... and add a tick check every couple of days to your routine :-(
This was the case growing up in PA too but it's much more troublesome disease-wise these days.
Not that there's anything really bad about that. It just requires a change to how you approach your outdoor spaces.
But the best thing for my friend is how much rats like it. Not mice, rats. Lots of rats.
Don't do this. It's not clever - it's just lazy. If you don't want a lawn that's fine. But just neglecting it will result in something awful and everyone will hate it. Just letting everything grow to seed so that it spreads everywhere is also kind of rude. Be a good neighbor. Don't attract mosquitoes or ticks, etc.
Be thoughtful about it and think about how you want your yard to look. If your idea results in no maintenance then it's not a good idea. Even a meadow look or something more natural will require time and energy to maintain. Probably more than cutting a lawn.
> it's dramatically less work as you only need touch the thing a maximum of once a year
No, it's not. What you have is something that looks awful. I'm glad my town will come and chop your lawn down once it hits 10".
If you live in a rural area then do as you please. But if you have neighbors, this is a really bad thing to do.
It is drought tolerant too, so we don't need to water the lawn. It's win-win-win.
You claim you don't have to do anything. The article immediately says you do. It takes work for it to not be awful. I have friends in the UK with a large property and part of it is a meadow and it still takes taking care of.
In this thread I even mention using clover if you really don't want to manage much and have a ground cover that prevents erosion and is attractive to bees that doesn't need fertilizer because it draws nitrogen from the air.
But yes, if you do nothing and let a lawn just overgrow I'm happy the town will cut it down and charge you.
> Even a meadow look or something more natural will require time and energy to maintain. Probably more than cutting a lawn.
How do you think the meadows you come across get taken care of? For the most part the farmer just comes by 2-3 times per year to mow, it's not that deep. What the best meadows have going for them are years and years of the same mowing schedule which has allowed a huge variety of native plants to spread.
Therefore, getting a meadow here starts with changing multiple layers of regulations. Much better for the environment, but a significant amount of work, arguing with people that just don't want anything to change.
This is a great idea.
> The simplest route is to just stop mowing and let whatever comes up after a few years stay there.
This is a horrible idea.
In most suburban environments there aren't a lot of native plants left around to be spreading seed, and most of the plants that have survived heavy artificial landscaping and will propagate on their own are weeds (often invasive) that are nothing like a nice native meadow. They will look ugly, have thorns, spread like wild fire into people's gardens if not kept under control, and make everyone hate you.
A native landscape will be less maintenance and use less water in the long run (if meadows aren't native in your area substitute whatever is), but it will take effort to get it into that state.
(I keep a fairly small lawn and the rest--other than the forest break between me and the road--gets cut by a tractor once a year.)
There are best practices for wildfire zones. Up to 5'/2m you don't want anything flammable, and up to 30'/10m you want to minimize vegetation (though some with appropriate spacing is okay):
* https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/...
Yeah, this exactly. There's a local horticulturist who specializes in replacing lawns with meadow-ish, native species setups. I had him come in and look at what I'd need to do to get there (no more mowing? Drought resistant? Fewer/no chemicals? I would like to subscribe to your newsletter...).
It's a lot of time/work: from getting rid of the grass, conditioning the soil, finding the right balance of species to thrive in your conditions, to keeping the invasive species out. Pretty much if you aren't regularly maintaining it, the same crud trying to take over your lawn will take over and smother your prairie. So...maybe it's 'less maintenance', but there's still good bit of maintenance.
Oof.. this must be regional. Around here if I stop mowing I would have a yard full of tumble weed, goat heads, and white top. All of which are invasive species. The best I can do with native plants that will live without much intervention is sage brush and compacted soil which is neither pleasant to look at or pleasant to live in. =/