D&D and the rising pandemic

[Dannyalcatraz]

Lawns are honestly terrible, invasive things.

They way most do them?* Yeah, probably.

But there’s ways to make them better. Some people around here have xeriscaped their properties in beautiful ways. A few houses around here have gone the opposite route, and have planted their properties to the ppint that it almost looks like a forest. Their heating bills must be tiny, compared to their neighbors




* including ours, for the most part, so I’m not preaching from a place of moral superiority

 

[Ryujin]

From what I read, humanity currently produces enough food annually to feed everyone. The root causes of hunger are largely political and logistical. We waste a lot of it by letting it spoil in our refrigerators and pantries. Some spoils because it can’t get to market on time…or profitably. Some food doesn’t get to market because it’s not aesthetically pleasing. Some donated food gets refused, for a variety of reasons, some foolish, some malicious.

Being able to use farmland (or greenhouses) immediately adjacent to the population centre handles a lot of the issues involved with food. the amount of food that goes bad in supermarkets and restaurants that gets tossed out is rather horrifying. If your fresh stock was a 20 minute request away though...

 

[Umbran]

Lawns are honestly terrible, invasive things.

There are some really nice wildflowers native to New England, that at full height still don't violate most lawn ordinances. I have been considering the possibility of turning my lawn into a meadow. Unfortunatley, the process of getting the decades of grass out of the lawn is at least two of: long, ugly, and expensive.

 

[Ryujin]

Moss is also a viable option. Far less water consumption.

 

[Umbran]

Being able to use farmland (or greenhouses) immediately adjacent to the population centre handles a lot of the issues involved with food. the amount of food that goes bad in supermarkets and restaurants that gets tossed out is rather horrifying. If your fresh stock was a 20 minute request away though...

So, shortening travel time reduces shipping costs (though, if you are using greenhouses, you are replacing shipping with other costs), and can improve ripenesss of your food. It does not address the waste issues, because that is primarily about how human customers interact with grocery stores, restaurants, and their refrigerators.

The "ugly produce" line is, as I understand it, far overstated. The folks who can and process vegetables will be more than happy to take your ugly tomatoes.

 

[Umbran]

Moss is also a viable option. Far less water consumption.

Moss doesn't do well in full sunlight.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Unfortunatley, the process of getting the decades of grass out of the lawn is at least two of: long, ugly, and expensive.

Goats (I think) will eat greenery down to the dirt. There’s a growing number of businesses that use goats to “mow” lawns and green spaces- check your local phone book!

After they crop the hell out of it, give your lawn a good tilling.

(I had to do the opposite with he backyard of our previous house. Lots of bare dirt under big trees, with soil hard as clay. I used a hoe and pitchfork to manually break up the dirt and then reseeded it with a low-light tolerant grass. Damn near killed myself, DID kill the tools.)

 

[Umbran]

Goats.

Alas, not being zoned for livestock, that would lead to ugly, long, and expensive legal issues

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I edited above- I was thinking more of “goat rental.”

The owners bring the goats in for the day, take ‘em home full.

 

[CleverNickName]

Rent-A-Goat is awesome. They are excellent for clearing brambles, thorns, blackberries, and ivy off of steep slopes, where mechanical removal would be very difficult and expensive. They set up a temporary fence around the area, lock a few goats inside, and leave them for a few days. For large areas, they deploy a whole herd, complete with goat herders...450 goats can clear an acre a day, according to the website. All the brambles are completely gone, roots and all, and the goats are fat and happy.

My company has used them in the past to clear out blackberry brambles from an abandoned house. It had an overgrown, steeply-sloped backyard (nearly a 1:1 slope) with old lumber, appliances, and other junk all tangled up in it. Rent A Goat came by, set up a temporary chain link fence, and put five goats inside with a little pop-up shelter and water trough. By the end of the week, that slope was completely barren. And fertilized. It would have taken twice as long, and cost twice as much, to clear that backyard otherwise.