Omg 😂 the intro 😂 . We never mowed our lawn last year . We are very rural . When a neighbor politely reminded us that no mow may was over I equally gently told him that we would never be mowing our lawn again . He looked as if he'd just experienced a cardiac event . 😂 In one year we've had rabbits , pheasant and fox move in . Also the biggest , strangest skunk I've ever seen ( all white except it's feet ) . We are thrilled . We will share video with all of the neighbors . ❤
"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.” -Adams
I love your intention to make people aware that our way of controlling nature is our downfall. Whether in Agriculture or Urban gardens we try to control what grows how it grows and how we can improve yields or control "Weeds" (no such thing btw this are pioneer plants with a purpose) The main thing we need to build is soil. We have devastated soil to the point that it is dead dirt. To build the soil we need root systems and bio mass. Hence we need to bring bio diversity into our environment. Grass is not the best plant to achieve that. I am a big fan of food forests that mimic forest ecosystems with vertical layers of beneficial plants - trees,shrubs and ground cover. Once we establish a system like that, abundance of food is astonishing with very little inputs - something any capitalist would understands. Let's change the world one garden at a time.
I couldn’t agree more! Our garden is a wild garden, thanks to my girlfriend encouraging me to think this way. I do engage in some ‘management’ as there are some plant species which are so successful and vigorous that, if left completely to themselves, will take over (I will leave some brambles, thistles and goose grass but not everywhere). I got excited when we finally managed to get some nettles growing! It’s a small, suburban garden but we have trees (including a young Oak now about 4m tall), sunny and shady areas as well as damp areas, all planted with native wildflowers. The goal is to have food (especially nectar), consistently for as much of the year as possible. I did embark on removing Ivy which was choking other plants-I thought it was an ornamental variety which wouldn’t flower. Research told me that it needed to mature to at least ten years old before it would flower and the change could be detected in the leaf shape changing (three lobed to more spade like); I believe I saw this on some leaves so left the strongest part to continue growing on a Cherry tree in the hope it will flower soon, extending the ‘food’ season. An old Belfast sink has been turned into a small pond. In terms of my ‘management’ I was told to imitate herbivores….bear with me. It means not doing everything, all over in one go. I manage a bit at a time, to mimic herbivores moving through a large area. I pull some things by hand (think of a cow’s tongue), some things I tackle with a hoe or, more often, a short handled Japanese style hoe (it turns over soil, think of a pig/boar rootling in the ground) and some I cut with shears (especially grass which I leave to grow to its full height-think of deer or rabbits nibbling with their teeth). I’m really happy to see the amount of insect and bird life we encourage and support. I just wish I could convince more of my neighbours to do something similar so there is an even larger reservoir of resources for wildlife. Imagine what could be done with this approach to gardens on a grand scale!
A better mindset would be to think locally, in terms of native plants, introduced non invasive plants and invasive plants, and not just in terms of benefit. And yeah, a mindset of working with populations, communities, and ecosystems so they can thrive and we can thrive.
@@petersmedley459 A better mindset would be to think locally, in terms of native plants, introduced non invasive plants and invasive plants, and not just in terms of benefit. And yeah, a mindset of working with populations, communities, and ecosystems so they can thrive and we can thrive.
@@whatabouttheearth That’s what we try to do in our garden, including how we ‘manage’ the more ‘vigorous’ plants. I don’t mow at all. I’ve used my scythe occasionally. Mostly I use shears, pull by hand, secateurs or a trowel. The way I think about it was something I heard a guide talking about at Knepp-imitate herbivores. Cows, native English Longhorn, pull with their tongues, deer nibble (shears) and boars plough with their snout (trowel). Each helps some species in their own way by making space and letting light in. I do a bit in one area, never taking it all down in that space and I move around from place to place so that there is always something growing and, hopefully, flowering to provide food, shelter, habitat. Mostly we let nature do her thing and just try to help a little where we can. The tricky part is changing the mindset of the majority of people who see the outdoors as something to be tamed, tidied up and kept down. Sometimes I feel like I’m shouting into the void.
Your intro nearly made me spit out my salad. Well done, my friend :) I loved this video. It was the exact message that people need to hear. Even little changes can be impactful. I live in suburbia. It's not a really snooty subdivision or anything, but there are several hundred houses crammed in on 1/4-1/3 acre plots. I have begun to leave large patches of my backyard tall enough to go to seed before mowing it just a little bit so that we can actually walk around a bit. My front yard has two large patches of indigenous plants that I allow to grow wild. What parts I do mow, I hit only with the highest blade setting as to allow the grass to grow back quickly does not destroy the flowering parts of the clover. My entire side yard is actually covered in a patch of clover that I leave untouched. I view this as my rest area for the bees. They can come and go and always find some flowers with some nectar.
Good video. We have a few parks in my city that focus on letting native fauna grow naturally. Their reasoning is specifically for bees, which in itself is a worthy cause, but it does have a much wider impact.
As the steward of a 300+species urban food forest for more than a decade I must say I’ve come to terms with my grief and am now living alongside Nature as much as possible. My country has been destroyed by floods in the past month but no survival instinct beats the greediness and narcississm of the human heart. We, ecologists, are seen as particular fellas, never sharing any true power. Originary peoples who should be awarded for their steward role, are treated as hindrances to the holy economical growth and killed whenever possible. Some things we all take for granted today will soon be distant cherished memories. Don’t waste any oportunity of visiting the great old mother, do it as often as you can.
I am a vegetation ecologist. I have focused on natural ecosystems in wildlands of the western US. Here, we have issues with invasive grasses that have profoundly influenced the ecology of grasslands, shrublands, and deserts. In California, during the colonial eras, the native bunchgrass (Stipa pulchra) associations were permanently altered to a "grazing sub-climax" of less productive and less soil stabilizing annuals by unregulated grazing. In the northern Great Basin, annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), accidentally introduced from Eurasia during the 1800s, has taken over vast areas of overgrazed sagebrush steppe, increasing fire frequency. Further south, in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, invasive Eurasian red brome (Bromus rubens) has become established on desert pavement under the native desert shrubs and cacti. These areas have never burned before, so those native desert plants are not "fire adapted". Therefore, impacts are severe and rehabilitation is uncertain or impossible. You said we may expect that civilization will continue to grow. It may indeed for a very brief spell (in a last gasp of greed and exploitation), but despite a predicted demographic shift, the cognoscenti know that civilization will collapse before that shift, or any meaningful paradigm shift. The entire 20th Century was a great mistake With hindsight, we see that we stand on the brink of a great global Malthusian catastrophe. Forever chemicals, microplastics, pollution, nuclear waste, and global warming have rendered human extinction inevitable, and it will come soon. It is too late for remedial action. But not to worry. Animists will have the last laugh. Unfortunately it will be with our last breaths.
Thank you Arith, a subject close to my heart. Fortunely here in Polokwane, Limpopo RSA where I live, hundreds of indigenous plants, grasses and trees are being planted and have been planted. My garden, however small, have only indigenous plants.
In my area at least-Pacific NW USA, you do have to do some management because of agressive invasive weeds. Many places are planting native plants, because among other things they are lower maintainance and don't need to be watered in the summer. Our local high school comes to mind. They planted Oregon grape, sword ferns and Salal in their flower beds. But if a piece of land is left to it's own devices it tends to grow Himalayan Blackberries. It is very aggressive, thorny and fast growing and can completely cover houses. It is an escapee from cultivation and was bred in the 1930's as a garden plant. It many times will overtake the native plants and shade them out. We have plenty of weeds that came over from Europe as well, although mainly in disturbed areas. Actual forest lands tend to be pretty much mostly native plants. Our local wetlands have been overrun with non-native Canary grass. I'm not even sure at this point if the non-native plants can ever be eradicated.
In Portugal since the government ordered to clean the fields and forest things have become dramatic. When there was wild flowers growing by the roads and in small places by the fields, after cutting its just dry straw. And in the pine forests they forgot about the animals that make their nests and homes in the floor hidden by bushes. Its all so stupid and ordered by people who know the city but don´t know anything about the wild.
I let my land grow as it wishes except I mow a narrow path for a trail so I can access the land. The neighbors used to laugh at me, but I planted more tress and food plants for the animals and myself, and it looks awesome. No one laughs anymore. Rare birds species have moved in, and I have raven and hawk stopping by. Let it grow.
Thank you, Arthur, I live in the southern prairies of Canada, on a double lot and I have recently converted my garden to no til and on a south facing corner slope of the yard I leave the grass to grow as a natural wind buffer and snow catcher.Plans for 2024 include sufficient water catchment.
Nice, Arith! Totally agree ... the way I see it, it's exotic alien invader species which are causing the most mayhem in the environment nowadays, and these include not only plants but also fish and animal species of all kinds. Where I live, in South Africa, most rivers are choked up with alien invaders such as Arundo reed, Kikuyu grass (a species used extensively in domestic gardens and public parks as an ornamental grass), river poplars, black wattles, and in the water itself, such as the highly invasive water hyacinth. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much positive governmental intervention, and most rivers, streams and dams are located on government owned land. Many are also found on privately owned land, however many owners don't do anything about the situation either - probably as everything costs money, and the cost of clearing and treating a large stand of black wattles or reeds with poison is prohibitive - let alone replacing the aliens with native plants. Seen in perspective, though, if nothing is done about this environmental genocide the real economic impact of it on the world will become increasingly obvious. "Nature will treat us the same way we treat nature" I have the idea that any great task is accomplished by a series of small actions, and it starts with our own immediate environment. When setting out or revamping a garden, we can choose mainly native plants and perhaps some hardy, naturalized exotics which offer benefits for the native wildlife, while actively eradicating problem plant species. If you like fishing, like me, you can remove all alien invaders and release the native fishes. When we go shopping, it's easy to choose environmentally conscious products instead. Thanks for raising awareness - after all, as nature people we have a responsibility to ourselves - if gifted folk all use magick to these ends, I believe that many ripples will create the kind of wave we need to save ourselves and this Age of Civilization from others who clearly don't care. Cheers and BB
Sou de Belo Horizonte aqui em MG, Brasil. É a cidade mais arborizada do Brasil. Moro bem perto do centro da cidade e aqui em casa eu vejo tucanos, corujas, micos, maritacas, jacus e outros muitos tipos de pássaros. Imagine se todas as cidades fossem assim. Acredito que isso teria um impacto muito positivo mesmo na saúde mental da população como um todo.
A hunters paradise is of a natural wooded area with unkept landscape, with that said you seem to find the healthiest buck or hog etc in there. Yes we humans can eat vegetables and fruit but it's the wild life who needs it more so then us. If we control the growth of land our wold life gets smaller over decades worth in turn gives up less meat etc until one day nothing is worth the eat.. that how I personally see it.
thank you thank you thank you Kiddo ! for producing this ..... the message is really needed and i have already shared it to FB . luckily my country is already beginning to see the need for rewilding spaces , the councils are spreading wild flower seeds and grasses on round- a-bouts and along the sides of motor ways ,, and now in my village i no longer get frowned on for letting the side down by letting most of my garden go besserk :) instead of bieng like the 'stepford wives ' society is far to greedy with a never ending need for more exotic foods instead of just a sensable diet of what the body needs , we need more organic food and less GMO and chemically treated food , we need to go back to rotation farming , letting fields rest naturally without chemicals , the rise in cancer ,obesity and mental problems lies firmly at the feet of these frankenstien crops ! carry on the good work my dear friend ! :)
Thank You for a much needed message for our unnatural times. Hopefully our world is changing, slowly, but the material is still valued more than the natural. Blessings ❤😊
I have 6 or more species of grass in my yard. They only grow so high. I've been pulling weeds for years. No mowing and no 'yard police' for the past 4 years. I've been interested in learning what weeds are beneficial for food and medicine. I'm looking forward to gaining that knowledge this year... I'm well aware I may need it sooner than later.
If you want to see all your weeds, turn over your dirt where the grass is. You will disturb the seed bed, most weeds have some kind of use, also most weeds are nice wildflowers.
@@WhiteWolfeHU indeed. I find most of my medicinal plants just outside of the fence surrounding my local "park". The area was homes with gardens a hundred years ago, and is now teaming with artemisia s, tansy and there's even a spot where sweet peas have gone wild. Elderberry trees are flourishing along the decaying cliffs where their flowers can't be poached to make cocktails for influencers! They sustain the wildlife instead.
I came to the realisation with this topic just a few years ago, had a good cognitive dissonance moment with it. Thank you for spreading awareness Arith! Hope the majority of city people will realise soon.
I don’t know how it is in other places, but most cities in America have asinine regulations about how high grass can be, what kind of other vegetation is allowed, and WHERE other vegetation is allowed-for example, front yard vegetable gardens are frowned on. We let our grass get as high as it can before feeling forced to mow because we try to preserve dandelions and other low laying flowers as much as possible. It should be allowed to plant more natural regional flora everywhere to encourage pollination. I know several people who have had the city come and mow down everything and then fine the homeowner a high price for the work. 😡
Last summer I had done a bit of strategic planting, that included tilling the soil adding nutrients in the front including grass. I made a couple of mulched plant beds along the walkway to combat soil erosion and also look pleasing, much better than it was for damn sure. Between my own ability, time and money It is actually hard to do certain things, still planning to do more though what's possible after I recover more. I like the wilderness, but would love to be able to do more landscaping etc. too, I'm like the only person here doing it.
Where I live (Denmark), we have a concept "Stevns skaber liv" = Stevns (the peninsula) creates life... We can get a sign to put on our property so people can see, we're not lazy 😂 My garden is a wonderful mess❤ Many would consider it ugly and untamed, but I love my wilderness. We only mowe paths to get around without getting too many ticks stuck on us and a very small area, we can sit in. Thank you for this video. Now I have a proof that I'm not the only one who thinks like this 👍🏻
Growing up I always hated cutting the grass or doing any work like that outside. I'm lazy. My neighbor cut his grass every two days very strictly. Would get angry if it rained because he couldn't mow every two days. I never figured out his insanity with this. Now if I ever own a house, not very likely, but I will let native plants grow. The "weeds" are beautiful to me.
Yes! I've said for years that we should be growing food and natural meadow plants (natural for the area of course) instead of all these lawns. But also "Grass is where bugs fuck" lmao what a way to begin a YT video
Thank you thank you thank you. People moan all the time in uk about uncut grass and weeds. Saddest recent destruction by a Fenland trust was to mow a huge flower meadow down inbetween the rain.😢. Profits before people, animals and the earth seems to be the main focus of bad leaders.
Excellent presentation. I recommend everyone check out the work of permaculture designer Geoff Lawton, "Greening the Desert" and others. There was also a great little series by Bill Mollison called "The Global Gardener" or something like that. Best Wishes to All ✨🧙🏾♂️✨
It's called Rewilding. And yeah, anyone who knows anything about Ecology, Earth Systems Science, Botany, Environmental Science etc would tell you that we need to get rid of the inasive species, and increase local plants and gain back the eco systems lost by industrial capitalism. The understanding comes naturally the more you educate yourself about Ecology, Earth Systems Science (ESS being the scientific field of studying the GEOSPHERE/Geology, HYDROSPHERE/Oceanography/Limnology, ATMOSPHERE/Atmospheric Studies/Meteorology, BIOSPHERE/Biology/Botany/Silviculture)
Only mowed my lawn twice last year, headed more towards a hands off approach and let the garden grow naturally and the animals eat what they need. In the winter the grass all lays down.
@@dragonrider9051 I have been saying that for years. Leaves and cut grass is the best if you have the kind of soil that easily gets dense and hard. And its great to lay it around your veggies or flowers instead of having bare soil that just dries out and attracts weeds. Removing it and buying sack after sack of soil for your garden is just downright dumb 🙄
The current beast is Capitalism that like Feudalism and Slavery, establishes an upper class that lives off of taking the fruits of others labors (surplus value)
The current beast is Capitalism that like Feudalism and Slavery, establishes an upper class that lives off of taking the fruits of others labors (surplus value)
first thing i did when i moved into my house was i dug up my entire backyard and front yard. I'm so glad i did, as the city has filled in the marshland and cut down 45 hectares of pine forests 'to make a park' - (yes, a giant bowling green park) And now they've passed a law that we are not allowed to feed animals . Right. My yard is a willow and yew forest with a pond i dug in the middle; this year i'm planting kale and other yummy things for the rabbits that have no where to go. i still feed a fox every night and i really worry about her safety . There are small narrow grass paths which also have clovers.
It's awful, the arguments i've had with local authorities about, free felling, mowing grass too often, using weed killer are too numerous to mention. I feel like a voice in the wilderness. Local council, ripping urban hedgerows out to replace with fencing costing thousands.
Ok first I know some people have trouble understanding this but I can hear the land even speak to it. If you grow up hearing it scream you understand a whole lot better and it does scream. I get very pissed off at people that think they are doing the right thing without even learning anything, people that think including governments or people that do stuff with out learning when it comes to water and more. So I grew up in the state of Missouri. I always lived close to the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, so you are talking some big rivers especially the Mississippi. Every year more levies and locks and dams are added. The problem is it takes away the places for the water to expand out to keep flooding down. They block the river from where they build homes in flood land causing flooding in towns that are small and don't have the money and stuff. Water is one of the most dangerous forces of nature, it's a force that man cannot control but they try and millions lose their homes and lives everywhere every year to it's force. Where I live now is in a different state to me it's funny looking at the rivers here because some of them are the same size as the really large creeks back home. So where we rent there is a small creek out back, it's a very small eco system. When we moved in we only had dirt and some moss out back. The guy that mows the lawn would cut everything really short. I asked him about it and he said if he didn't then the other people complained, I asked him to let ours be longer out back and on our side, since then we now have thick full lush grass. Unfortunately come August we will be starting our 9th year here and we are on our 4th or 5th owner since we have been here, same management company but they can only do what the owners let them do. So originally the other side of the creek was flat and our side was a long sloping hill that there was plenty of land behind each unit that the lawnmower guy could go straight up and down. This creek does flash and can flash bad, but when the other side was flat all the way down it didn't cause any major damage. Then the second landlord decided it would be a good idea to build a big high into the ground solid fence on the other side where this property ends, basically he built a damn levie. Because of this instead of flat lands on the other side it start carving out a bank and started eating the hill. In places it's hard to grow grass because we have to kinds of invasive plants that have taken over worse every year. One is a kind of vine that will root in the ground or the trees and just grows and grows and grows every where we had when the landlords still did this the guy who would trem back the tree branches and stuff cut the vines and I would work them for hours getting them untangled and down. We also have some kind of plant that I'm not even going to try to spell that is part of the hemlock family and has very shallow roots, before I knew what it was I was pulling it out without gloves, that was a big mistake. This all blocks the sun and takes up the space so nothing else can grow. The erosion is so bad now you can't walk all the way up behind the buildings and the next building over the first totally straight lined building to the street their patio was collapsing and the erosion was almost to the foundation of the building. We are in the first angled building because we live at the end of the street in the culdesac (the circle at the end of the street) anyway that was one of the first things then the water under washed one of the big oak trees on the other side and we got very lucky it came down in between our building and the next one and there isn't a lot of room but the spirits of the land were watching over us. The next problem was the new neighbors. There are two units to a building. These idiots started putting all there left overs out and throwing all kinds of corn out, I swear everyone should be forced to live in the country for at least 5 years and learn about things. Anyway like I said this is a very small eco system and I had been working on healing it best I could since I moved in. So they start doing this all of a sudden were getting 10 or more possum and 10 or more coons a night when normal you hardly ever saw one, then we started seeing what we thought were mice going in and out from under there back door we have sliding glass doors. They said they knew and were trying to keep the cats away, just WTF. Come spring we found out they weren't mice they were gray rats also we started seeing brown rats. I had to do something I hated put out rat killer. The gray ones I was able to get rid of quickly because I found all their ways out from under the building and stuffed it down in the holes. They stayed out of our unit because we have to cats very active cats. The brown rats even with putting traps out were to many I kept calling management but they wouldn't do anything, when it got so bad that you couldn't even sit out back without them running over your feet I called the city and they got rid of them. Now across the creek is some very big very expensive condos. Last year 3 went up for sale and the people that bought one of them instead of simply putting the leaves they raked up into the very cheap lawn bags and the city picks them up for free every week on trash day, they threw them over the fence into the creek. They were piled up as tall as that big fence that got put in and the entire length of their yard and they have a big yard I mean big. Problem is we already have been having the problems with the creek erosion now they made it worse. We just had our first really big spring storm rain and those leaves made everything worse they made dams all along the creek we also figured out they were throwing branches of all sizes, boards, even some metal frames over the fence. Management called the city because these guys have broken so many laws and other city rules it's not funny. Apparently the city left something on their door but nothing was done, then we got that storm, it caused the erosion to be 4 times worse and it caused it to speed up under cutting some really big oak and ash trees, unfortunately I don't think there is a way to make them stable again. They also have the extra weight of the vines pulling on them. We got picthers lots of pictures and sent them to the city they are sending a engineer out to look but the most they can do is go after the people on the laws they broke, but because this is private property and theirs is private property as far as taking care of the trees and that and the worse erosion well that's up to the owners and the owners we have right now they only care about raising the rent every year and spending nothing on the property or buildings at all, even with them raising the rent it still comes out cheaper than renting new somewhere, because all the landlords are working together to keep the prices the same. We lost our house after I became disabled in 07 and it took both our incomes thanks to my x constantly refinancing it and I got it in the divorce but I remarried and we were working on getting the mortgage lowered, but after becoming disabled they wouldn't talk to us anymore. After the divorce from my x I had the house and was down to 7 and a half acres but I had my woods I took care of the land. We moved out here in 09 this is the 5th place we have lived, as soon as my daughter and I looked out back we both screamed trees and ran back there it was real trees, a mini eco system, now the stupidity of so many is killing it after trying so hard to heal it. It started to calm and feel more peaceful and was able to talk without pain. Now it screams and crys and I do what I can but how do I get stupid people to stop and finally listen when I have tried to explain every way I can till I'm blue in the face. It's taking a toll on me as well, it's making me sick and in pain, it's hurting my spirit it's doing so much and I don't know how to block out the land I've never had to it's always been my refuge. I don't know what to do.
Grass in Hungarian is simply Carbon. It’s the source of fuel for livestock. Cattle, Oxen, Donkeys, Sheep, Goats, Horses, eat the stalks, the collected seeds are fed to other animals. People should use their small land to grow their own vegetables. Farmers need to turn more to regenerative models and work with nature. It takes 2 things: a little knowledge, and morals to choose what’s right over greed.
Woke? As if u have any idea of the importance of what he is saying with those two digits IQ. At least you could keep your comment to yourself. You can keep your negativity to yourself, thanks.
