Lawns Decimate The Landscape
First of all, how did we even get here?
“Here” meaning where “bugs” are fear-mongered and demonized, to the point where we harm and kill even the ones who directly benefit our sustainability, without even a wince.
“Here” meaning where simple, tidy, lifeless lawns are glorified, and highly biodiverse landscapes are scoffed at. Why have people become so snoody about wild life? How did it become bad to allow life to grow around us?
What we are dealing with here is basically an ignorant acceptance of our disconnection from life force energy and this great earth that connects us all.
One of my goals is to regenerate the suburbs. That is where I come from, and where I currently still reside. Yes, we have many trees and shrubs and pockets of woods still. But I have long been disturbed by the fact that most neighborhoods aspire to uniformly manicured aesthetics.
It makes no real sense!
Who decided that straight lines across empty green blankets that demand constant grooming, plucking, and spraying is what's desirable?
We've been swept off our feet by a manipulative and poisonous system that feeds tribalism and instant gratification. We've been conditioned to desire “order” when life itself produces chaos. If this was just about aesthetics, I would have less of a case. However, even the belief that sterility is aesthetically pleasing has been programmed into our culture. Through our modern management of lands, we have degraded so much of the biodiversity that supports the demands of our current lifestyles.
Grass lawns began hundreds of years ago by wealthy aristocrats who wanted to gloat about having enough resources that they didn't need to grow their own food, compared to the peasants who still had to live off the land, and therefore needed a robust variety of vegetation. This is an ancient example of the elites taking advantage of their fortune, and misusing the resources under their control as an expression of their status and gluttonous desires.
So how did following in the footsteps of oppressive authorities, by desiring to waste resources and destroy life, become the standard? Why do humans have a pattern of envying the evil, controlling, powers that be?
Also, consider the amount of time so many homeowners spend doing laps in their yard with their mowers... Time they will never get back! Time they could be spending doing so many other things! Like enhancing their relationships with their family, friends, or community; getting educated on means of healing, or interests they'd rather pursue; catching up on rest; exploring the nearby parks and wilderness; gardening and therefore supporting more life around their home, rather than maintaining a monocrop that actually harms ecosystem cycles.
Mowed grasses don't have deep root structures, because they expend all their energy regrowing over and over. Well-managed pastures produce deep root systems because there are mechanisms in the plant that become activated by the literal act of being chewed off by ruminants animals which cause the roots to extend deeper into the soil in order to support the regrowth of the leaves, as well as biologic fertilizer from the animals' manure, and the compression of the soil from their hooves.
Nature has magnificent, intelligent systems that we've bastardized, and I'm still seeking to find a sufficient answer to why/how we've allowed this disconnection from Mother Earth to dominate many of our cultures!
Anyway, cutting lawns removes these innate systems, therefore leading to what the mainstream has labeled “climate” problems, such as drought, flooding, wildfires, erosion, etc. In reality, through our deforestation practices in the name of development, we have stripped the earth of the infrastructure that literally holds our resources together! When there are intricate root systems in place, rainwater gets infiltrated into the soil, and then has many jobs to do, including nourishing the vegetation, as well as being stored for later use. These are behaviors the water cycle supports in order to reduce the potential for droughts (water is held for longer periods to keep resources flourishing), flooding and erosion (water can infiltrate the soil rather than rush off to the closest body of water, taking other resources along with it!), and wildfires (vegetation is less flammable because it is moisturized).
Another facet of the damages we've created from lawns is the killing of life and the pollution of all of our resources from the use of pesticides. Many people adamantly hold the belief that their lawn needs to only consist of grass, and any other species of vegetation is atrocious, so it must be exterminated. How did we get tricked into believing that only one species of life on the ground is acceptable?! This directly contradicts a desire for living in harmony with the rest of the world. This mentality exacerbates dominance and superiority, and in doing so, supports death and destruction and demonization of life. We cannot ever have peace if we, humans, think that we are unquestionably more worthy than others.
Poisoning the 'icky' bugs also harms the good bugs, which just leads to more pests because life is resilient.. but that doesn't mean immortal or infallible. Life is made up of an intertwined web of energy. We are part of a food system, because all living things must get their energy by eating other things in order to continue living. It is intertwined, but when you think about 'moving up the food chain,' you begin to realize that when you are poisoning the little things, those little things get consumed by bigger things. The bigger things then contain those poisons, and the even bigger things that consume the first bigger things are now contaminated as well.
You cannot poison one form of life and dismiss the ripple effect that creates, yet we've been doing it for decades! This has led to resiliency in the pests we've been trying to mitigate, as well as a plethora of systemic dysfunctions. Now we are seeing rapid declines in human health, despite our growth of knowledge and understanding, technology, sanitation, and every other advancement.
We've been programmed away from our necessary connection to nature based on the corporate dominance we've allowed, which provides an abundance of [mega] stores to purchase goods/needs through, rather than interpersonal relationships with those we inevitably trade resources with. Our infinitesimal outsourcing has caused us to distance ourselves from the essence of life, and in doing so, we've been coerced to fear certain aspects of nature so that we think the answer or solution comes in the form of a product.
We need to remember the importance of nature, instead of continuing to pretend that we are superior to it, or better off without it. We've been conned out of the greatest abundance and joy, and from where I can see, we're starving to get it back.
If you really want to fight “the system,” start right where you're at. Clean up your own health (your body and the environment you inhabit), and support your local community (avoid corporate stores and visit local markets). You don't have to do it all at once, but every little inch of effort counts!!
And if you're lucky enough to live on a plot of land, start to add biodiversity to your landscape! You can simply throw seeds in the ground, and watch the entire process from sprout to maturity. If you're less patient, there are countless stores that sell a ranges of sizes of plants you can add to your garden...therefore removing chunks of matter that is limiting to the potential health of your ecosystem.
Certainly do your homework first... It's best to have a basic idea about what can grow in your zone, to avoid disappointment, if nothing else. And native plant species are optimal, as they have been anciently designed to support the other living things native to where you are located. But the earth is ever-evolving, so allowing “exotic” or “foreign” plants a chance to thrive, if you're willing to appreciate and care for them, is an opportunity for humans to add more management skills to our infinitely increasing library.
Life is miraculous, so let us focus on remembering and honoring this fact.