@futurebird Having done my field work in the Scottish highlands, the only places that look like this are the sheep fanks. Even the common grazings have higher and more diverse grasses than this.
England has some places where these "rolling greens" are moderately endemic, but even those are largely on former commons that have been enclosed.
If I wanted to flaunt wealth I would have the most kinds of ants and bees of anyone in the neighborhood. Like 180 different kinds of ants and 70 kinds of different bees and wasps!
@futurebird@MichaelTBacon Ha! In the US, wealth should be measured by how many oak trees you have but only if they are surrounded by foam flower or some other appropriate pupation medium.
Gonna write a short story about a wonderful utopian future where the biggest conflict in the neighborhood is one neighbor getting mad with jealously over how the other has more kinds of ants and bees. Their desperate striving to attract every possible native species... the rest of the neighbors wonder if it's going too far.
"The Bee Wars"
Just... a little window into what we could be doing if we'd get it right.
There could be a subplot about one of the gardeners getting caught using a vinegar trap to try to reduce the phorid flies-- which upsets the one guy in the neighborhood who likes flies best and who has all these kinds of flies around his garden.
@futurebird@twizzt@grumpasaurus@MichaelTBacon but what about the secret insectivorous plants that one neighbour keeps putting out? Then claiming they are just trying to increase the plant biodiversity & doesn’t the Sundew moth deserve a home?
@MichaelTBacon@grumpasaurus@twizzt@futurebird Meanwhile, on NextDoor, my neighbors are looking at a photo of antlion pits, declaring them to be “ground bees”, and sallying forth with many toxins to annihilate… everything.
@futurebird@grumpasaurus@twizzt@MichaelTBacon
My husband got inspired by a picture I took last summer of a bombas melanopygus bumble bee on an agastache he had planted. So of course, he planted about 500 square feet of agastache, achillea, and asclepias in this section of the parkway strip between the sidewalk and the curb. The planting has a gentle hum from all the winged visitors. #GoodTrouble#PollinatorGardens
@futurebird@twizzt@MichaelTBacon If I wanted to flaunt wealth I’d have actual sheep because shepherds don’t make much money these days and sheep are fence-escaping illness factories so the vet bills alone would be impressive.
Plus there are rare ones. Also there are tiny ones. Tiny black metal demon sheep (Ouessants). Like someone answered the question “what if those heavy metal album, but played on a tinkly music box, lullaby CDs, but an animal?”
@futurebird Most years I spend a fortune on grass seed and water trying to keep a patch of grass in our backyard (two big dogs) from turning into a dustbowl (which then turns into a spring mudbowl). This March I threw down some leftover seed and then just let it go nuts.
@futurebird I think I saw on Mastodon somewhere that originally big expanses of tended grass were the province of the rich, as a way to say, “See, I’m so wealthy I don’t need to waste this space on farming.” Ironic how it betrays a different kind of poverty…
@futurebird When my wife and I somehow wrangle the money for a down payment, assuming we can escape an awful HOA, we want to make our yard full of California wildflowers and native grasses. So much prettier and I love seeing the little bees going about their business on sunny days - so cute!
@futurebird I don't get the pristine lawn thing.
Our yard has a random mix of ground cover. Always a fun surprise when you see little purple flowers pop up or tiny strawberries peeking out. Party lawn!
@inherentlee If you need any advice, feel free to let me know. I can help you out with finding good lawn-killing resources relavant to your locale, and I can help you find good native ground cover or figure out what your native vegetation would have roughly looked like before it was tilled, backfilled, and laid with sod. I love this kinda stuff, so if you do need some help, let me know. Otherwise, keep on killin' lawns!
@delve I think we're pretty well set, this is a lot of what we're already looking into, but I appreciate the poke!! If you're in the PNW by any chance and have favorite ground covers lmk!
@inherentlee@snarkmaiden isnt that a japanese invasive plant that no sheep eats? If not it looks quite similar. If yes, it should be killed, cause its not providing food for native insects/animals and kills all neighbour plants over time. Unfortunatly i dont remember the name, even less the english term.
@Callistobeast@snarkmaiden I'm not sure, also don't have sheep anyway. To my knowledge it's morning glory or related but I'm open to learning more - pretty new to a lot of plant things
@inherentlee@snarkmaiden if its the one I mean its my personal enemy. To get rid of it, one needs to pull it out w roots pretty often and then pray. I got rid of it by pulling weekly. Now I gave the garden to someone else... it was free for a year. Now its back, smothering all once more.
@futurebird@bgannin In this series on Danish TV, the much-respected host (from years of other programmes) is trying to convince municipalities, owners of company domiciles and private homes to convert their vast areas of lawn (green asphalt, as he’s dubbed it) to more wild, natural vegetation in order to bring back bio diversity. And it’s almost impossible for him! Some try, but go back to the lawn because of peoples’ complaints about how “untidy” it looks! https://www.dr.dk/drtv/saeson/giv-os-naturen-tilbage_208261
@futurebird We managed to convince our landlord to let our yard go until may before it had to be cut. Until it was mown, it was bursting with wildflowers. Every day, it would be covered in native flies, bees, and butterflies, in addition to some non-natives. Some Canada geese and their goslings from a nearby pond started coming over to graze on all the herbs that were popping up. It was so lovely. It made our little home feel a little less lonely. The swallowtails, the bumblebees, the calligraphers, they all stopped by in the midday, and the geese came over in the morning. It was beautiful.
Then the landlord mowed it. Needless to say, we aren't getting as many visits now that all the flowers are gone.
@futurebird Never got the lawn thing… always thought it was some vague Versailles fantasy to go with the “house as castle” dream most suburban people have.
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