I find this funny and interesting. Europe in past centuries developed this model of perfect lawns for the wealthy which was adopted by the masses over the years. There has been resistance to the carefully manicured model by any number over the past decades including me. Covid has now impacted the longstanding view of perfect lawns by the furloughs of lawn workers in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...CMP=GTUK_email
"They were once a status symbol for the rich, and later the pride and joy of suburbia. But the immaculately striped, tightly mown lawn is becoming an endangered species.
Monty Don this week called time on the predominantly male, British “obsession” with a tidy lawn, arguing that fossil-fuel-powered mowing was noisy and “about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife”.
As gardeners turn lawns into wildflower meadows, or take the eco-conservation charity Plantlife’s increasingly popular #NoMowMay pledge, so stately homes, parks and playing fields are ditching traditional mowing regimes and allowing wildflowers to flourish.
Even the quads of Oxbridge colleges, regarded by traditionalists as home to some of the finest lawns in the world, are dabbling with rewilding. King’s College, Cambridge last year turned the lawn beside its chapel into a meadow...
Don’s comments were “music to our ears”, said Trevor Dines, of Plantlife, which urges people to pause mowing lawns in May to allow daisies, bird’s-foot trefoil and dandelions to flower in the grass.
Those taking part in the charity’s Every Flower Counts survey have identified 207 species of flowering plant in lawns, including bee orchids, meadow saxifrage and eyebright. Plantlife calculates that one square metre of lawn left to flower supplies enough nectar to sustain on average 3.8 bees a day.
Dines said Plantlife had been inundated with local authorities and others such as hospital trusts seeking to maximise flower and nectar production on parklands and green spaces.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” said Dines. “You’re cutting down on your petrol costs, CO2 emissions and the time it takes to do the work, and it’s a massive benefit for wildlife.”
Last spring’s lockdown led to the inadvertent wilding of stately home lawns. The furloughing of gardeners meant the National Trust had to trial wilding in some of its 250 formal gardens and parks."
I chuckle at my neighbour who irrigates a large urban lot every other day, mows every third day, edges every couple of weeks, blows every mowing, rolls the lawn, sprinkles fertilizer and sprays weed control with mostly gas-powered tools taking up half his 2-car garage.
I mow every 3-4 weeks my limited grass filled with micro-clover although I will work to clear out the patches of crabgrass emerging alongside the roadway this spring.
I am not sure about creating a meadow though. The snowplow digs up the areas turning into crabgrass so that might be a possibility but I don't want to drive the neighbours nuts.
Anyone switching to meadow?