
Most of us would be better off without lawns - em3rgent0rdr
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/04/lawns-are-a-soul-crushing-timesuck-and-most-of-us-would-be-better-off-without-them/
======
sverige
Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class [0] explains this best as a
leftover modern desire by the gentry to emulate the nobility by engaging in
conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. (A massively inadequate
summary of the argument, to be sure.) [1]

Veblen specifically talks in detail about the practice of maintaining
manicured lawns. I read it thirty years ago, but remember it as being
hilarious. He's one of my favorite Norwegians (admittedly a short list).

[0] [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Clas...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class)

~~~
syngrog66
+1 from me because he's one of the few cases where his work is not only
smart/educating in RL, but, as a bonus, he almost sounds like a fictional
character, too good to be true.

When I first encountered him I thought to myself, "He sounds like somebody
improvised up by Douglas Adams in HHGG. 'An apple fell from a tree. This was
widely regarded as a bad move. In fact the most popular selling series of
books on economics, by one Thorstein Veblen, in his The Theory of the Leisure
Class, has pretty much confirmed this, though it has taken nearly a millenia
for his proof to fully saturate and be accepted to date within the furthest
reaches of the Galactic Empire, despite many incentives for readers such as
scratch-and-sniff insta-win prizes.'"

------
telotortium
The sillier and more wasteful thing in my view is the front yard. The back
yard is a luxury and definitely an instance of conspicuous consumption in
denser suburbs and cities, but it's easy to see why people like it -- it
provides an open yet semi-private space where you, your kids, or your dog can
play, and also a convenient place to host a gathering with your friends. When
weather permits, you see people in their back yard all the time.

The front yard, however, sees much less use in most neighborhoods, at least
until you're so far out in the country that you practically live on a farm --
it's rare that you'll see anybody on the front lawn unless they're mowing or
landscaping it or on their way elsewhere, precisely due to its lack of
privacy. The suburbs in general can, with some debate, be accused of being a
result of the lack in imagination in adapting the estates of the British
landed gentry to smaller lot sizes; the front yard is much less defensible
against this accusation. The only practical functions of the front yard in
relatively dense suburbs, such as those making up most of California, are
these:

\- Provide an appealing botanical decoration for the front of the house.

\- Decrease noise from passing traffic.

\- Prevent passersby from looking into your windows as easily.

But the puny size of front yards in these suburbs limits their effectiveness
in satisfying these objectives, which would be much better served by a hedge
or ivy-covered wall. These shouldn't be much more expensive than the front
lawn, especially considering that you could either eliminate the front yard
and expand the back yard or gain increased privacy in the front yard would
make people more likely to use it.

~~~
apatters
My childhood was a lot happier and more social because our neighbors had a big
front lawn we could run around and play on. It was effectively a meeting space
for all the kids on our street.

Instead of a front lawn our property had a dense growth of evergreen shrubs
and all these excuses were used by my parents - easier to maintain, less water
used etc.

Our backyard was nice enough but fenced in and not social at all. If I could
have had one or the other as a kid it definitely would have been a front lawn.

To me this front lawn hate is all about changing demographics (families are
getting rarer) and the tragic paranoia and hostility that now is so prevalent
in American society--even though it is safer than ever.

~~~
csense
This.

\- People don't have as many kids as in decades past

\- The "stranger danger" mentality -- which the parent post aptly described as
"tragic paranoia [1] and hostility even though it is safer than ever" \--
means kids aren't as free to roam the neighborhood.

\- Increased amounts of homework, organized activities and indoor
entertainment means kids spend less time outside and have other ways to
socialize

[1] Children's services can take kids away from parents with minimal due
process. Whether this is, on the whole, good or bad is a debate I'm not going
to get into here. But I will note that sometimes the system screws up and
targets well-meaning parents who give their kids too much freedom. Which leads
to a chilling effect where even parents who recognize that giving the children
more freedom is the rational thing for us to do as a society, it's irrational
for individual parents because some idiots think otherwise, and the system
sometimes listens to them, and it's just not worth the risk of having the
authorities break up your family.

------
fitzwatermellow
I plan on saving this article. Then I will write an agent that will search the
text for any phrase that contains the concept of "landscaping." It will then
replace those selections with new phrase sentiments generated from a random
list of similar acts of drudgery. Laundry, driving, bathing, child-rearing,
grocery shopping, sight-seeing, reading, speaking, attending weddings,
barmitvahs, dentistry, cosmology, climate change, signing autographs, game of
thrones, breakfast, etc. I plan on calling it the Deep Whine program. I expect
it to be the first AI with a regular column in the Op-Ed section of a major
national news publication.

"Instead of calling it Work, realize it is Play" -Alan Watts

~~~
psyc
[https://twitter.com/thinkpiecebot](https://twitter.com/thinkpiecebot)

------
stickfigure
I have a large backyard lawn in Northern California. The water bill in summer
months crosses $200 (and that doesn't count the gardeners), but it's worth
every penny. The lawn is the centerpiece of the house. People play on it, camp
on it, picnic on it, and lounge on it all the time. As far as I'm concerned,
it's a gorgeous backyard with an afterthought of a house attached. Sometimes
my wife and I sleep in a tent overnight just for fun.

I find articles like this somewhat offensive. Different people are motivated
by different things; who is the author to make such far-reaching claims? I'm
sympathetic to people who want to replace their lawns, but I also respect
people who prefer to enjoy theirs. Why does this need to become a moral
crusade?

~~~
toomuchtodo
> I find articles like this somewhat offensive. Different people are motivated
> by different things; who is the author to make such far-reaching claims? I'm
> sympathetic to people who want to replace their lawns, but I also respect
> people who prefer to enjoy theirs. Why does this need to become a moral
> crusade?

For the same reason you would be offended if someone threw perfectly good food
out while people go hungry. It's conspicuous consumption. Because you can do
something does not mean others won't judge. If you don't care, don't care! But
don't be shocked when people rally against such waste of resources (in
California, of all places!), and pass laws to rectify the problem.

~~~
whyenot
Is it a waste if he or she enjoys it? With a few exceptions, California's
water problems are not due to residential use, but rather over-use by
agriculture, which uses almost all the water yet represents only 2% of
California's GDP. If having a big lawn will increase your quality of life,
have a big lawn.

~~~
toomuchtodo
The law regulates many a thing that people might enjoy, but for one reason or
another, we don't permit it.

~~~
whyenot
Your whole argument revolved around large lawns being a waste of resources
("in California, of all places!"), not that "excess" water use is unlawful

~~~
toomuchtodo
[http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/06/04/the-problem-of-
lawns...](http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/06/04/the-problem-of-lawns/)

"Today, American lawns occupy some 30-40 million acres of land. Lawnmowers to
maintain them account for some 5 percent of the nation’s air pollution –
probably more in urban areas. Each year more than 17 million gallons of fuel
are spilled during the refilling of lawn and garden equipment—more than the
oil that the Exxon Valdez spilled.

Homeowners spend billions of dollars and typically use 10 times the amount of
pesticide and fertilizers per acre on their lawns as farmers do on crops; the
majority of these chemicals are wasted due to inappropriate timing and
application. These chemicals then runoff and become a major source of water
pollution.Last but not least, 30 to 60 percent of urban fresh water is used on
lawns. Most of this water is also wasted due to poor timing and application."

------
ourmandave
This article speaks to me.

My neighbor is retired and his only purpose in life seems to be keeping a
fairway quality lawn which means he's cranking the social contract to 11.

I don't know how much he spends in weed killer and fertilizer. Maybe he
doesn't want to lay on his deathbed and regret, "If only I'd mowed more..."

~~~
refurb
Jesus Christ! Someone is getting enjoyment out of something you see no purpose
to? You need to get him to stop!! And right now!

What's next? Putting up bird feeders? Ugh!!

~~~
Fricken
My father had one of those miniature farms, he worked very hard to maintain it
(and conscripted me into assisting). Every week he would ritually harvest a
useless crop which went directly into the garbage. He was a very proud man,
and used the condition of his lawn to signal his moral superiority.

Often in the evenings around the dinner table he would single out malingerers
in the neighbourhood and proclaim them to be substandard human beings.

These proclamations weren't typically backed up by action until he was
appointed an administrator on the condominium board. Newly backed with
institutional authority, he took to logging lawn care infractions, and hand
delivering customized warning notices to scofflaws with great zeal.

~~~
refurb
So he was kind of doing the opposite of what the author of this blog post is
doing.

Guy who hates lawn looks down on guy who likes lawn, guy who likes lawn looks
down on guy who hates lawn. It's all circular!

------
justanother
After unfortunate experiences in Real Estate, I began a new life as the
Renting Scum in decent, fiber-optic-Internet-having neighborhoods. As you may
imagine, this Floridian enclave of happiness has an HOA which utterly lacks
enthusiasm for Renting Scum. Indeed, my webcams show them photographing my
front lawn several times weekly. If one of their dogs happens to pee on my
lawn and create a dead spot more than a couple inches across? My landlord
hears about it from them. My expensive lawn service comes a couple days late
after a heavy rain and the grass gets a bit long? Landlord. It barely rains at
all during a summer month and things get a bit sparse and brown? Landlord
(unless I illegally water on multiple days, which I do, just like the police
who live around me do).

TL;DR many of us maintain the Reaganian-perfect front lawn out of the first
scene of a David Lynch movie under duress, even if it's the dumbest, most
wasteful thing we ever heard of. Hey man, fiber's fiber.

------
inputcoffee
What about the theory that they're a good place for children to play outside?

~~~
analog31
Depending on the climate where you live (and the tolerance of your neighbors),
you can scale way back on maintenance, and still have a lawn that's good
enough for kids and pets. My family lives in central Wisconsin, and our
neighbors are OK with us having a crappy lawn. We don't fertilize or water it.
(Fertilizer increases the water demand, water increases the need for mowing).

It's full of weeds. Kids can run around on weeds. It only requires a handful
of mowings every year, then it goes dormant unless there are unusual amounts
of rain (like this year). By late July, the grass has stopped growing, and
it's only weeds, which I can control with a manual "weed whip." For better or
worse, the weeds are drought resistant.

So I doubt the contention that my lawn requires water, fertilizer, or even
weekly mowing. As the kids have gotten older, the need for an extensive
backyard has diminished, and I'm gradually turning more of it over to the
vegetable garden every year.

~~~
swiley
This whole thread I thought this is what people meant by "lawn" because I live
in a rural place where this is very normal. I thought everyone was really
whiny because it really doesn't take /that/ much work to maintain a yard like
this. I honestly don't understand why it's so uncommon.

~~~
xlxlxlx
Where I grew up in the US you'd literally get fined if your lawn wasn't neatly
trimmed grass. It's absurd.

Here's where you can report my parents if they slip up on their lawn game for
a few weeks:

[http://www.minneapolismn.gov/inspections/report/inspections_...](http://www.minneapolismn.gov/inspections/report/inspections_report-
long-grass-weeds)

------
nwatson
Lawn care is a religion in North Carolina. In the city, in the country. What's
amazing is that when driving in any rural area, you'll see frequently small
houses on five or ten acres of perfectly cultivated and mowed grass with no
agricultural purpose ... just for show.

~~~
blackguardx
No sheep? What bothers me is that a lawn was meant for food for sheep. Without
sheep or other ruminants, there is no purpose. Man was never meant to mow.

~~~
Retra
"Man was never meant" to do the vast majority of what they do.

------
new_hackers
I enjoy taking care of my lawn. It is a chance to "turn off" and just do
physical labor.

~~~
Johnnybe
While enjoying a beer.

------
Dowwie
I am inspired by the front yard landscaping of Western Portland, OR. Hardly
any property has grass lawn. Grass is replaced by lush ground cover, ferns,
wild grasses, flowering bushes, etc.

~~~
toomanybeersies
My parents place (in New Zealand) is similar, the only lawn they have is the
mandated patch between the road and the footpath, and a 5x5 m patch out front,
which is more ornamental than functional. Most of the back yard is decked.

It's great when you don't have any kids that need space to run around, and
it's very low maintenance, but I suspect that they're going to run into issues
when selling the place, there's not a whole lot of demand for a 4 bedroom
house with no lawn, and the place isn't really laid out such that you could
just replace the deck with a lawn.

~~~
elthran
>the only lawn they have is the mandated patch

There's a law that says they have to have a patch of grass?

~~~
toomanybeersies
It's a local council thing, you have to have grass between the footpath and
the road. Not allowed to just have flowers or vegetables. Sort of makes sense,
it's semi-public land.

In some cities, it's actually the council's job to mow them as well.

------
paulddraper
I hate dancing. I'm not good at it, and there are much more efficient ways to
exercise or socialize.

I think it's a soul-crushing timesuck, and you obviously should think so too.

</s>

Tone it down. Anecdotes about pastime preferences aren't news.

~~~
kaonashi
Dancing doesn't exacerbate droughts.

~~~
paulddraper
"Lawns make droughts worse" would be a more reasonable headline.

Although fewer clicks I suppose.

------
toodlebunions
They're also a tremendous waste of water and many are a significant source of
herbicide exposure and fertilizer runoff.

Most states need a heavy tax on excess water consumption, especially
California and the southwest.

------
SubiculumCode
[http://extension.psu.edu/natural-
resources/wildlife/landscap...](http://extension.psu.edu/natural-
resources/wildlife/landscaping-for-wildlife/pa-wildlife-10) Replace lawns with
plants and trees found in your local ecosystem. Gives them a home. In the
central valley.of California, that means oak trees, and drought tolerant
plants.

------
mc32
There can be beauty in simplicity --whether a green grass lawn or a sand/rock
garden --they're only soul crushing if you're doing them while you would
otherwise not.

That said, I prefer maintaining shrubs and other decorative plants in the tiny
garden I have --yes, it's a time suck _but_ that's the whole point of it. You
get to connect and care and semi meditate, or in the least take your mind away
from preoccupation (it's a kind of therapy through futility). So, really
whether you enjoy them or not depends on how you use them in your life.

------
zaroth
I wonder if there is like some kind of natural force that would help people
find the right-sized lawn to live on?

9 billion gallons per day sure sounds like a lot though!

~~~
refurb
I hate when article do that. Let me pick a unit of measure that makes the
number sound REALLY big. Did you know I weigh 75 THOUSAND grams? I'm huge!!!

I'm not sure where he got the 9 billion gallons per day from, but it's
suspect. Total public utility water use is 42 billion gallons per day. So
lawns take up 25% of all public water use?[1]

I could see that being true in some areas, but when I used to live in Michigan
it rained often enough that rarely ever watered. Maybe once or twice a summer?

[1][http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/wuto.html](http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/wuto.html)

------
sn41
It is sad that even in India, which is chronically short of water, people
maintain lawns in 45+ degree Celsius (113 F) temperatures in the summer.

~~~
Ar-Curunir
I have never seen a American-style lawn in India. Where are you seeing these
lawns? Most people just keep a garden with potted plants (commonly known as a
veranda).

~~~
sn41
Which part of India did you see? There are big-ass lawns in my hometown,
Thrissur, Kerala. Also, lawns covering homefronts where I currently reside in
North India. I am not going to be specific, but somewhere in UP.

~~~
Ar-Curunir
To be fair, I've lived mostly in cities, but I doubt the case is going to be
different in rural India. I have grandparents in Dehradun, grew up in Bombay,
have cousins in Delhi and relatives in Jharkhand, and no where have I seen
lawns in the American manner; only concrete verandas with potted plants.

~~~
sn41
Yeah.. you should go down to Kerala sometime. Or to central government
employee quarters.

------
WalterBright
I'd prefer to have a lawn with native meadow grasses in it, but the blackberry
bushes and other invasive plants ruin everything. The only way to keep those
at bay is to mow them down regularly.

(The blackberries kill everything.)

------
Fej
John Green made this amazing video a while back:
[https://youtu.be/-enGOMQgdvg](https://youtu.be/-enGOMQgdvg)

Note that this was before he became a famous author (not that that really
matters).

------
cmdrfred
I'm replacing my front yard with stone this fall. Mowing sucks.

~~~
pvaldes
There are other low-mowing solutions available...

~~~
cmdrfred
I'm not looking for low I'm looking for no.

~~~
nasalgoat
I converted my front lawn to all native perennial plants and flowers, with
aggressive ground cover plants around them. It looks great and is essentially
zero maintenance - I only water it once or twice depending on the weather.

I highly recommend it.

~~~
cmdrfred
I have a small fenced in part of my backyard (sort of English garden style)
that I'm going to do that with. Recommend any plants?

~~~
nasalgoat
It's all about LOCAL native plants - what grows in your area naturally, so it
thrives in your environment without effort on your part.

