• Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Not just the bees, all bugs in North America have seen a 75% die off in the last 20 years.

    Big shocker that songbirds, which eat those bugs, have also seen a massive die off.

    Despite those deniers that still blame housecats, the true culprit is almost certainly pollution and pesticides.

    • cobra89@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Despite those deniers that still blame housecats

      Both things can be true. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

      Also we have less pollution and pesticide use than we did in the 60s and 70s. Why is it just becoming a problem now?

      • DrCatface@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        less pollution? that cannot possibly be true. according to dr google 1970s world population was 3.7b, now we’re more than double that

        • Redscare867@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I’m the US, the EPA was created in the 1970’s. We definitely have less pollution (of certain types) today than we did in the past. Some notable examples of how disgustingly polluted American skies and waterways were in the past:

          The skies of Pittsburgh, PA

          the Cuyahoga River fire

          Coal Production has also been declining

          And then of course less visible examples like the Montreal Protocol stopping corporations from depleting the ozone layer.

          My point is in terms of greenhouse gas production we are much higher than in the 60’s and 70’s, but we have massively improved in a lot of areas. Of course there is still room to improve.

      • Turun@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I bet that while we have less general pollution and less dumping trash in the environment kinda things, we have developed much more potent insecticides. And if those insecticides do not degrade within a few weeks they will accumulate in the earth and the water.

        Edit: Wikipedia about one type of modern pesticides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid

        • bentropy@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, pretty sure your lawn has almost nothing to do with insects vanishing. It’s much more likely the insane amounts of highly potent pesticides we put directly into our food chain. Those pesticides obviously aren’t classified as pollution so we aren’t polluting, we’re killing the environment on purpose.

          Btw. The development and use of neonicotines corelate quiet nicely with the drop in the insects population.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        To put that in perspective, let’s say I drink water contaminated with chemicals for decades. Then, “suddenly”, me and half the people i know are sick with cancer and various side effects decades later…

        That’s how environmental toxins work. They accumulate throughout the water cycle and through the food web, and if its less than acute (short term) in effect it statistically hurts a population, such as lowering reproduction or creating birth defects that lower the fitness. Then, once concentrations pass LD thresholds (lethal dose, meaning LD50 will kill half of the individuals of a species on average, LD10 would kill 1 in 10) you start getting mass die offs

        Every water table, all of the soil, every living being is riddled with non-naturally occurring substances. Even though we released more damaging toxins in the 80s, the rate of pollution doesn’t matter - the concentration in various parts of the ecosystem is what matters, and that’s a slow process

      • MoodyRaincloud@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Housecats were actually keeping the bird population healthy for decades by eliminating the weak. Of course now that habitat destruction and toxins made entire populations weak it is a problem.

        But removing housecats to solve it is akin to drinking out of paper straws to solve plastic pollution. It helps, but it doesn’t do anything substantial.

        • kbotc@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Why would you say that? Hawks and owls were the “natural” predator of North American song birds and I’ve seen plenty of raptors in my large US city. Not like bobcats are suffering population-wise in urban areas.

        • FireTower@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Outside cat / feral cats have had massive negative impacts on bird and small mammal populations. Particularly in areas where they fill an ecological niche that the wildlife hasn’t adapted to due to none of the local fauna being in that niche. Hawaii and Australia in particular have this problem.

          • MoodyRaincloud@feddit.nl
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            1 year ago

            Those are indeed special situations where cats are basically an invasive species.

            Here in Europe the correlation between cats and bird population is not so strong. While destruction of habitat and the crash in insect numbers are the big culprits.

    • LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d say and cars just think about how many bug splatters you see on an average decent trip on the highway now multiply that by the millions of cars on the road daily. It’s not the root cause but it certainly didn’t help

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Oh certainly can’t help. But we know that the pesticides and herbicides have carryon effects to unintended species. Ones that the parent companies that invented them didn’t report on because they don’t kill those species. Ones that don’t necessarily kill them, but lead to things like the white nose fungus running amock in bats, or lead to Colony Collapse Disorder or other infections in bee colonies.

        • kbotc@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Why would white nose fungus and pesticides be linked in the slightest? The issue with that is tourists who don’t want to admit they’ve been driving from national park to national park visiting each cave along the way without sanitizing anything. Same reason Zebra Mussels are spreading so rapidly. Just like people blaming 5G for COVID: It’s easier to externalize blame rather that come to terms with the, frankly, minuscule amount of spores that are needed to destroy the entire roosting colony.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        My car used to look terrible after a drive to the local wilderness area, now I’ll be lucky to see one smack my window per trip.

    • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Im gonna dig a pit in my backyard and make a pond. Its gonna be a lot of work but it will all be worth it when i sit out on my patio in the morning sipping coffee to the sound croaking frogs, buzzing bugs, and chirping birds.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You will want to be careful doing that. It needs to be big enough to have differential temperature so the water moves, therefore aerating it. Without air in the water nothing but mosquitos can live or breed in it. Also, depending on the soil and whether you are above the water line, you may not be able to keep enough water in it between rainfalls.

        I’m sure you can look up how to do one properly, I just want to to be aware it’s not as simple as dig a hole and fill it with water, because that will do more damage than good.

        • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Of course I’ve been doing a lot of research dont worry. And also I’ll be using a pond liner

  • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    I find grass so useless. Every boomer parent I’ve known is just obsessed with it, too. They think that not having a green, green monoculture lawn means you’ve failed morally or something, and that it’s how they show the neighborhood how responsible they are. One GF’s dad came over to our random Winconsin lawn of grass and weeds and strawberries and was “I WOULD JUST PULL THIS ALL UP AND START OVER”. Uh… no?

    Then I had an across the street neighbor (guy with a bumper sticker “I’ve never seen a FLAG burned at a GUN SHOW”) who would mow his lawn every single day with a riding mower. You couldn’t even tell what part he had done yet. I went out of town for two weeks and he rode over and mowed my lawn. I left my backyard just go and it was awesome… after a few years, birds started nesting in the middle of the prairie, and I had flowers growing I’d never seen anywhere else.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      They all seem obsessed with plastic grass now which is even worse.

      My garden is mostly weeds. Haven’t cut it in 15 years. I pretend to be a trendsetting wild gardener, but really I’m just a lazy bastard.

    • doctordevice@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Did you sue? I’d have been livid enough to try to sue. IANAL, but at a minimum I would hope that would be trespassing.

      • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Some places have bylaws on maximum lawn height and you can actually be fined for letting it go. That’s how insane people are about lawns.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I mean that’s probally overkill, that person was either OCD or was thinking he was doing them a favor. That sounds like a great way to have a pissed off neighbor and a potentially hostile neighborhood

        • doctordevice@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’d feel a little different (still pissed) if it was a next door neighbor who extended their mow. But to cross the street and change someone’s property without permission is already hostile to me.

      • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        I doubt that I could have demonstrated real harm, or even proved that he did it. I got back into town a week later and my brother, who had been watching the house, said “huh, the guy across the street mowed the front yard”.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        By the letter of the law it probably is, but if they hadn’t expressly been told not to it won’t go anywhere.

    • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works
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      It seems like people used to suburbs see that as the pinnacle of life but of course that’s not true.

      In my experience rural areas get it because they are farmers and beekeepers with an understanding that working with nature is the way to go

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      1 year ago

      I get it as a dog owner with only a courtyard. But he goes on long hikes in the bush and big walks a few times a week. It’d be nice to give the little fella a patch to hang on while I’m at work. And I mean a patch—I hate mowing and any yard work motivation in me is for citrus, chilli, and grapes.

        • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          There is the risk of tick transmission of Lyme disease in tall grass. I suppose you can pretreat to prevent contraction, but mowing grass means you don’t have those threats/hazards to worry about.

          I still hate lawns and wish more would be native, but I wonder if there’s a way to grow a native lawn such that you invite the good wildlife and keep out the bad. Would need a biologist to chime in

      • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        My yard was very low with ground cover. I actually did mow the front, I just didn’t care if it was grass or a bunch of random other plants. I had a dog when my gf lived with me, but at this point, didn’t. There were so many rabbits and deer I actually just grew my vegetable garden on the front porch in containers.

    • Rev. Layle@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m 52 and hate mowing yards. Most other people my age are also obsessed with their lawns or simply “enjoy getting out and working on the yard”

      There few things worse than doing yard work. I think dying is one of them, maybe.

      Anyways, yeah we have a yard. We try to keep various bushes and wildflowers as we can. We go as log as possible in early spring to not mow and get all the clover and stuff to bring the bees and like insects over.

      As for mowing, I pay someone 50 dollars every 2 weeks to keep it not looking like crap.

      My father-in-law, who lives with us, used to do most of the gardening and lawn stuff. He is too old now to do any of it. He’s always trying to get the rest of the people in the house to do stuff in the yard. I keep telling him "you know you are the only one who really gives a shit on how ‘nice’ the yard looks. My only goal is to keep the city and neighbors off our back, that’s it.’

      EDIT: Also neighbors seem intent on having a single uniform grass breed and obsessed with having no weeds. Nah, I have all the grasses and weeds. I have a neighbor down the street who is always just HAND PULLING weeds out of her lawn. Like hours and hours of it. I mean… wat

      • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        It seems to be something that retired people love, to keep them active and give them something to do (a sense of purpose besides grandchildren?). I don’t mind yardwork myself, but I don’t feel like it’s virtuous or something. I also understand that a chemical-sodden monoculture isn’t really the best for humans and wildlife.

        My mother used to try to get us… oh, she still does… to come “PULL WEEDS”. As kids it made sense, like okay, she wants us to get away from the video games and be outside and do whatever she’s saying, but at this point…

    • mrchuckles@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      do you have kids? they love playing outside. barefoot. and a nice lawn is a paradise for bare feet. not to mention the actual process of mowing (electric mower) is very peaceful and good for my mental health. super therapeutic.

      • Masimatutu@lemm.eeOP
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but we also want those kids to have food when they grow up, don’t we?

          • Masimatutu@lemm.eeOP
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            1 year ago

            Or you can have a clover lawn, which is nice for insects as well as kids.

            Kids don’t dislike long, unkept grass either, as long as you keep the thistles out.

            • mrchuckles@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              seems pretty naive to think that it’s joe homeowner that’s the problem, and not insecticides and fertilizers from mega farm corporations like monsanto. let me know where to mail my apology letter lol

    • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
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      That guy was an asshole for doing that to you. I wonder if that might be considered trespassing. Dunno if you can have any civil remedy served to you, or if it’s even worth it, but still sucks.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      How tall did the grass get? Did it pollinate, and if so, was it noticable for allergies? Were you still able to walk through it?

      I’m wondering what sort of plant you could let grow where you could still walk through easily. Maybe clover?

      • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social
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        Low height ground cover type plants grew naturally there. Clover, alfalfa, strawberries, unknown other plants, with an occasional thistle. Larger plants (whatever they were) would grow on the periphery. When he mowed my lawn it was maybe about a foot high.

        We were surrounded by acres of forest where plants grew wild, so if there was a problem with pollen, it wasn’t the .4 acres of my front lawn. Myt front lawn, I did mow occasionally. The back I let grow wild and yes, one could still walk through it.

        One of the lame things about lawn is that people don’t let them go to seed. If grass goes to seed, it not only regenerates itself, but also provides food for birds and squirrels. I was on an acre and a half across the street from this guy, and bounded by 30 feet of trees on ones side and 200 feet of forest on the other.

      • sfgifz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Aren’t these allergies sometimes caused because you’re not exposed to the stuff? Like how it is for peanuts.

  • DagonPie@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I started doing clover in my yard a year ago and there are so many bees and butterflies now. My neighbor was like “why are you doing that yo your grass??? The previous owners took so long to make that yard look nice”

    • astraeus@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      “Why are you destroying your yard with an abundance of bees and butterflies? This isn’t fantasy land we need nothing but grass here to look nice”

      • DagonPie@kbin.social
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        When I moved in the grass was pretty close to the picture in the meme. I liked it at first but then I realized how expensive it was going to be to upkeep and how bad it is for the local ecosystem. I have successfully undone most of that work literally just by planting clover and not mowing down to the bone.

        • astraeus@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          If only everyone realized that grass is just a weed and not worth the maintenance and effort we put into it, it’s sad how ubiquitous it is in some places

      • DagonPie@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I dont really do anything about weeds anymore. I let the dandelions do their things. I have some patches of crab grass but it doesnt bother me. The clover doesnt grow very high but when it is full bloom you can tell when it is walked on in high traffic. We have wild turkeys too and they will roost on the clover and it leaves imprints in the ground but it springs back after a day or so.

        • WillyWonksters@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I couldn’t find a source for this, but I heard that we were convinced to think of dandelions as weeds by the makers of a herbicide so that we would accept the collateral damage.

          • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Dandelions were brought to North America as a food crop. We can eat every part of the plant. They’re an invasive species, but not what I would consider a weed.

            • Catsrules@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Anything can be a weed. All a weed is it a plant growing is the wrong spot in the eyes of a human.

              • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Agreed, but Monsanto would love us to believe all kinds of plants are weeds so we buy their chemicals.

                A field of dandelion flowers is beautiful.

                • kbotc@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  And also, a field of invasive species that drove out the native plants… Just saying.

          • DagonPie@kbin.social
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            Theres only one plant in my yard i consider a “weed”. It grows almost like a carrot or a parsnip. But it grows a long thick root straight down and has a small leafy part on top. And when you pluck them out it leaves a cone shaped hole. No clue what it is but ive been calling it a tuber lol

          • AngryMulbear@lemmy.ca
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            Lol, you don’t put Roundup on your lawn unless you don’t want a lawn anymore.

            2,4D is the stuff that kills “weeds” but not grass.

      • AngryMulbear@lemmy.ca
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        Anecdotal evidence. There’s a patch of grass on my land next to a public mailbox that I struggled for years to keep from being a mud pit.

        Haven’t seen a bare patch of dirt since I planted the clover. Holds up great to foot traffic.

      • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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        We have a chemical free yard that I also plant clover in. The high traffic areas are more clover than grass, which makes me think it holds up better. The clover also turns green earlier in the spring and stays green longer of we’re having a dry spell in the summer. Clover helps keep the grass happy and the pair seem to do a decent job keeping dandelions down, but we have them in our yard too. They don’t bother me at all personally and our kids like them. Thistles are not that common in our yard, but when they pop up I’ll spot treat them since they’re painful to walk on.

  • Buttons@programming.dev
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    I want to make a short film / animation where aliens are approaching earth, the only thing we know about the aliens is that they plan to destroy all life and replace it with their own twisted creation. A few minutes of typical story follows, heroes assemble, go to fight, etc. The heroes lose and the ending scene shows that the aliens have succeeded and replaced all the diverse life on Earth with a perfectly manicured lawn that covers the entire planet. A biological wasteland.

    • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
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      Honestly, that may be better. At least it doesn’t use water and it would be fine in a very dry environment out western US.

      Native plants would still be even better though.

    • Snowman44@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I live in the desert (Utah). My yard will look like this soon. It’s too expensive to water our lawn so we’re going with a xeriscape.

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
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      Looks like an example of xeriscaping, or gardening with a minimal need for irrigation. Not the best I’ve seen, but at least it’s water-conserving.

      • kbotc@lemmy.world
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        Is the native landscape a rock garden? If you live in the Mojave: Go nuts, but that black rock is going to bake your house and drive up your carbon dioxide usage. Plants breathe just like animals do and that increases humidity locally, and in dry climates that can be a significant cooling effect. Essentially cheap evaporative cooling.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
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      I feel like this can still be a native lawn depending on which biome it’s in. Seems more desert like than a prairie/forest type “native lawn” you might traditionally think of.

      But yeah native can look different depending on location so I might be ok with this

  • sheppard@feddit.uk
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    The EU has uncultivated land subsidies. To avoid overproduction of food and overexploitation of the land, the EU pays farmers to keep their land uncultivated. Some countries, like mine, force farmers to uncultivate their land once every N years, and, of course, they get subsidies for this.

    In my region, farmers will plant flowers and let weed grow, since they’re not putting any pesticide. They let the flowers and weeds die and rot at the end of the season. This way, they dont have to put as much fertilizer the next year. I’ve always seen these uncultivated fields full of bees and other pollinators in summer.

    • kbotc@lemmy.world
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      That happens in the US too. It’s why there’s New York addresses that own huge “fields” of land that’s usually a wetland. The marginal land is protected and they get a corn subsidy from the government to not farm the land.

    • the_third@feddit.de
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      Rats do not live off grass. If you have them, there’s some sort of food source on your or your neighbors property.

    • ClarissaDarling@beehaw.org
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      I’m not sure where you live but if you can find some native seeds from your area, plant those! It’s the perfect time in many northern-hemisphere places for overwintering things like wildflower, clover seeds and more! Fancy lawn grasses are bogus and weak

  • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
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    Remember it’s not just about saving honey bees! Honey bees are domesticated, which means that humans will make sure that they have food and shelter and appropriate medicine and care throughout the year to ensure they make honey.

    Saving “the bees” moreso means saving wild, native, often times solitary bees like bumblebees or carpenter bees that don’t produce honey but that also aren’t domesticated - they have no safety net that humans give them.

    Those bees along with all other pollinators like bats, birds, and other insects are the ones at risk!

    Still, we should all consider growing native yards to return habitat back to these dying species!

  • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have lived at my current property for nearly 7 years now, and while I cut the main area up against the house once a week, I typically let the rest grow out for a month. Never used sprays other than flea and tick for my dog’s yard, and never even pulled weeds.

    Still, it’s almost all completely homogenous grass. Not sure what species, but it doesn’t grow very high. 3-5 inches. No wildflowers have encroached, no other grasses except clover, not even weeds other than dandelion. The only other thing that grows anywhere is some English ivy that’s pissing me off all over the house. Every time I pull some out and dig up the root, I find more a few days later.

    Still, MUCH higher insect, pollinator, and other wildlife activity vs my previous residence. It’s been nice seeing fireflies again, even if it’s still nowhere near what it was when I was a kid.

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Our yard is about 3" of top soil on top of basically solid clay. When we moved in a little over a decade ago I tried taking on the dandelions, but I quickly pivoted to planting clover. Now we have tons of the stuff, fewer dandelions despite no chemicals (not that I really mind them anymore), and our yard smells fantastic in mid to late spring when all the clover is in full bloom. Tons and tons of bees, crickets, etc. We re-did a flower bed and intentionally planted swamp milk weed and red crocosmia in it. They look fantastic together and the bees absolutely love it, not to mention the butterflies.

      But yeah. About English ivy. Been fighting that stuff for years…

  • Gorvin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I prefer a garden full of grown weeds than a clean grass cutted one. If a weed can grow and prosper without me watering it once a day, I think they deserve the right to be there more than anything my father ever planted on his yard that would die without getting water for 3 days or too much rain water.

    • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Agreed, except thistle plants can go fuck themselves. I rip those out at least once a month and they keep coming back and crowding out the plants I want.

    • kbotc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Are you actually growing native plants or do you just not care that you’re growing a massive amount of invasive on what we would call marginal lands?

  • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Reading all the comments and everyone is like not my yard , its full of flowers but for some reason I don’t see any bees or butterfly 🤷‍♂️

  • MayvisDelacour@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I only mow at the last possible second to not get a fine, has been working really well for my yard. I have seen flowers, corn, and a beautiful assortment of creepers and clovers start taking over the sterile grass. My neighbors neighbor seems to get butthurt. They take care of my direct neighbors yard whom I share a chain link fence with, she loves my vines with the flowers and strange gourds that wind around the fence. Neither of us planted it but the people who tend her yard destroy it 😭if we just let everything happen naturally some very cool things start to crop up. I’ve seen some absolutely massive grasshoppers and a bunch of praying mantis as well. My bee hotel never attracts anything but I’ve seen plenty of bees about which makes me happy.