# Why Do People Mow Their Lawns? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 21, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103 "2002-05-21T15:08:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/1 "2002-05-21T15:08:21Z")
Why does everybody seem to believe that it is absolutely necessary to mow your lawn? What purpose does this serve?? How did this bizarre practice become a cultural norm??? Seems really pointless to me. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/2 "2002-05-21T15:17:31Z")
Short grass looks better and is easier to play on. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/3 "2002-05-21T15:24:09Z")
My goat was ummm… busy. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/4 "2002-05-21T15:25:19Z")
Doesn’t ‘natural’ grass look better than some unnatural, geometric pattern? We don’t prune trees to make them spheres. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/5 "2002-05-21T15:28:18Z")
Because ticks like long grass. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/6 "2002-05-21T15:31:18Z")
Long grass and weeds contain lots of bugs, can hide snakes, make it hard to see trash, are not very fun to play on, mess up the bottom of your clothes after a rain, and tend to itch if you aren’t wearing long pants. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/7 "2002-05-21T15:36:45Z")
“We don’t prune trees to make them spheres.” Oh really? ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/8 "2002-05-21T15:37:34Z")
Because if I don’t, the city will fine me 500 bucks and charge me for a professional to do it. Otherwise, I’d go with the over grown look. Which is why, at this moment, I have someone mowing my lawn.😃 ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/9 "2002-05-21T15:40:56Z")
I don’t wanna lose my dogs. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/10 "2002-05-21T15:42:28Z")
Don’t forget that rats and other rodents like to live in long grass and the grass can have an effect on some people’s allergies. This comes from someone that hates to mow grass. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/11 "2002-05-21T15:42:48Z")
I once read of a theory that stated the keeping of lawns was some kind of genetic or evolutional throwback to our days as hunter gatherers - it mimics the expanses of the savannah in which our ancestors roamed. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/12 "2002-05-21T15:53:39Z")
I personally think it’s a conspiracy, started by those bastards at John Deere. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/13 "2002-05-21T15:59:33Z")
With all the work that is being done with genetic engineering, why hasn’t someone developed grass that carries a ‘dwarfism’ gene? That would solve everything! ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/14 "2002-05-21T16:00:07Z")
Hmm…a well groomed and neat cultivated lawn is found to be desirable by many, many folks to the tune of several billion dollars a year in lawn supplies and research for grasses, etc. Your question is more like, “Why do we find cut roses in pretty vases beautiful?” Yeah, roses are pretty in nature, but trimming and pruning and cutting yields what many many folks consider beautiful…roses in a vase. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/15 "2002-05-21T16:04:24Z")
Dwarf grass: it’s out there, more-or-less, but if you just leave your lawn alone, and it’s short growing grass, it’ll become over -run by tall growing weeds and tall growing grass. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/16 "2002-05-21T16:05:37Z")
Surreal, do you loathe the schmucks who pour in tons of chemicals into their lawns and then cut them with precision gas powered tools? It’s ok if that’s your beef. ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/17 "2002-05-21T16:17:48Z")
Besides, if I’m not cutting my lawn on Saturday, it just looks like I’m drinking beer. ---
**Author:** ![cagiva650](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cagiva650](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cagiva650)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/18 "2002-05-21T17:32:14Z")
Grass. The crop you gotta fertilize, water and cut. What is done with the harvest? Can’t landfill it can’t burn it, can’t smoke it. If it is not to golf on or runaround in the sprinklers on lawns are useless! At my house I let the ‘weeds’ grow - I have Solomons Seal Echinacea, clover, lupine and tons of other naturally occurring weeds that have pretty flowers and attract butterflies. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/19 "2002-05-21T17:37:00Z")
- - - Half my lawn is almost maintenance-free: it’s not covered by grass, but some short (3"-4") unidentified very fine-leafed plant/weed that completely covers the ground making it tough for anything else to grow, but it grows pretty slow itself. It’s kind of a dull, drab green though, and it definitely doesn’t look like “grass” (not that I care). Maybe I should be outside now cultivating it; iIf the whole lawn was covered with it, I could probably get away with mowing only three or four times a year. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![cagiva650](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cagiva650](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cagiva650)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103/20 "2002-05-21T17:38:20Z")
And you thought it was gonna sneak by witho no one noticing! Happy Birthday **Tansu** jen [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-mow-their-lawns/110103.md?page=2)