I have never understood the fetish for a perfect lawn. I know some people spend a lot of money to have the perfect lawn. They fertilized and water and aerate and de-thatch and rake with the goal of having a yard that looks like a putting green. A dandelion is a crisis.
That is not me. In my view a lawn should not look like a carpet. A perfect lawn is boring. I like a lawn of mixed shades of green and splashes of color and texture. In the spring I like the rosy-purple haze of henbit. I like those patches of waxy little yellow flowers and I like the violet of violets.
I always mowed less often than most people but in the last few years, I have stopped mowing all together. The last time my mower broke I just decided to not get it fixed and go natural. Most of my yard is shaded so grass does not grow well anyway. I have let ground cover and flowers and selected " weeds" take most of my yard and I weed-eat a very small section. Parts of my lawn are in flowers like irises and other parts are in day Lilly. Other parts are monkey grass. I also have a sprinkling of trillium and wood poppy and Jacobs ladder and Virginia bluebells and other wild flowers that I once knew the name of but I have forgotten.
Parts of my backyard are really wild. I do not consider it overgrown but think of it as my "nature preserve." I have a "green yard," by having a less perfectly green yard. While my yard is no doubt more kind to the planet than is the perfect lawn, I really did not set out to do lawn care in this fashion out of any environmental ethic, but out an aesthetic. I like it.
If you think you agree with me, go ahead and Do It! Join the Revolution! Don't mow! Go "Green!" Not mowing your yard can be sort like the rebellion of another era in not cutting your hair. Reject conformity! Sure, your neighbors may call you an eccentric but I don't mind the label. Accept me for who I am, not my perfect lawn. Let a thousand flowers (grasses, weeds) bloom!
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