A recent Reddit post had people fired up over a power trip by a persnickety landlord.
"Landlord on power trip about the suitable length of blades of grass in a house that she doesn't even live in 🍃 🐝 🌸 🌺," the poster wrote above a photo of a previous post by a landlord.
In their post, the landlord said they noticed their tenant's lawn looking "scruffy," and that when they asked them to mow, "They responded that they are doing something called 'no now may' for wildlife and that they will cut it in June."
The landlord said when they reminded the tenants that they must mow at least every two weeks, they got no response. What they did get was a sign on the fence that said, "Excuse the weeds, we're feeding the bees," which left them both irritated and worried they were being petty.
No Mow May is one tactic that has become popular in an attempt to move away from perfect lawns that harm the environment, opting instead for wilder, native landscapes that help it.
Lawns take up 30 to 40 million acres of land in the U.S. Lawnmowers account for about 5% of the nation's air pollution, and more than 17 million gallons of fuel are spilled refilling lawn and garden equipment; 9 billion gallons of water go toward landscaping irrigation daily, and the pesticide- and fertilizer-filled runoff can end up in our waters.
Grass lawns are also monocultures — pieces of land that grow just one type of vegetation — and are death sentences for the pollinators responsible for the survival of around 75% of the world's flowering plants and 35% of its food crops.
Yards that are either left to re-wild or consciously planted with native plants, on the other hand, require far less water, zero pesticides, and attract pollinators and other native wildlife, which are essential to healthy ecosystems.
As for the landlord's concern about being petty? Commenters on the post had plenty to say.
"She literally doesn't live there, it will cause no property damage and helps the environment. Why does she care?" said one.
"She got some real 'I don't like solar power because its an eyesore' energy," commented another.
"Sorry but leave the lawn, and give nature for once a helping hand," another encouraged. "This keep up with the joneses bs needs to be gone."
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