A lot of the worst weeds where I live are invasive and should eradicated whenever possible.
That said it’s always blown my mind when lawn enjoyers freak out at things like dandy lions and little yellow flowering clovers, they improved the look. Why do people insist their yard has to look as close to astro terf as possible
this but unironically. it’s a bit of a trolley problem
every time anybody does some work like building roads, building houses, farming fields, it has a certain chance that it displaces whatever was there before, i.e. wild flowers, insects, wild animals, whatever. that is why doing any kind of work kinda always comes at a price for the environment.
It’s all fun and games until you get fined for neglecting your property
America, land of the free.
where they invented nightmarish levels of bureaucracy regulating every aspect of human existence.
They can’t, I live in the UK. I am free to let a few weeds grow in my garden as long as it doesn’t get to a point its blocking the public footpath that goes along my house or blocking out the sun to neighbours.
You can always keep moderate care of the property: just not too much. Forests, for example, need to be tendered, and (unexpectedly) sometimes trees have to be cut — to make more space for animals to thrive (not just humans), to other plants to grow.
It takes awhile before they send those warnings. And some places don’t care if it’s weeds, just that the weeds are short.
it’s all fine and dandy until the weeds grow into your foundation and start to crack it!
Right?
Learning how to leave things alone, in our ecosystems as well as our built and social systems, is invaluable. Being able to just be with such things, observe, see how things develop on their own, how some wounds heal naturally and others do not. And, the results of that kind of learning in my experience include plenty of callings, ways we can and do participate actively to make life more wonderful.
In general, so much human activity is so frenzied and disconnected, that “Just do less” seems like generally applicable advice but it’s more like one-sided advice which is good on average given our current society, but obviously is not on point 100% of the time.
Something I wrote about laziness recently, kind of fits here:
The concept of laziness is propaganda, brought on by a logic of destruction
In a world where a philosophy of infinite growth causes us to destroy everything that is not dedicated to the production of goods, doing nothing is political. At a time where burnout is on the rise while we still carry the internalized belief that our self-worth is tied to our productivity, doing nothing is an act of self love. In a world that is overheating, doing nothing is an act of self preservation and of protecting Mother Earth.
Rest is resistance. Rest doesn’t mean you are lazy while the world is on fire, it means you do not participate in fanning the flames even more. Feel like doing nothing? Do nothing, because that’s what Mother Earth wants you to do in this moment. Close your eyes, rest, let life find its way.
The idea that we have to be active to save, protect, improve is part of the lie that we are the crown of creation, the stewards of the earth, the ones who run the show. None of it is true. We just have to stop doing damage. We just have to stop. Are you always tired? Mother Nature asks you to rest, let life find its way.
@Pastel_Problem@slrpnk.net @alexcleac@szmer.info And I love you both for letting me know! Gives me the courage to post stuff that I’m not always sure is relevant or helpful. Seeing the comments and upvotes for this I’ll consider giving it its own post somewhere, but today I’m too
lazyresistfully restful.This is gold, I think I should print it out and put on my desk :D
I love you for this
@stabby_cicada I respect where this sentiment comes from, and I agree that for most gardeners, it would be better to do less. But we xant lose sight of the real prize: Learning how to exist with nature in mutually beneficial arrangements. That is, learning how to help nature with our activities, so that the more we intervene, the better nature thrives. An obvious example to me is planting trees
Clovers > Grass
Wildflowers and even better, food > Grass
Natives >
HOA = evil
