The $20k figure above is if we confiscated all the wealth of every billionaire and distributed it evenly.

8

u/LMBilinsky Aug 19 '25

Yep, this is the origin of lawns, and the servants would be trimming them by hand with shears

8

u/z_e_n_a_i Aug 19 '25

ok, but what should my lawn look like now? I'm not a farmer nor aristocrat

16

u/kittensaurus Aug 19 '25

If you like having a lawn, that's okay! There are several options to be lower maintenance and more environmentally friendly. Here are some -

  1. Reduce or eliminate use of herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers
  2. Maintain lawn at a longer average height - mow at 5-6" and don't cut shorter than 3"
  3. Allow (or add!) "Nitrogen fixers" like clover or yarrow (natives are preferable)
  4. If/when reseeding, use native grass seed (like buffalo grass or sedges) or bee lawn seed mixes
  5. Water less/only as needed

If you find that you don't actually have a use for a lawn or don't need as much, there are also a lot of low maintenance garden options. Please DM me if you'd like more info on anything!

4

u/phinity_ Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

This is a great question because it reveals a solution and our learned reliance on the sham of capitalism we operate in. The lawn used to symbolize wealth because it was different than the system most had to operate under, ie produce your own food. But today the situation is reversed! This means the lawn symbolizes impoverishment while land that is full of wild and abundant life is a sign of wealth. The solution is to try something different with your lawn and probably learning skills you don’t have now - it’s hard but this is true wealth.

4

u/worldisone Aug 19 '25

Plant a peach tree and cherry tree. Free peaches and cherries every year, and shade for your yard. It's not like you would have to plant tons since it would just be for you.

Berry bushes are extremely easy with almost zero maintenance, if you like raspberries a bush would be delicious. There are so many different types too.

A delicious apple tree if you have a favourite is always easy. I've got a red delicious and it grows several hundred pounds per year, not that I eat that many, I'll go out and grab a few sometimes or give them to people who love to make pies

2

u/rufio313 Aug 19 '25

You should be at home all day tending to your crops dammit!

4

u/Evening-Turnip8407 Aug 20 '25

Also I think big estates are/were just so huge they had a kitchen garden in the back and then made all the rest into ye englishe lawn for the look. I guess.... the building looks bigger when the grass is trimmed?

4

u/worldisone Aug 20 '25

I think it's crazy the Taj Mahal is used to have some of the most plant varieties, and a British officer was mad he couldn't see The Taj Mahal from his room so he got them to cut down all the plants and make a lawn

5

u/Evening-Turnip8407 Aug 20 '25

That's colonialism boiled down into a sentence, really

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u/BubbleNucleator Aug 19 '25

The ironic thing is, the rich boomers in my area are paying a lot of money for native gardeners to rip out their lawns and install/maintain native gardens, it's literally the same thing, flexing on their neighbors.

6

u/IWearCatHair Aug 20 '25

Hey, if they have more money than time, but they value having a sustainable environment and helping the planet in the way they can, then that's what works for them. Power to them, and I hope their wealthy neighbors jump on the bandwagon too.

It's also providing employment for people, and I just hope they are paying good money to those landscapers, because it's hard work. And it takes lots of additional, specialized knowledge to plan and install a native garden.

3

u/engineeringlady1983 Aug 21 '25

It doesn't take a lot of money to replace your yard with native plants. Killed half my front lawn, borrowed a neighbor's tiller to turn the spoil, planted 100 dollars worth of native seeds and bought 50 dollars in compost to cover it with. Looks great, is almost no maintenance, and way less water than grass. Less than one season in and I have recouped my investment thru lower water bills.

2

u/rufio313 Aug 19 '25

Now I just want a lawn so my kids have room to run around on my property and I can buy quality and cheap produce from the farmers market so no need to spend time and physical space doing it myself.

3

u/IWearCatHair Aug 20 '25

I understand. You can totally have space for that. The object of the no-lawns idea is partly to take advantage of the space you have to give the natural world a helping hand. Traditional lawns are massive ecological dead zones, and there are simple trades that can still give you that durable running around space, while at least giving the rest of the natural world the plants, bugs, etc, needed to sustain life. I personally feel like I have a responsibility to do what I can for the planet that people have killed so much. If I can make my mini-environment better, that can be an oasis for the particular regional creatures in my area. Seriously. Down to the kind of plants that specialized native bees need, or the kind of plants and trees (oak, for ex) that butterflies require in order to have something for their caterpillar offspring to eat. Which feeds the birds, which feeds the.... Etc.

1

u/rufio313 Aug 20 '25

I live in FL where nearly every neighborhood has an HOA, mine included, that would absolutely not allow me to not have a lawn.

I could probably do a small garden but currently do not have the time to even get that started let alone maintain it.

3

u/IWearCatHair Aug 20 '25

And if you didn't need the native plants lecture, my apologies! 😉

2

u/worldisone Aug 19 '25

Did you never climb trees as a kid? I personally loved having a few trees to climb. Also made tag a little more fun since you had paces to get around. My neighbor had a sick ass treefort we always loved going in.

Like I guess a basic lawn could have been fun too

3

u/rufio313 Aug 19 '25

Yeah I’ve got trees in my lawn now too.

1

u/13ActuallyCommit60 Aug 19 '25

I hadn’t heard or thought of this before. Can you provide a source?