The Cult of the American Lawn

Types of Lawns & Ecological Impact

• Distinction between “perfect” monoculture lawns (high water, chemicals, frequent mowing) and low‑input grass areas with clover/dandelions, minimal watering, and infrequent mowing.
• Several see artificial turf as worse than real lawn: heat island, no habitat, yet often subsidized for water savings.
• Some commenters emphasize mixed plantings (clover, creeping thyme, perennials) and shrinking grass area over time rather than total lawn elimination.

Utility of Lawns vs Alternatives

• Strong pro‑lawn sentiment where kids use yards daily; grass is seen as lower‑maintenance than complex plantings and good for play (soccer, frisbee).
• Others suggest trees, nearby parks, or courtyard designs as better for shade, privacy, and livability, noting US layouts are poorly adapted to hot climates.
• Some report lawns “just happen” in wetter regions with little input beyond mowing.

Water Use, Incentives & Policy

• Debate over water pricing: advocates for steeply marginal water prices vs calls to simply ban lawns in arid regions.
• Criticism of current incentives that reward synthetic turf or high‑water lawns rather than overall low consumption and diversified plantings.

Dandelions, Clover & Yard Culture

• Multiple people like dandelions aesthetically and ecologically; note they’re edible and once weren’t considered “weeds.”
• Claims that herbicide marketing helped rebrand clover and dandelions as undesirable.
• HOAs fining per dandelion are seen as extreme and arbitrary.

HOAs, Contracts & Power

• Major thread on HOAs: some defend them as voluntary contracts and necessary for maintaining shared infrastructure or preventing true blight.
• Others argue consent is weak (HOAs are near‑unavoidable in many new developments, covenants are buried in paperwork, sometimes created decades earlier).
• Concerns that HOAs can change rules, be captured by petty or abusive boards, and effectively police aesthetics (e.g., lawn standards) with little due process.
• Several link HOAs and zoning to historical and ongoing racial/supremacist exclusion and cooperation with policing.
• Condo HOAs are distinguished from suburban HOAs, with the former viewed as more functionally necessary.

Blame, Individual vs Systemic

• One commenter frames anti‑lawn discourse as another example of focusing on individual middle‑class habits rather than systemic drivers (e.g., agriculture, fossil fuels), though modest bans/requirements on lawns in arid areas are still suggested.