The grass has become a debated subject. I can remember, how the lawns used to be small areas between roads, paths, buildings, flower benches, trees and shrubs, only parks had larger areas. Nowadays there can even an hectare of lawn next to a large house to indicate power, success and discipline.

What makes the lawn and grass interesting, is that ecologists call those green lawns as green asphalt. They are monocultures, giving very few animals possibilities to thrive. It is living, yes, but no flowers for bees, no safety or cover for small mammals, no nesting site for birds, not much to eat for worms. But it’s nice to the eyes of human. Green, easy to roam, solid and simple to maintain.

Lately there has been seen a shift in ideas about the lawn. In parks some areas are left uncut in order to get more flowers to support pollinators. More and more people are sowing seeds of meadow or forest to have a natural field that is cut down only about once a year to keep it open. We are impersonating grazing animals 🙂

I have seen it clearly what kind of impact grazing animals have into their environment. For ten years we didn’t have any sheep and all the surroundings started to look bushy and full. Nettles and raspberry bushes everywhere, alders and rowans conquering the land. After two summers of sheep it looked totally different. What was one of the major changes was the return of various birds into the landscape.

What I find the funniest thing with the lawns is that people became fond of the view created by grazing animals, removed the animals and made it all by themselves, but found it bad for ecosystem and now returning into the first steps. I’m not a super fan of the perfect lawn, i don’t play football or golf either, and I’ve always enjoyed a bit wild garden. And as more and more people get informed, the less judging sights my lawn gets. I don’t want to kill all the poor dandelions in order to get a perfect lawn. Instead they are allowed to bloom to give nectar to bumblebees living nearby. In this way my garden has more pollinators for apples, currants and strawberries. We all win <3. Besides, all of dandelion is edible.

With wild thoughts

Joana