The real answer is to plant native ground ground cover.

Agreed. That's exactly what a meadow is in the UK.

Clover tends to be a good thing. Bees love it too. And it doesn't need fertilizer as it takes nitrogen from the air. It also tends to not get out of hand.

We use clover. Max, it only grows like 8" or so (which isn't as tall as it sounds. We mow it a few times a year.

It is drought tolerant too, so we don't need to water the lawn. It's win-win-win.

It of course depends on where you live but in my area ticks are not a concern and just keeping weeds out of your lawn takes a lot of work, dandelions take over within a couple years if all you do is mow. Keeping things reasonably green and level requires filling, fertilizer, overseeding, etc, etc. We plan to gradually convert most of ours to native bushes and meadow.

In the context of the UK you are wrong. Here's what the RHS has to say about growing a meadow: https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/wildflower-meadow-maintenance You will notice that maintenance for an established meadow consists of three cuts a year, two of which are not needed in certain circumstances.

> They may look natural and untamed, but both new and established perennial meadows need specifically timed maintenance to create a balanced mix of grasses and wildflower species.

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.

This is a cultural attitude that prevails in the US. Home values are tied to curb appeal, not only of your house but of your neighbors' homes. It's a very unfortunate situation because a strictly aesthetic concern results in untold amounts of fertilizer and pesticide in our ecosystems and of course endless water use. It's easy to forget that fertilizer is an ecological disaster both on the production and consumption sides - ammonia production for fertilizer is one of the larger carbon emission sources on the planet. I really don't have a solution to suggest, but at the very least we can all start checking our negative reactions when we see an ugly lawn. Cultural attitudes can change over time.

I literally say you don't need to have a lawn. Just don't mistake being lazy and not doing anything for somehow being a virtuous environmentalist. Build a prairie - it looks great when done well. But you have to put some work and thought into it. Just letting your lawn overgrow is not the way.

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.

I do this and it looks pretty damn good, lots of different wildflowers and tall grasses, but I guess it's a matter of taste. I like the feel of having my own bit of nature close to me. I even saw a huge violet oil beetle walking along recently.

> 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.