Edit: ugh, the creator made this with AI

  • VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz
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    1 month ago

    Dad: Jimmy the HOA evicted the last family that started growing vegetables in their front garden.

    Jimmy: Let’s mess up those fascists.

    And they did…

    • Destide@feddit.uk
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      30 days ago

      I find it mad that hoa were allowed to be established. Sorry how much money did you pay for this land oh it’s it 0 weird it’s exactly the amount of fucks in my pocket.

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netM
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        30 days ago

        It’s unfortunate because I actually think there is a need for a lower layer of governance below the municipality but the HOA is a terrible structure for that purpose for many reasons.

        • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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          30 days ago

          a need for a lower layer of governance below the municipality

          Yeah it’s called common decency in society. Yous probably call it goddamn communism or something

          Nobody else needs HOAs

          • Armok: God of Blood@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            29 days ago

            There was a thing a few months ago where some artist connected NYC and Dublin with a live video feed. It had to be shut down because a woman showed her breasts on the feed. This was legal in NYC, but not in Dublin. “Decency” in one culture can be oppression in another. We need some form of adjudication beyond village wisdom.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Lawns were grown to demonstrate social status by having land that was not needed for food production to fulfil one’s immediate needs.

    • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
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      1 month ago

      In the same time period, eating meat at every meal was a demonstration of social status - only the wealthy and powerful had enough livestock to slaughter and eat them routinely.

      Like lawns, and meat, and college education, and a dozen other forms of conspicuous consumption - privileges of the wealthy during the Victorian era and earlier, when industrialized society made those privileges cheaper, the middle class seized on them to emulate the upper class, and after a hundred fifty years those privileges became expectations.

      And conspicuous consumption as a status symbol, when universalized to the majority of society, led inevitably to unsustainable consumption and the world as it is now.

      • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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        1 month ago

        So like… I’m agreeing with the things you’re saying, but the way it’s phrased makes it seem like you’re saying “It’s actually the poor people who are the problem”

        Just struck me as kind of funny lol

        • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
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          1 month ago

          In a way it is. Colonial empires maintain the support of the proletariat in the imperial cores by funneling wealth from colonized nations back to those people. If you’re better off than your parents were, and your parents are better off than your grandparents were, why do you care that your ruling oligarchy is genociding its way across the planet and shoveling stolen profits into its insatiable maw?

          English commoners forgave their empire’s industrial scale genocide of African slaves on Haitian plantations because that genocide provided white sugar for their tea.

          American commoners forgive the wholesale torture and murder of Latin American peasants because we can buy cheap bananas at the supermarket.

          The top 20% of Americans control 80% of America’s wealth. But they don’t consume 80% of the resources America consumes. They don’t burn 80% of the gas, they don’t eat 80% of the food, they don’t produce 80% of the pollution. What’s killing the world is the bread and circuses - or rather the cars, cell phones, and factory farms - that give all but the very poorest Americans an artificially inflated standard of living at the cost of the world as a whole.

          But telling poor Americans “your standard of living is too high” when the entire capitalist machine tells them they have the right to all the consumption they can buy and the best standard of living they can earn, it’s a hard sell, you know?

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      1 month ago

      What else can you put there to keep weeds away and also have an open space to enjoy? Concrete and paving is not an acceptable answer

      • JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net
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        1 month ago

        It depends on what you need to enjoy the space.

        If you’re looking for a grass alternative and aren’t running around on it all the time, roman chamomile can be a good, low-growing, pet-safe plant. We used this on my neighbor’s postage stamp front lawn so he wouldn’t have to mow but it would still look nice and intentional. There are also a handful of other low-growing plants which require much less maintenance and are more drought-tolerant than grass, but they tend to be best for low-traffic areas, so if you’re out there playing catch or capture the flag with your kids most days they’re probably not as good as grass.

        If you’re in a shady area, moss might be an option. It also prefers low traffic.

        And the option abhored by HOAs and your fussiest neighbors: just don’t bother maintaining a perfect lawn. A lot of the work and environmental damage comes from keeping a perfect monocrop of a specific grass cultivar. Fertilizer to keep the soil good enough (which gets washed into local waterways and causes algae blooms) pesticides (which kill bees and a slew of other insects) and herbicides to kill any plants that try to compete with the grass (which remain in the soil as well). Traps for rodents that try to exist in the yard. Not to mention the energy and person-hours spent on trimming it frequently. Just accepting that grass isn’t really meant to form a thick lawn in most areas, and will look a bit patchy, multi-hued, and feature some other plants, will greatly reduce the effort and damage caused.

        Or if you can’t stand the thought of doing that (or will get in trouble) consider downsizing it a little - section off the least-used sections of your lawn, plant some cool native trees or shrubs, throw down some mulch so it looks intentional.

        And the last option (where applicable): no grass.

        When I was a kid our house was in the woods, with no clearing to speak of, so we mostly just played on the forest floor, which was mostly leaves and pine needles. If you pick up the sticks and keep it somewhat open, it can look really beautiful.

  • S_204@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    It’s funny, my yard is essentially the community play ground. When I don’t maintain it, the clover gets destroyed and it turns into a mud pit the kids can’t play on really. Natural grasses didn’t stand a chance even after being given the time to establish.

    I consulted with a landscape architect who I was partnered with on an elementary school I was building looking for what I could do naturally to keep the yard in tact while the kids played… this was a nationwide firm, on a LEED Gold project. Their answer? Grass. Rye grass, KBG and red fescue was the recommendation.

    I nuked the lawn, soil and seeded it and two years later it’s held up wonderfully and is enjoyed by a handful of families.

    I planted Milk weed for the pollinators. They don’t want most of the crap people plant trying to be Eco friendly anyways or so the landscape architect told me.

    This anti lawn tirade is kinda anti-kid to a degree. When my kids are older and not using it every day, I’ll tear it all out and hardscape it. I don’t wanna maintain things for no purpose.

    • thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz
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      1 month ago

      This anti lawn tirade is kinda anti-kid to a degree.

      I see where you’re coming from, but I’d argue that more public parks with playgrounds and fields to play on is better than lawns. In some places that’s not prioritised, possibly where you are, and so it sounds great what you have going on!

      But if there are enough public parks for kids to play at, then lawns just end up being wasted space that could instead be a garden or have native plants that help the native wildlife, or something like that.

      I don’t know anyone that actually uses their lawn for anything… Some people might host BBQs or stuff like that, in which case I don’t mind. In my view, if it gets used, great! But most of the time they don’t and they just suck up water resources and petrol on mowing with no real benefit

      • nfh@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The best lawn is one that serves a purpose for a reasonably sized group of people. Feeling or being compelled to maintain something you don’t want, that’s of no value to you, or nature, is the worst part of lawn culture to me. Nobody should be expected to have a lawn they don’t want, if you have a better use for the space, do that instead if you want.

        Sounds like their lawn is at least good for their community. Maybe it’s suboptimal urban planning, but that’s far less bad than wanton waste of resources in my book.

      • S_204@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        I’ve got a play structure on mine. There’s usually a half dozen kids on it daily.

        • Drusas@kbin.run
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          29 days ago

          Hope you have great homeowner’s insurance in case any of them gets injured.

    • quercus@slrpnk.netM
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      1 month ago

      They don’t want most of the crap people plant trying to be Eco friendly anyways or so the landscape architect told me.

      Keystone Plants by Ecoregion

      The research of entomologist, Dr. Doug Tallamy, and his team at the University of Delaware have identified 14% of native plants (the keystones) support 90% of butterfly and moth lepidoptera species. The research of horticulturist Jarrod Fowler has shown that 15% to 60% of North American native bee species are pollen specialists who only eat pollen from 40% of native plants.

    • Imo what you’re saying is reasonable not just for kids but for everyone - we need spaces for outdoor recreation and sport. And that includes some amount of native grasses. That being said, if you go through a suburb, most lawns are not used for that purpose and certainly, almost every boulevard is wasted. Many neighbourhoods either lack public parks, or the parks are not safely accessible by bicycle.

      That’s where the whole nolawn discussion comes in: to stop making lawns the default. They have a place, but we’re overdoing it to the point of pushing out native species and pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

    • Drusas@kbin.run
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      29 days ago

      It’s not anti-kid. Tons of people live in cities with no yards whatsoever and they still manage to raise children and to let those children play. Shared parks offer better play opportunities than private lawns do in an urban environment.

  • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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    30 days ago

    Random fact - there is no sales tax (vat) on grass seed in the UK because you can, in a roundabout way, eat it. At least, your cow or your sheep can.

    Food isn’t taxed .

    You know those little flowers that look like tiny pansies, the violets? Tasty as fuck, so also tax-free

    • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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      29 days ago

      Unless the law has changed very recently cakes are not taxed but biscuits are, in the UK. Jaffa Cakes baked a giant Jaffa cake when they went to court to prove they aren’t biscuits.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        30 days ago

        You aren’t eating that (for the most part)

        Edit I’m very pro alternative lawns, but the flat, consistent texture as seen on a sports field is specifically what I’m noting