
The Metaphysics of Cutting Grass - robg
http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article08051002.aspx
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adulau
Some years ago, I was mowing completely the lawn with a petrol-based lawnmower
but I found the following negative points to do so:

\- Lawnmowers (petrol or even electronic) are very noisy (by so reducing your
"metaphysics"/brain activities while mowing) \- Cutting the grass too
regularly is not helping the biodiversity and killing the wildlife (a very
short grass is not attractive especially you are missing the wild flowers) \-
The petrol-based lawnmower needs to be properly operated and take sometime of
setup/maintenance

Usually, why are we completely cutting the grass? Because it's a social
activity and a social perception that is nice to have very short grass in a
garden.

So I gave up and only cut some paths in my garden using a simple cylinder
mower (not noisy, clean and slow enough to not kill all the wild life). The
rest is kept as high grass. What a difference... you can see the wild life,
the flowers and the wind nicely moving the flowers and the grass. The large
section are cut manually once a year (usually end of August) with a scythe.

What I learn and benefit for doing so? I'm now able to enjoy a mixed grass
with small paths, wild flowers and next to my kitchen garden bringing
biodiversity and helping my vegetables to grow with auxiliaries animals.

The best part is the social interaction I got by doing so. Usually a lot of
visitors, at a first look, ask me why my grass is not cut and I have large
islands with high grass and just small paths. But after a walk in the garden?
They like it and are wondering why they are completely cutting their grass.

For the metaphysics of cutting grass, it's even better. You can enjoy even
more your garden and meditate in front of the wild life activities or the wind
blowing the flowers.

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onan_barbarian
Ah, "Hacker" news.

Three days ago, Zed Shaw told us how to take a poo. Yesterday, walking. Today,
mowing the lawn. Where will it go next?

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sliverstorm
I would enjoy mowing the lawn more if I didn't hate emptying the bag of
cuttings. I always wind up trying to mow that last little bit when the bag is
full so I don't have to empty it twice, but then the bag gets really heavy,
and it becomes markedly unenjoyable.

Alas, I may not find his Zen in lawns :(

~~~
ams6110
So don't bag the cuttings. Just discharge them onto the lawn, they vanish in a
couple of days, and return nutrients to the soil.

Edit: or use a mulching mower, then you don't even really see the cuttings,
though they struggle if you let the grass get very tall between cuttings.

~~~
sliverstorm
I like the idea, but in my experience that simply results in a lot of brown
dead grass on top of your lawn. If there's enough of it, it even kills the
live grass.

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malkia
Grass is not even healthy for you, the other stuff that grows is. And let's
not talk about all the chemicals that you need to put to support that grass.

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mhb
Mowing with goats:

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-
goats.htm...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.html)

