It is my favorite time of the week….the weekend when I get to spend some quality time with my family…..I try to find something to write about that may not be common knowledge…..since readership is usually down on the weekends….I try to entertain….
I remember in my youth the big plan for city dwellers was to move to suburbia so their kids will have a yard to play in and not the street….but once we moved we were told that the lawn was a status symbol and if we must play then do it in the street…….growing up I earned summer cash by cutting lawns….with a push mower that I had to keep blades sharp so it would cut the grass and not bruise it…..
And this is where I pick up the post….lawns…..
“It’s kind of like the American dream has changed,” a real estate broker tells the Boston Globe, which reports that US lawns are in danger of disappearing. According to the Atlantic, the average home size has increased about 50% since the 1970s to 2,500 square feet. Meanwhile, the average yard size has shrunk by more than a quarter. The fact that the average lot size has shrunk 400 square feet in the past five years alone isn’t helping. “They want more house,” a developer tells the Globe. “They’re looking for more square footage. They don’t care as much about the yard.” There are any number of reasons for the shift: developers maximizing profit, dwindling undeveloped land, a move back toward city centers, people spending less time outside, environmental concerns, etc.
The Atlantic calls the endangerment of the American lawn a “sinister” development. “What does the United States stand for, if not the right to a fertile, springy carpet of turf thicker than the Bradys’ wall-to-wall shag?” it wonders. And the Atlantic isn’t alone in its concern. While people are happily sacrificing their own lawns for more square-footage, their neighbors feel like those disappearing lawns are partly theirs. “We used to look out on the grass,” a woman tells the Globe after an old home nearby was replaced with a larger one. “Now we look at a wall.” “If you let it get eaten away by little pieces, then we’re not living in our beautiful Winchester anymore,” says another woman unhappy with a nearby expanding home.
Geez, what will all those “lawn care specialist” do? Me? I could care less these days…if it dies so much the better…..there is always green paint.
Sorry, but this is a luxury problem.
A problem of availability of space inn land and home and yes, money.
Just a green lawn is rather dull, don’t you agree?
Of course…I think wasting time and money o grass is the height of stupid…
Suburbia can die altogether as far as I’m concerned. It was a bad idea that was executed miserably and has cost us all in so many ways.
Disappearing lawns are a “luxury problem” on 2 fronts:
1) The amount of water & chemicals people dump on their lawns to keep them “perfect” and the amount of pollution generated to cut them is ridiculous. A little upkeep is fine. But at some point, it becomes pure social competition, especially if you’re hiring a pro to do all the work for you.
2) As George Carlin’s classic bit declared, a house is now “just a place to store your stuff while you go out and try to get…more stuff!”
People are compiling mountains of shit they don’t need, can’t afford and may never even use… just to fill their empty lives & “keep up with the Jones”. So, it’s perfectly natural that the most natural thing they’ll come across, their lawns, will make way for…more stuff! Nature gets cleared away for our materialistic greed so often that even those who are concerned by it don’t even notice it.
Besides, nobody leaves their house anymore. And when they do, the only thing they notice is what’s on the screen of their goddamn cell phone.
I rip up brass to make room for gardens….I like eating….
You rip up brass? Do you tear up phone books with your bare hands too?
But yeah, a veggie garden is a much more productive use of space. And if you’re clever about it, you can even plant veggies, or berry bushes, in the front garden without the neighbours noticing and bitching about it.
My front yard is routinely covered in passed out drunks, so that’s a no-go.
OOPs my bad…read GRASS
Don’t know how I feel about this one. When I grew up we had acres of grounds to play in and on. However, when I became a home owner (other than gardens) I could have easily paved the entire property. So, I guess it’s perspective based.
Green is a nice color but grass is a pain in the butt.
Yes, the actual words I struggled to formulate. Thanks!
Any time….LOL