this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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They're called leaves for a reason. (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 65 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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 2 points 1 day 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.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 points 3 days ago

For insects, pristine lawns are a huge problem. This isn't quite comparable.

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 1 points 5 hours 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.

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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 2 points 2 days 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.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 116 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 31 points 4 days ago (9 children)

You think anybody is walking on the street in the US?

[–] deadcream@sopuli.xyz 33 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Tower@lemm.ee 17 points 3 days 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.

[–] zea_64@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 4 days ago

Don't worry, they're also hostile to humans under the age of 70

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 100 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 25 points 3 days ago

And then they complain that their fruit garden isn't working.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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_Demigod@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Toes@ani.social 50 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Start a movement to stop the city from forcing people to cut their yards. It creates smog, kills the insects we need for food, damages the native plants, wastes money, and looks ugly. Natural yards are awesome.

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[–] lseif@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

absolutely insane law there.

[–] Lennnny@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days 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.

[–] normalexit@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

How do I know when the queens are out?

[–] pirating@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Early spring would be the easiest since no other "types" of bumblebee would be flying.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

If you see bumblebees then you know they're waking up.

Depending on where you live you may need to be more perceptive. In the southeast US what most people think are bumblebees are actually carpenter bees.

[–] FoD@startrek.website 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh, you'll know.

[–] philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago

Stupid sexy bumblebee butts.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

I really fucked up my lawn by putting red clover down in addition to white. Red clover is perineal and grows tall and falls flat on its side. It decays into this horrible straw like shit. I hate it. Horrible horrible decision.

Because it's sort of fucked for a few years I guess, I've been a lot more hands off with leaves. Because hey, even if it kills off some of the stuff there then that's fine by me. I think I only mowed once this year. I only blow leaves off the driveway and onto the yard.

This summer I'll see the fruits of my labor. I'm really curious to see if there are substantially more fireflies.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 29 points 3 days ago (6 children)

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

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[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

A tree is like a quiet roommate, but makes a huge mess before leaving to travel internationally for half the year.

[–] IDrawPoorly@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

wuht

[–] noxy@yiffit.net 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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

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[–] JoYo@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

until it snows, then it becomes a slip-n-slide for all.

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[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 3 points 2 days ago

!nolawns@slrpnk.net vibes.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Brings nutrients into your soil so you have a healthier lawn

[–] tacosplease@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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".

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[–] dumples@midwest.social 16 points 4 days 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)

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