Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The City Code of Concord, CA makes certain your lawn is not your own. Our neighbors OWN us. It is sickening and depressing and yet it continues. We're in a drought, so we don't water. We, too, do not want to coat the dry lawn with chemicals. I'd give anything to be able to afford a lawyer to fight back. BTW, not everyone can afford a lawn service either.

Thanks for checking in from Concord California on a DC message board to revive a 3 year old post.

Why do people do this???

Agree. But I wasn't on this board three years ago, and enjoyed reading it now!

But you live in California. Your rules there have ZERO to do with DC, or this post. You can enjoy it all you want but shoot, keep your comments relevant, both in time frame to the original post and content.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The City Code of Concord, CA makes certain your lawn is not your own. Our neighbors OWN us. It is sickening and depressing and yet it continues. We're in a drought, so we don't water. We, too, do not want to coat the dry lawn with chemicals. I'd give anything to be able to afford a lawyer to fight back. BTW, not everyone can afford a lawn service either.

Thanks for checking in from Concord California on a DC message board to revive a 3 year old post.

Why do people do this???

Agree. But I wasn't on this board three years ago, and enjoyed reading it now!

Anonymous wrote:The City Code of Concord, CA makes certain your lawn is not your own. Our neighbors OWN us. It is sickening and depressing and yet it continues. We're in a drought, so we don't water. We, too, do not want to coat the dry lawn with chemicals. I'd give anything to be able to afford a lawyer to fight back. BTW, not everyone can afford a lawn service either.

Thanks for checking in from Concord California on a DC message board to revive a 3 year old post.

Why do people do this???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ITA.

One of the worst environmental sins we ever committed was this idea that everyone has to have this little patch of perfect green in front of their house.

I intentionally sprinkle my yard with dutch white clover because it's good for bees.

I would never, ever spray herbicide or pesticide in my lawn.

Nor would I ever stop a four year old from making a wish on a dandelion.



http://www.earthyreport.com/site/is-your-lawn-bad-for-the-environment/

THANK YOU. +10,000

http://www.earthyreport.com/site/about/ lol

I am sure he wants you to buy his products!
The Earthy Report is the personal blog of John Vlahakis, a lifelong advocate for the environment, entrepreneur and community activist. He is the founder of Earth Friendly Products, a manufactuer of cleaning products that are safe for you, your home and the environment.

Anonymous wrote:

ITA.

One of the worst environmental sins we ever committed was this idea that everyone has to have this little patch of perfect green in front of their house.

I intentionally sprinkle my yard with dutch white clover because it's good for bees.

I would never, ever spray herbicide or pesticide in my lawn.

Nor would I ever stop a four year old from making a wish on a dandelion.



http://www.earthyreport.com/site/is-your-lawn-bad-for-the-environment/

THANK YOU. +10,000

It is entirely your right to have a ghetto lawn. Yes it probably pollinates over into adjacent lawns. Your call OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why you posted here OP when you clearly have no intention of trying to make your yard look nicer. Have fun being the neighbor everyone bitches about behind your back!

OP here -

Not sure where you get that from. I'm mostly wondering if there might be some solution that I haven't thought of and if people do actually hand pick their weeds.

Other than the goats (which I don't think will go over well), I'm not sure what other suggestions I can implement. And, now that another PP mentioned that he can sue me, I'll have to look into that to see if it's really the case.

If spraying is my only option, I'm fine with being the neighbor that everyone bitches about, whether it's behind my back or to my face. I'll take the other PPs suggestions of just ignoring the complaints.

Buy a lot of corn gluten and put it down in the spring to prevent crabgrass seeds from germinating. Crabgrass is an annual weed, so if you can keep most of the seeds from germinating, it results less crabgrass. Corn gluten is safe for kids and pets (and is an ingredient in some pet foods). It also provides nitrogen, but no other nutrients, to your lawn.

Overseed with grass seed in the fall, water daily for a month, and you'll have fewer weeds the next year because you'll have more grass and less space for weeds to grow.

Don't worry about the clover, if that's your white weed.

have you tried crop dusting your neighbor's lawn? and by that I mean letting out a massive burrito fart while walking across their lawn.

How annoying, OP. I live in an upper middle class neighborhood (800K-1.5m homes) and have a natural lawn as well as a perennial, shrub, and tree garden around my house that is also anything but weed free. Believe it or not, I constantly get compliments from the neighbors around me, as well as from complete strangers, how beautiful my garden is. So glad to have neighbors who appreciate the beauty of a natural, well thought out landscape that doesn't focus on a sterile lawn. Maybe it has to do with the fact that this is a neighborhood full of liberals who are probably aware of the impacts of lawn care on our environment. Few people in our neighborhood have weed-free lawns, and thankfully there is no HOA to mandate spraying or limit anyone's creativity in their landscape design.

OKay so I didn't read through all of the other comments (16 pages?!) But, there may be things you could do that do not require manual weeding. We moved into a home last year where previous owners did not do much more than mow the grass. It takes a long time, and we're still working on it, but if you plant new grass seed and put down some fertilizer/soil once or twice a year, the grass will eventually overtake the weeds.

You could have a landscaper come out once and give you some DIY tips.

Also - I totally get the kid thing. My toddler son LOVES helping to "plant" grass. So, if you find ways to creatively involve the kids, it could end up being a fun activity you all do at home together, and look forward to each spring during grass planting season.

My neighbors' yard is nothing but weeds and it looks like shit. The husband is out there every weekend at about 8:00 a.m. mowing the weeds and then blowing something or the other around with his leaf blower for an ungodly amount of time. (Freud would have a field day, I think).

Your neighbor can kill the weeds when/if they make it to his yard. If I were going to spend time weeding my yard, I'd just go ahead and get rid of all the grass and make it one big vegetable or flower garden.

Tell the neighbor that you will not put down chemicals but that you are considering other options, such as removing all the grass and starting a raked dirt yard or a wildflower garden. Maybe he'll be OK with your weeds and grass if he stops to consider what else you could be doing there.

Any amount of time is minimal if you don't have to put it in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who care that much about their lawns need to get a damn hobby.

YEEEEEESSSSSSSS! Maybe you should buy him the complete "Murder She Wrote" DVD. I hear that's what old farts like to watch.

you realize it takes very minimal effort to have a decent lawn. Minimal.

Minimal time . . . and a boatload of cancer-causing chemicals, but why worry about that, right?

How often do you mow? I feel like mowing every week should take care of most of this.