Who wouldn’t?
I’m 50. I mow my lawn, but have never watered nor fertilized it. Some times the snow arrives before I get rid of the leaves and I have some bare spots – I have reseeded these.
I do have a fair amount of clover and violets (I think they look nice).
Waiting for genetically engineered grass that stops growing at 3"
Brian
I care because it can reflect home value and assessed taxable value. Also, it can make your home stand out from your neighbors (who can be Very judgemental) if yours is 'the worst lawn on the block.
Also, at least in this state, you can get ticketed for not cutting your lawn… meaning you’d have to cut the lawn and then either pay the ticket or spend days and money trying to fight the ticket… a loss of income even if you win.
If you want to say you’ve noticed that older men don’t like having to lose a day of work fighting things in court that they could have avoided by cutting their lawn, well I’d agree with you. I might find it entertaining to hear how other segments of society don’t have that aversion however. 
…And I won’t even bring up how in some communities there is practically a “Landscaper Mafia” into whose pockets I chose not to throw my hard-earned dollars.
My wife is much more interested in maintaining our lawns than I am. I mean, I help out, but she’s the one who places a great deal of pride in it.
I don’t want a lawn.
There’s a guy on the next block who tore out a row of shrubs in front of his house. He replaced it with a row of office copiers. I think he missed the point of Xeriscaping.
The OP must have the city called on him recently.
My grandparents never had that problem, despite raising five kids and then with eleven grandkids. My grandfather had more issues with deer and groundhogs back in his garden.
A lawn that is never played on is going going to be in better shape than one that sees a lot of traffic. Kids can be hell on grass. But priorities are important.
But isn’t it incredibly selfish to dump a bunch of pesticides into the environment just to have a nice lawn? If you’re maintaining your lawn for me, please stop, they creep me out.
I guess, maybe it’s just nostalgia coloring my view?
I liked my lawn a lot more 70 years ago than I do now. I was even allowed to go out and play on it. Unsupervised. My lawn was a lovely place, full of wonders, waiting to be explored, even when covered with snow or leaves… I had no responsibility for it, it was just there.
While lawns were very common in (say) the 1950s, these days there is a lot more interest in (and support for) alternatives to lawns - ornamental and vegetable patches, meadows etc. And the pesticides used back then were a hell of a lot more toxic than what gets sprayed now. When Rachel Carson weighed in against the use of chlordane to kill lawn grubs, she was talking about the '50s and early '60s. Even if you were nuts enough now to want to use that stuff, it’s illegal/impossible to find. While lawns are in many cases not very environment/wildlife diversity-friendly, the situation has improved.*
As for the wealthy being the prime owners of lawns hundreds of years ago, that was the case not just because of the labor involved. “Cottage gardens” and the like existed to provide produce (and some flowers) to those with small incomes. Grass would’ve been a terrible waste of their limited growing space.
*the sheer amount and variety of wildlife in our deep suburban yard (which is about two-thirds lawn) is amazing, and sometimes disturbing. Finding a well-gnawed deer carcass in the “back forty” makes you think. :eek:
I’m wondering if this is an American thing? I honestly don’t know a single person who gives a shit about their lawn beyond ensuring it’s mown and isn’t inhabited by snakes, for the most part.
Front lawns are almost an obsession in some suburbs.
No kidding, I went to a graduation party for a colleague’s daughter out in the burbs and people were talking about lawn care. I swear, I thought they saw my DC tags and putting me on, but nope that’s what passed for interesting to them.
I live on a street full of Americans who spend exactly no time or money on their lawns.
We had a “block party” (city blocked off the street for a potluck with music) where one new neighbor remarked that that’s a big plus of our 'hood.
I think its because old women control everything else in the house. It gives us the illusion of being in control of something. A nice lawn and cooking on the grill are manly activities and not to be interfered with by womenfolk. Said womenfolk are smart enough to let us play at our little games if it keeps us in line elsewhere. I could go on but I have to take out the trash.
No. A peacock’s tail is mostly for displaying to potential sexual partners (female peafowl). A lawn, to the extent it’s a social signal, is a display for status among other males; for allies not sexual partners.
I suppose a rough equivalent is designer shoes? Heterosexual men don’t care about them; they’re really just to show off to other women, right?