• TheFogan@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    Too bad HOAs are far more concerned with making sure everything looks plain and perfect to the 70 year old humans walking on the street rather than giving any craps about wildlife.

      • deadcream@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        I’m not American but my understanding is that many of those “suburban” residential blocks have sidewalks and you can walk around withing the confinement of your block. However blocks are isolated from each other and you need a car to go somewhere else.

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          My block of suburbia growing up only had a sidewalk for the last 2 houses on it, everyone else didn’t get one

          So that’s nice

          • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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            1 month ago

            I’m increasingly seeing neighborhoods where there’s only a sidewalk on one side of the street…and then it terminates for no reason…and then it starts again…

            It’s so bizarre.

        • wia@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          There are places in the US, that when you buy a house or property, you are given a choice. You can build a sidewalk for it yourself, or you can pay the city/county for a sidewalk.

          The thing is, if you pay the city/county for the sidewalk, they stipulate that they can build that sidewalk where ever they want. This does not have to include in front of, or anywhere near, your house

          The US is a very strange place.

        • Hawke@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Hah, I forgot that there are actually lots of suburban places that have no sidewalks. I was more talking about how no one walks and everyone drives, but it seems everyone interpreted that to mean specifically walking in the driving lanes.

      • thejml@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        Absolutely. There’s a lot in my neighborhood… And it’s annoying when there’s a perfectly good sidewalk right there.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 month ago

        America build the suburbs as a big fake playground where you can walk your dog.

      • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Depends where you live. I am in Denver and only use the car a few times a week, mostly during ski season.

        The rest of the time I walk.

    • Tower@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      In a previous house I rented, the HOA ladies would drive around the neighborhood roughly 3 times a week. There were less than 200 homes in the whole subdivision. Even if you walked slowly, it would only take an hour to walk the whole thing, but instead they drove.

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I’ve decided to leave the leaves on my yard and I swear my neighbors are mowing and leaf blowing twice as much just to spite me.

    IDGAF. I’d rather have fireflies and bumblebees than human neighbors

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Fireflies were spectacular this year.

      In the front yard I let the wind take whatever leaves it takes. In the back I rake a path to the gates. Those leaves get put in a large open bin along my fence which makes nice soil in a year of so. Everything else is as nature intended.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I’m hoping I can stem the collapse. I saw three fireflies this past summer. Which is a 3x improvement over the summer before that.

        But coming from a place where I could walk through the woods on a dark night just by the light of fireflies it hurts my soul to be somewhere so sterile.

        • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          We don’t get fireflies where I am, and one of my brothers took his kids on a trip to the Statesian South, his motivation being so they could see fireflies before they go extinct. I kind of wish I’d tagged along.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Or realize that there is still tons of land that isn’t maintained and is actually a better habitat for bees anyway. Even in your own neighborhood ther is plenty of places that don’t get tended to. This is really just a diversion to redirect people from all the things the ag industry does that harm the bees on a scale us individuals, even collectively can’t hold a candle to. Remember when they tried to convince us that leaving the water running while we brush our teeth was a major usage of fresh water. But again, compared to the ag industry, all household water use is a drop in the bucket.

    • UnfairUtan@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Sure but… It’s still a really good advice and I’m glad someone posted it. I rarely rake away leaves for reasons like this, and this gives me one extra reason to not do so.

      That doesn’t mean you’re wrong, but we can all be right : fight the important battles for large scale effects while enjoying the small scale effects of individual actions.

      • ɔiƚoxɘup@infosec.pub
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        1 month ago

        I think that they’re just railing against the smoke show that would have us believe that our individual actions are more to blame than industry as a whole. You can recycle, you can drive a electric car, you can even generate your electricity and store it locally in a battery and not even use the grid but even if we all did that without change to heavy industry we are still screwed.

        One small example of this is how big tobacco and big oil have used exactly the same tactics to distract us from what’s really going on and protect their profits regardless of the harm to us as a species.

        Would you like to know more? https://www.eenews.net/articles/big-tobacco-had-to-pay-206b-is-big-oil-next/

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yeah, it totaly woshed right over them. They are playing games with human emotions to protect and increase profits. These kind of things were the early version of the algorithms that are designed to keep you glued to content so you see more ads.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s been a while since I’ve seen the data, but isn’t the American lawn considered a major biome now? At least compared to wildlands.

      Between lawns and monocropping in the US, yes we need to fight back against those activities and favor rewilding.

      For those reading, start by introducing native plants to your parcel. Let nature do it’s thing. Then, consider going vegan since animals need multiple times the amount of land and water to grow: resources to grow the plants, then resources to grow the animals. Then, consider donating to organizations like The Xerces Society, the Wildlife Conservation Network, or MarAlliance. Better yet, find something local to you and join up!

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        You either missed the point, or you have fallen for the propaganda. Industry is a much higher % of the problem than your lawn. But they want to distract you by making you think you should do something with your yard to fix things. When the majority fail to do anything, they will feel like, well I didn’t do my part, so I can’t demand industry do anything. This allows them to keep destroying the environment. It’s a great tactic, worked well with plastic for a very long time. Your just helping them. Instead vote for people who care about us and the planet more than corporate profits. Regulate the industries and support lab grown meats.

        • Resonosity@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          After looking into the data, I’d probably agree with you.

          The US USDA ERS estimates that urban area land use is the lowest of all categories, but is rising. Yet NASA found that turfgrass represents the largest irrigated crop in the US, 3 times as much as corn.

          I will have to say that the research on this is quite outdated, with newer research seemingly coming from industry groups associated with the golf sector and giving rise to conflicts of interest.

          But I generally agree with your sentiment. Place the blame on the individual, the citizen, rather than the corporations and economic industries. I’d tend to agree with you, although I wonder if the issues are necessarily mutually exclusive. Sure we might prioritize the latter, but the former gives people tangible reasons to point to and continue in their advocacy for the latter.

          • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            It’s the last part where we disagree. I think that pushing efforts that make people feel like they did thier part makes them complacent to pushing against industry or others. In some cases the individual effort touted is something that few people will end up doing because of how inconvenient it is. So they will feel they can’t demand better of industry and others. And in the case of this leaves stuff, it is something that excuses inaction, so people will feel like they did their part so the result isn’t thier fault, and thus not thier problem anymore. And of course everyone loves a post supporting inaction because it makes them feel better about themsleves for not getting around to something they thought they should do. That makes it very popular. As such it drowns out messages about the larger causes and solutions.

  • Toes♀@ani.social
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    1 month ago

    I’m pretty sure if I didn’t do any yard work by May I’d have the city repossessing my home.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    1 month ago

    I don’t view this as a “pick up the leaves or not” false choice. I leave the leaves in some areas and mow over/pick them up in others. They’re literally free mulch and compost

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      If you leave them all in place they all turn into free mulch and compost anyway. And you avoid using the fossil fuels to power the mower you don’t need in the first place.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        1 month ago

        I have a battery powered mower and utility has done a pretty good job of incorporating renewables into their mix

        I also have some small spots where I want grass

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        That’s probably the least efficient way to mulch that stuff, don’t just leave it out like that

        And you avoid using the fossil fuels to power the mower you don’t need in the first place

        Ah, should we all be using the push powered ones, then, cuz those are fucking terrible. Not having grass is nice for those who don’t live where it’s a legal requirement, but that’s out for many people, and you do have to cut it or you’ll get a different law visit instead

  • dumples@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    Just remember that month suggestions online are for certain geographic areas. You might need to move them earlier or later. (The best rules I have seen is when nights are above 50 F in North America)

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      our yard and sidewalks / pavement becomes slime slick if they’re left around. I doubt there are many bees in my leaf piles, it’s been raining for a month straight.

  • Lenny@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    As a Brit we were always taught to gently disturb leaf piles before jumping in them or throwing them into the fire, just in case hedgehogs were in there. The habit has stuck, although I now just rake our leaves up onto the mulched beds and leave them. The chickens will then pull them apart and consume any living thing unfortunate enough to live there.

  • Noxy@yiffit.net
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    1 month ago

    I’ll (electrically) blow leaves off of walkways, but the vast majority of them stay put. Fuck a fucking lawn.

  • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I deal with 3 massive city-owned (and admittedly beautiful) chinquapin oaks and two privately owned red maples on a 1/3 acre lot. If the leaves don’t get removed then everything dies as a result of the acidity and thick leaf cover that also wont fully decay before the next autumn. There is no room for a compost pile of that size considering that the leaves couldnt make up more than half of it. I’m not a fan of grass lawns but the city and the HOA have to give the ‘okay’ before a lawn change can be made.

    • philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 month ago

      Same situation here. We need to remove at least part of the oak leaves. They take years to decompose on their own and they just smother ensuring else that wants to grow there. We try to leave a few piles until spring but if we didn’t manage the situation, the only plants thriving in the garden would be oaks.

    • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      That has not been my experience. The leaves wreck the ph of the soil and block light from letting grass grow.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Not much grass growing when it’s -20 out but you might have too many leaves so they don’t decompose fast enough during your winter

        • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yeah that’s definitely the issue here. There’s still a layer of wet leaves by the time the grass wants to start growing in the spring.

          • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            Let those leaves kill the grass and replace it with moss, clover, walkable thyme, native grasses, or any number of more interesting ground covers. I’m working towards a no-mow lawn. It’s fun finding creative ways to thwart a pesky city ordinance: “A minimum of fifty percent (50%) of all yard areas shall be comprised of turf grass”.

              • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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                1 month ago

                Probably. With a clover lawn you’ll probably need to reseed annually anyway. $4 per 1lb bag covers ~10,000 sq ft so not really a bank buster there, just a little work in the fall and spring.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I always mulch mine with my mower. Only bugs that might be in them is scorpions, grubs, ants, or the odd snake sometimes

  • CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    And now I’m even more glad that where I live they leave the leaves under the tree. Didn’t know that bumblebees live under that leaves left under the tree. Now I wanna leave a commest about the cute bumblebees that live under the leaves that someone left under the tree.

    P.S. sorry, couldn’t hold myself, sorry:)