Please, Kill Your Lawn

[@tikayscake2416]

Invertebrate conservation is just barely catching on and im so glad it is, it’s extremely underrepresented. We truly cannot survive without bugs

[@Mallory-Malkovich]

Yes! Why would anyone want to spend hours every weekend maintaining a mid-20th century status symbol?

[@fy8798]

When I grew up, my mother tried to grow a number of "wild" (putting that into scare quotes there because we're talking about random plants you can find in a forest meadow, we're not talking kudzu here) plants in her garden. One day, I returned from school, and spotted our landlord in our garden. He had ripped out every plant, every single flower, every single bush, everything. It was a complete wasteland, which he was busy destroying with weedkillers to "make sure". We didn't stay there for long. When I returned to that town years later, there wasn't even grass there, anymore. Just rocks, where once flowers had grown, and a single clay amphora. Aesthetics, you see. That was in europe, not the US, but the brainworms sure keep flourishing.

[@_maia_m]

That's so sad.. I wonder what goes on in the heads of people like that..

[@kalpic11]

wow I’m mad

[@GabrielHellborne]

This make me want to dick-boot landlords even more... And my boots were itchy to begin with!

[@fy8798]

@@kalpic11 It's really just...I don't get it either. Imposing order I guess. We don't even have home owner associations or this sort of property value focus over here, so it's really just control + weird aesthetics. And yeah, I'm still cranky about it. Just seeing that in our garden was just...kinda felt awful even to me as a child. Whats that jerkface doing in our garden!?

[@Goblincow]

I'm a part time gardener/landscaper too. Lawn owners have no idea about ecology or their impact on their local environment, and while they might struggle to communicate that the reason they want the lawn is for its social status, that's still why the idea of changing it scares them.

[@T.H.W.O.T.H]

I've always maintained that the leaf blower is the ultimate symbol of a decedent society, but I hadn't realised that lawns could say so much about our social, political, and economic relationships with Nature. Thnx Mexie

[@VocalBear213]

you meant a decadent society, right?:)

[@piccalillipit9211]

*I ONCE PULLED UP AT* a field of lavender in France - those stunning purple blue fields you see on screen savers - when I opened the car door the sound of bees was defining. I never knew bees COULD bee so loud, you had to shout over them. When I bent down to the hight of the lavender there was a 15cm thick band of bees across the field.

[@bdarecords_]

Haven't watched the video yet, so it's just speculation and interpretation of your comment but lavender is horrible. It only supports honey bees and is not of much relevance to wild pollinators. The honey bee is from asia. I think lavender is aswell but not sure. Anyway, find out about local plants and plant those instead.

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@bdarecords_ Honey bees are pollinators. anyway when you DO watch the video you will realise my comment was referencing the noise of bees.

[@bdarecords_]

@@piccalillipit9211 Yeah. I specifically mentioned WILD pollinators. Honey bees are not natural. They are an artifical monoculture and would not do that great in many places if they were released into the wild. It's factory farming and honey bees are very bad for the environment. They also made some other pollinators and native bee species (almost) extinct, such as Apis mellifera mellifera (dark western honey bee).

[@bdarecords_]

@@piccalillipit9211 It's actually a huge topic, that's why I mentioned it. We have so much evidence about it but the bee lobbies hold against it. The German Farmers' Association recommends flower mixtures for farmers to plant in their fields, promising them that it would be beneficial for biodiversity. However, these flower mixtures are generally of poor quality and contain neophytes. I am certain that this is not just the case in Germany but also in many other places where beekeeping and beekeeping lobbying are prevalent

[@piccalillipit9211]

@@bdarecords_ - But they go Bzzzz and that was the point of the comment.

[@kalpic11]

This is so comprehensive. I love it. It makes me anxious to think I may get in trouble from annoying neighbors or officials for implementing some of these. Not that I won’t try.

[@Mexie]

Thank you! And same. I’m planning to put up cheery looking informational signs to diffuse some of it 😅

[@opt_out]

I'm sold! No more painstaking lawncare routines for me! 😏

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

I've been killing my grass for a couple of years now. My neighbor is a landscaper. He has to weed and fertilize and aerate and water to keep his lawn green. I don't do a darn thing and my yard stays green even in a drought.

[@1May1312]

Proud to say that my "lawn" in both the front and backyards is actually "weeds." While I weed (by hand) where I grow my fruit and veg, I let the clovers, dandelions, crab grass, wild violets, plantains, and the variety of creeping plants go wild everywhere else. As a result, my yard is full of very happy bumble bees and honey bees! 🐝 (Not to mention well-fed robins who can find an abundance of earthworms.) As always, thank you so much for your content!

[@someuser7501]

clovers, dandelions, crab grass, and many wild violets are not native to North America..just like most grasses

[@mollyrosefrancis]

Highly recommend learning youe local botany! Some species of clover are invasive, for example, while others are crucial native plants (it all depends on your ecoregion & location). Invasive plants are another intersection of ecoology and colonialism that's very important to understand. Choose native whenever possible and good luck with your flowers!

[@JoseBird]

Absolutely loving the cameo at 15:50

[@MatthewBoonstra]

I often bug my girlfriend with my rants about lawns (which get triggered each time she says she worries about upcoming droughts in our area because my goodness, these water thieves have no place in a place like Alberta, Canada - where it's covered with snow for half the year and on fire for the other half). This video was a much needed reminder about why these lawns are bad, and I'm going to double down on trying to educate those I know about better alternatives and why it matters. Thank you for making this video :)

[@Daniel-wr7yh]

The last minute of the video I broke down in tears. I'm so incredibly tired of finding that the pillar holding up these unsustainable, inefficient, anti-humanistic systems is just "some fucker owns it".

[@jsbarretto]

My partner and I were lucky enough to buy our own house in the UK last year. It's just a small terraced house with a 5x6m garden, but we've managed to fit so much into the space: wild flowers, all manner of vegetables, tomatoes, fruit trees, a greenhouse, a small clover lawn, a small hugelkultur, and a small patio. And already I've noticed bumblebees and butterflies coming back in their droves. It's amazing how much you can do, even in a small space that you use to relax. Thanks for the inspiring and comprehensive video!

[@_maia_m]

That's awesome use of your space! And I've read about hugelkultur - it's such a cool and smart concept! :)

[@foodparadise5792]

I came from a different cultural background. I always found the American obsession of lawn weird and suspect it's the work of big corporations. High maintenance means high profit. In China, there are gigantic area of greenery outside every building complex and usually done in the mind with little maintenance as possible.

[@Timercat123]

I'm from a very small town in the northeast of Brasil, close to a lot of rural areal. The idea of not having butterfly and insects all around is strange. In fact, there are less and less butterflies and bees, but old lady and their yards full of different flowers and herbs (a lot of them medicinal). The fact that are nature and farms close helps. Seeing natural live in my backyard while drink coffee is very relaxing, and I'm very grateful for that. More than once I saw birds coming inside my house, it's pretty cute.

[@realitypoet]

I just started transforming my lawn into 60% native meadow with plants for pollinators and 40% vegetable garden - should be ready in the spring! 🤞

[@coughingparsnip]

My jaw was dropping while you were explaining what people are doing to lawns. It’s literally insane.

[@animefurry3508]

It hurts me everytime my landlord yells at me to mow the lawn and trim the trees.😢 We need these plants!❤

[@bdarecords_]

In america, everyone seems to always yell, at least from what I read on social media. Why?

[@flowerheit4512]

​@@bdarecords_we are a deeply unhappy people with very little control over anything that actually matters and no publicly funded access to therapy

[@emmahilburn1732]

@@flowerheit4512 Exactly. A lot of anger and not much knowledge on where to direct it, plus the average American lifestyle isn't exactly kind or conducive to happiness or ideal mental health states.

[@soymilkman]

@@flowerheit4512ehhhhh there might be some selection bias there. It’s true for some, but it seems to me the most unhappy people tend to be suburbanites for probably obvious reasons. So I definitely wouldn’t label all Americans ‘deeply unhappy’ just the ones that choose to live in the most depressing areas of the country (the burbs)

[@Kathrin_yt]

I loved this video!! So much info and yet so entertaining with your humor. Also had no idea that removed leaves was such a problem. Definitely going to be making some changes in what I'm doing in this garden I'm taking care of!

[@coolestmaid]

Great to have you back Mexie!

[@MFgr8]

Excellent video. I appreciate you connecting the dots with private property, capitalism, and consumerism. It's all connected. Well done.

[@nerds-nonsense]

this is a great video! so well-researched and in-depth about a thing nobody cares about but everyone should

[@BVBarmy182]

I have been thinking about this topic so much lately, Very excited to see a move towards more harmonious landscaping!! We gotta make it happen! I grew up on a farm and we worked really hard to keep everything very manicured and offputting to "pest species", now I'm living on a farm animal sanctuary. I'm not mowing and there is so much valuable life around the house! Yesterday I watched a snake eat a rabbit all while sitting on the front porch, for sure disturbing, but it's amazing to be able to cohabitate this land with so many other beings, as it should be.

[@An-Islander]

But doesn't that underline the fundamental paradox of industrilized civilization and nature? Sure it is profound to witness nature in your own backyard, but cohabitating with this diversity of species means you'll have a lot of bugs and exotic lifeforms creeping around. The natural world is fundamentally harsh and uncomfortable, punctuated by hunger and death. Isn't that why much of history is basically a struggle to tame, subjugate, control, and commodify nature? Sure we could do away with globalization - the bringer of so many comforts and destroyer of so many ecosystems - but that means working the soil with your hands to feed yourself and having few toys and trinkets.

[@BEANPOLE111]

Awesome video, as always! 💚 Many years before I approached any type of class consciousness, I viewed lawns as the height of insanity, as I spent hours every week in my childhood summers cutting it and trying to figure out why....

[@grzegorzszopinski7111]

I live in a building block, but I was lucky enough to get a small garden - watching bumblebees flying from one flower to another is surprisingly relaxing. Dave Goulson's books inspired me to make my garden a bit friendlier to them (and other small wildlife).

[@ChrisMcSweeney]

Excellent work as usual, great to see you back 😊

[@NateFord]

Absolutely fantastic video. Comprehensive and concise, and it perfectly explains why I’m passionate about this topic. I’m glad to see that others are too

[@Roughling]

so nice to hear your thoughts again!

[@TheSuburbanGardenista]

Everyone needs to see this! This is such an excellent collection of info and an illustration of utter nonsense! I can't believe the increasing use of plastic lawns - how is this even a thing?! I'll be sharing this widely. Thanks for putting together such a great argument for building biodiversity on our own properties - and how critical these efforts really are! 💚💚💚

[@YensR]

Thank you thank you thank you! We are fortunate enough to own a garden in the UK. It was just lawn before and we've been working on it for over a year now. We are getting there, but there is much left to do and the connectivity is really bad, because of roads and neighbouring gardens. Slate, gravel and astroturf are all commonly seen as "gardens", it's absurd.

[@xymaryai8283]

i'm glad in Australia that gardens are mostly preferable to lawns, even if those gardens are just as ecofascist as lawns. we keep generally more diverse lawns, often having bushes if there's a manicured bit of lawn.

[@Velico85]

Hey Mexie, great video! I have a MS in Sustainable Management and work as an Ecologist. My community has been shifting from anthropocentrism towards ecocentrism, and I work with the city/county/plant groups to consult on native plant communities and ecosystem services. I am glad the youtube algorithm brought me to your video, and it pains me to hear you say, "The more I learn, the worse it feels, guys." I know it can be hard to keep pushing the cultural shift on what feels like deaf ears, but know that there are small groups of dedicated citizens working to reshape the modern lawn aesthetic in communities small and large. Keep up the good fight, and anytime you feel ecological grief, work on your (or a community) garden and appreciate the fact that you are acting on behalf of many species in decline. I encourage you to do a follow-up video on this highlighting policy challenges to HOA/city ordinances, techniques for removing turfgrass, and resources for sourcing native plants and designers. There are a lot of well-intentioned landowners out there that see what is happening and want to do the right thing. Let's make it happen!

[@mccauleyconor]

Absolutely brilliant video Mexie!

[@LeChat084]

Merci !

[@marinegalvez6093]

Incredible video Mexie! It's so good to have you back on KZbin. I learned so much and this gave me a lot to rethink about my own lawn situation SIGH. Thank you

[@LillyAnarkitty]

Anti-lawn action let’s go 🔥🍾

[@bdarecords_]

based comment

[@Tu-Liki]

We created 3 Acre garden in West of Ireland, fully dedicated to wildlife with blooming FULL year around! We have enormously positive effect to local wildlife with species that are almost extinct everywhere totally thriving here! Newts, frogs, butterflies, bumble bees, dragon- and damselflies in abundance! We have also an "automatic lawnmower", which is our lovely, miniature Shetland pony, one that does NOT harm small insects, hedgehogs or otherwise plus, it does not consume energy but instead furnishes us with best fertilizer known to man!

[@fungdark8270]

I recognise a lawn featured in clips in this video. I watched some lawn people years ago and thought I wanted a lawn like that. I’m completely flipped now, id’ing stuff in my yard and planting native wildflowers, planning rain gardens etc 😂

[@hunterwotruba774]

Why doesn't this channel have more views? Suppressed by KZbin? No competition between left channels, but you seem to make better informed videos than most of left tube! Congrats on high quality, if only more people knew!

[@Sunflowrrunner]

My front yard is all raised beds. My backyard is all ragweed and autoparts, but I'm going to start working on a permaculture project this fall since one of my big oak trees fell.

[@TheDoomWizard]

You are fantastic

[@rhettllewallyn8435]

Literally about to mow & can't agree with this more

[@ojassarup258]

Thank you for this, and it's great to have you back!

[@Mexie]

Thank you!

[@dragonite87]

I live in a complex of (established) townhouses. My neighbour killed my his lawn, partly because he and his wife are very old. I have a lawn on my small land area, but if I killed it then I would have to do something else with the space. I wouldn't consider myself a gardener but i may change my mind one day.

[@ImDemonWolf]

Based. Liked and shared.

[@diphyllum8180]

Awesome video, always great stuff to see. What I like to sell people on is lawn reduction instead of lawn elimination, like, do you really need/want as much lawn as you have? Rather than killing vast swaths of lawn at once eg using lasagne method, which is very distruptive to the soil ecosystem, what I like to do is to install trees and shrubs, folding the turf away from them to make new garden beds. I like to cut aesthetic curves into a lawn along contour, line them with organic matter, and plant all along them. Who wants lawn on a slope anyway? Terraces are far better, sometimes the flat bit at the top or bottom can stay lawn but who wants to mow on an angle? Much better to have a line of native shrubs and perennials

[@quinn3334]

I hate lawns! I hate lawns! I hate lawns! I hate lawns!

[@CtrlAltJon]

It's always a good day when there's a new Mexie upload!

[@DeadManAnimations]

🌲🪴🌱🌻🌳we are nature, not its deviations; revolution means relearning who we are in relationship to the earth

[@JimiSol]

A great way to kill your lawn, leave leaves in helpful places, and make use of a ubiquitous waste stream, all at the same time: Cover an area of lawn grass in cardboard, then cover that with leaves and woodchips in the fall. Next spring, it will be ready for planting native plugs!

[@baronjutter]

I'm working on it!! It's very hard to kill a lawn.

[@EMSpdx]

I have a townhouse in Portland, OR but I don't live with an HOA, so I have replaced my crappy backyard turf with veggie garden boxes and native plants like camas, yarrows and iris. And yes, I just let "weeds" grow along with my roses, bay and lavender - except for bindweed. Bindweed is so pretty and she is SO awful!

[@gehteuchnichtsan5311]

Since some years I leave the leafs and let grow whatever plant is showing up in my garden. No lawn no lawn mowing and so on. If things getting out of hand I cut plants back a bit and thats basically it. My neighbors try to force me to pick up leaves and even cut off the tree that grows on my yard. And I give a f*** because I love nature and don't want to have these artificial gardens most neighbors have. It looks better, is helpful for the nature and it is way less work because a natural garden is self caring. I don't have to use pesticides on my apple tree, if greenflies show up I can be sure that other bugs show up to snack away those greenflies. They are still there but never to a damaging extend. Nature works on its own, you just have to leave it alone. Love the video and the channel, thanks Mexie and thanks "unlearning economics" for pointing me to it!

[@Sorrowful000]

Are you sure that the plants that are appearing in your garden are native?

[@GaasubaMeskhenet]

There's a native source of caffeine on almost every continent

[@bortsynapse3503]

I read 2 of Doug tallamys books, great to hear the anticapitalist side of the story. Great presentation. I hated working residential landscaping knowing all this lol

[@meepcity48]

Love this!!! Thank you for sharing

[@MrJolaf22]

i am so glad that my parents decided to leave over 80% of their lawn just was it was when they bought it. it has been almost untouched by man in over 6 years now and we have soooo many insects and birds and its pretty nice

[@injusticeanywherethreatens4810]

Thanks for this!

[@Voidsworn]

I'm trying to, trust me. I hate mowing. It's such a pointless thing to have to do. I don't own the property I live on but I imagine if I can find some native low growing ground cover, the landlord would likely not know not care.

[@kalpic11]

clovers could be one option

[@Voidsworn]

@@kalpic11 I'm pretty sure certain clovers are not native to PA, so I would have to look for that version.

[@delve_]

@@Voidsworn I don't know the conditions of your yard (whether it's wet, dry, acid, alkaline, etc.), so you'll need to pick and choose whatever suits it best, but here are some plants you might want to look into for native groundcover (be sure to double-check that whatever species you pick are native to your specific area): - _Hydrocotyle spp._ - _Viola spp._ - _Cyperus spp._ - _Carex spp._ - _Krigia virginica_ and _K. biflora_ - _Plantago virginica_ and _P. rugelii_ - _Gnaphalieae_ (the "paper daisy" tribe) - _Anemone canadensis_ - _Fragaria virginiana_ - _Iris spp._ - _Sisyrinchium spp._ - _Muhlenbergia spp._ I could go on, but this seems like a good stopping point. Also, as someone else said, don't sleep on sedges (family Cyperaceae) ! They're awesome.

[@Voidsworn]

@@delve_ thanks!

[@delve_]

@@Voidsworn No problem! Oh, and one more I wanted to mention that I just remembered: Look into native _Commelina_ species. Those make a great ground cover and are pretty dang tough.

[@Yomanchamcru]

I started gardening in 2012 after discovering permaculture, in much the same way as a painter might become a painter and decorator as an income that's tenuously connected to what they actually like. We're not quite as bad with HOAs here in the UK as in North America, but the prevailing attitudes are the same - manicure everything, make it neat and tidy, and bare earth especially is a thing to be valued. I've tried pointing out before now that they're fetishising desert, but it at best falls on deaf ears, or they look at me like I'm talking an alien language and/ or am an idiot. Like the other week a customer asked me to pull an entirely healthy Buxus out because it was covered in caterpillars. I asked her if she didn't like the caterpillars, and the look I got was this mixture of confusion and disgust. Basically I tend to keep my mouth shut and consciously do the wrong thing at work for money in order to have the freedom to do the right thing at home. I do find it staggering that we're still dealing with the hangover from Louis the fourteenth's power moves at Versailles due to the combo of most people's conformism and ignorance. Food, not lawns ✊

[@_maia_m]

It's similar here (Norway), so not quite as bad as North America, but I think we're still behind Germany, where my inlaws live. But there is increasing attention to pollinating insects here, so you can buy insect hotels around everywhere (if you can buy it, people are up for it right?), so it's moving in the right direction, however slow. There are some regulations where we live, but not too strict, so I try to do what I can, especially in the back yard, where we are more free to do what we want. We have a small lawn, but we don't cut it in the spring, and not very often in the summer, so that we can keep most of the flowers. And we also have beds with a mix wild and semi-local (don't know the word in English..) pollinator/insect/bird friendly flowers, mosses, bushes and roots/logs. If one can't do whatever one wants in the garden, but having decorative flowers is ok, at it's a good idea to check out what plants attracts insects in your area, and providing some water and food for birds (consistently) is also relatively easy.

[@TAP7a]

The idea of making sure we’ve got bare earth showing for… absolutely no reason is completely insane

[@Yomanchamcru]

@@TAP7a Yep, for sure, I was taught it's akin to an open wound (and the 'weeds' are trying to scab it up). Trouble is, so much gardening media over the years - magazines and TV shows - have told them bare earth is desirable and reprogramming people with information that contradicts what they're currently running and are happy with, is really hard.

[@Yomanchamcru]

@@_maia_m Agreed, and it sounds like you're doing well with doing what you can. Maybe the English word was semi native? Like when the species has evolved where you are but simultaneously in other parts of the world? If we could just get more people to engage with actually looking at what pollinators like where they are, all through the year, that would be super helpful. We've an ivy here that most people cut back in winter, but it's one of the few things flowering in January/ February that's super high in pollen and nectar; I only have to look, or even listen, to realise any early bees are all over them..!

[@_maia_m]

@Yomanchamcru That's probably the right word, yes :) So like we can buy flowers in the shops that are very closely related to the ones growing here naturally, and that are native to areas with similar climate and nature. Here, there's just snow in january-february 😅 and nothing grows until april, but I've put down some early blooming bought perennials in our lawn, that bloom before the grass starts to grow. This spring I also dug up some common early blooming wild flowers (I think they're called colts foot in English??) in a ditch close by, and put down in the lawn. I'm excited to see if they'll show back up next year. Earlier, I've also dug up/collected seeds from some other plants (none protected, and of course making sure I don't destroyed the places I sourced it), and it's all slowly growing and spreading. But we've only had a garden for four years, so it's a work in progress. But I really enjoy sourcing things from nature as much as possible, or getting cuttings from others. Like I have one plant that I got from my aunt, that my grandmother planted maybe 40 years ago, so it's always reminding me of her :)

[@tikayscake2416]

This is such a great video Mexie im really looming forward to future videos and projects much love

[@steampunkerella]

my home is a wildlife habitat. i also grow food

[@sjh3217]

I'm just glad my absentee landlord doesn't give a shit about my weeding the lawn. It looks about as biodiverse as any other untended patch of grass around here - some legit weeds (i.e. invasive species) and probably some native plants too. Even some chive that migrated over from the nextdoor neighbour, which I sometimes have a bite of. But it sucks that I'm forced to mow and edge the damn thing every few weeks (and my Dad keeps telling me I need to do it every week, lol. My landlord rarely ever comes around).

[@jameskollinger5488]

Ha, if we ever own a place we will not be lawn people. That's a big if though.

[@littlekeegs8805]

Excellent production quality on this video, great work!

[@wesmarks5]

Thank you.

[@bill8985]

Fantastic and concise video.

[@shea542]

Loved the video ❤❤❤

[@Evbot2]

Great video! Last year we caved out a huge section of our lawn and replaced it with a garden of local wildflowers which everyone in our neighborhood loves!

[@SuperEkkorn]

Well, this makes me feel better abt our overgrown hellscape (affectionate) :)

[@Neojoe20]

Having a dog that got bit by a venomous snake while running around in tall grass, I think I'll have to keep maintaining my yard so that my kids have a place to play safely. 😅

[@_maia_m]

I'm glad there's no venomous snakes/spiders where I live... 😅 And I totally get you!

[@kalpic11]

could weed the tall plants and fill it with short plants like clovers, no? (if they’re native where you are)

[@kalpic11]

could weed the tall plants and fill it with short plants like clovers, no? (if they’re native where you are)

[@babybloc]

That’s a good question about children’s safety. I live where we don’t have any poisonous snakes, though climate change may well change that as the seasons are shifting here. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more Rattlesnakes move west of the mountains in BC and Western Washington and Oregon the next few years. In much of the Southwest, though, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough water for people to have lawns for long. So I don’t know what alternative suggestions are for parents who don’t want plastic turf or indoor kids

[@TreeHairedGingerAle]

Tall grass doesn't have to be a given. Check into ground cover that grows quite short. There are plenty of varieties, and best of all: no mowing!

[@CosmicPotato]

Great video 🙂 it sucks because I would love to have less of a flat grassy lawn, but unfortunately I have to abide by an HOA. I only get a small garden area where I am allowed to plant flowers or anything else that might help support the ecosystem. Granted, my lawn is pretty small because I live in a town house, but if I ever end up moving to a house without an HOA, I don't plan on only having turf grass. And omg, that story about the person mowing their neighbor's lawn then taking them to court 😂 wtf... Karen/NIMBY levels off the chart....

[@fy8798]

Freedom indeed.

[@carochalu8756]

That sucks 😞 but you know if you want a livelier garden, it's still possible to have/build bird or insect houses, and to have some rocky habitats for reptiles (I think they tend to like things like rock piles). Also, keeping even a couple of square meters of unmowed, unkempt grass can help improve biodiversity in a garden. It's not much, and probably not advisable if you need to use chemicals to keep your lawn in check, but it can help your garden be a little less dead 🙂

[@jeffengel2607]

Heh - it's something when your "not in my backyard!" attitudes make you mow SOMEONE ELSE's back yard.

[@jhagler9010]

Thank you for discussing this topic. I’m a self employed landscaper and lawn care guy in so called Idaho. I try to encourage people not to use fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide and I’ve even been able to convert lawn space into poly culture berry patches or native vegetation, but there is only so much one individual can do. Without a socialist transition and some sort of central planning I fear the lawn industry (capitalism in general) will continue to destroy what little biodiversity we have left. Any advice or thoughts on what more I can do on the ground would be greatly appreciated.

[@rabbit_herder_420]

I rent from my uncle and have been working to destroy his lawn for the past couple years with great success

[@blakeglenn]

Welcome back! Great video!

[@francoislatreille6068]

let's change our culture!!

[@TheGoblinoid]

Wow your vocal skills have improved a ton since last I watched you, kudos! Great stuff, as always.

[@imunoz3255]

Great video Mexie. Truly appreciate all your research and hard work 🙏

[@SL1021Esquire]

My neighbors can bite my rump. I like the bees, birds and baby ducks/geese that feed in my yard more than them anyways😁🤘

[@anschn7166]

Very well made video on a very important topic.

[@anschn7166]

"The more I learn, the worse it feels" - great quote.

[@custardstuff5178]

I wish I could, I have a gun to my head metaphorically speaking. Until I can afford to buy, I am beholden to landlords, and landlords LOVE lawns

[@danjwheatley]

welcome back! great video!

[@Gee-xb7rt]

Haha, I run the neighborhood squirrel sanctuary out of my yard, people hate me for it too.

[@alexb5383]

Conversely maybe the growing necessity of rewilding will encourage the masses to question the arbitrary hierarchies we devote ourselves to

[@mickskov3949]

I’m on a bit of a run. “Clover Lawns” Also Living close to NWUSA, the rabbits changed the lawn from grass to moss. Though summers are extremely dry so this may be why the grass troubled getting back

[@mickskov3949]

I’d advise speaking with tears in your eyes

[@mickskov3949]

I also suggest, as you have an audience: Chnaging the Vocabulary of the words^ “pesticide, herbicide”...so as the speaker feels a sense of embarrassment to saying they are “going out to spray the weeds.”---Call it: Mudding? Thing dingalinging? Any ideas?

[@Sorrowful000]

There are no native clovers in most of North America

[@SophiaNej]

I have four species of bee's living in my allotment garden. A recommendation get to know your local species and when some animals seems annoying get to know their function in the ecosystem before wishing death upon them. You might learn to (almost) appreciate mosquitoes or wasps ;)

[@bdarecords_]

Based! Support local bees. No neophytes, but local plants. Local pollinators rule. The farm factory honey bees do not.

[@Nerdcoresteve1]

I always hated mowing the goddamn lawn.

[@huntermead859]

I attempted to grow out my lawn and was threatened by the city to either mow or pay their contractors over $400 for them to mow my lawn against my will. I am trying to figure out how to landscape in a sustainable way but, as a new teacher, I don't have the time or money.

[@huntermead859]

I do let a portion of my back lawn grow out with "weeds" and mow much less than usual.

[@elibot]

There is nothing like the buzz in my moms garden, thousands of insects just having a good time around thousands of wild flowers. Those videos of lawn mowers and pesticides are basically snuff in my view.

[@rogerp566]

Took my lawn out over a decade ago. The yard has mostly native species in it and they do well during drought and hot weather, which will only get worse here. If one does it right (and I did not), you can have a native edible landscape without a lot of maintenance.

[@deantunkara1567]

Great work.

[@eamonnschnell5373]

yall should check put joey santore’s show “kill your lawn”

[@humanwithaplaylist]

Omg first mexie video in so long

[@mahavishnustravinskij]

The song at the end might be Rhode by Sevdaliza if anyone is wondering!

[@bdarecords_]

Very depressing but also very informative. Thank you!

[@jeffengel2607]

If you make your native/pollinator plant growth look intentional - even, alas, tidy - you may be able to keep busybodies off your back about it.

[@Scriven42]

Thanks Mexie! Hope you're getting enough sleep!

[@tsurutom]

It's actually mind-blowing, the sheer scale of how hard we are able to fuck things up. Like, destroying ecosystems for the extraction of some mineral that you actually make something out of? I can at least see how you might be talked into that being a good idea, even if it's not - but you'd have to understand at least a little bit about the world to see that. Razing everything in sight and beyond just because it's "kind of neat to look at", though... what the- how- HUH?

[@FrostyButter]

This is relevant to my interests 🧐

[@fuxan]

Ive fought with my HOA and still required at least 40% lawn in the front...however they dont know any better and im making it 100% natives and cutting as high as possible. Everywhere else is 100% natives and over 300 species on only 0.18 acres...yes...thats a very very high species density because i took advantage of micro habitats created by other plants and runoff from the roof and 2 different soil types...one is the very disturbed origonal soil and the other is the foundation soil. These national builders are ecological devils.