Doing stuff on your lawn is only part of its function. Much of the value it provides, arguably most of the value is a combination of:
1. More distance and acoustic isolation from neighbors. A larger property with a house in the middle of it separated from others by space means you hear your neighbors less and they hear you less. It makes your home a little more of a sanctuary.
2. A better view out the window. Windows and the views they afford are a critical part of the indoor experience. They provide a connection to a larger space so that the house doesn't feel claustrophobic or too artificial. A window that opens onto a calm expanse of green can make the house feel more spacious and tranquil.
Now, of course, those benefits have to be weighed against the trade-offs. But, in general, people are not completely stupid and if millions of them have lawns, it's probably at least somewhat because they actually like having lawns and aren't mindless sheep manipulated by culture and nefarious HOA laws into having them.
This purpose does not necessarily need to be serviced by a lawn, which is just a patch of grass.
Lawns are stupid.
There are lots of options.
I swear the back yards of suburbs are designed to be flat and open so your neighbors can always snoop on everything from their windows. Panopticon design.
[0] maybe there's a 'green' non-evil version of the Evil Gray Goo
Whether you were a nobleman in 17th century England or a suburbanite today, the lawn is a symbol of success — a reflection of who you are as a person. A good, clean, weed-free lawn is a sign you have the wealth and resources to devote to such a fundamentally meaningless project.
See for example 26 Parkfield Drive, Youngtown Tasmania on your real estate platform of choice (Google search will do) to see what I mean.
But yeah fuck off with the judging. I like space and I like living in the city.
(We kept part of our grass for exactly that reason but it helps that we don't have to water the lawn here. With added clover I'm quite happy with it.)
What I don't understand is, is the need for huge front lawns. It's all the work with none of the benefits. Just a waste of space really. People don't use them the same way at all.
But it's true that a lot of people don't use their front yards for much, except perhaps as a noise buffer from the road. If you go a non-lawn route, you'll need to be careful to maintain it in a way that doesn't encourage intervention by neighbors, municipalities, etc. On the other hand, I'm rewilding a bit of my back, and nobody says anything.
Have you considered that some people just like looking at it and that's enough? It's their private property after all.
They may not be the reason, but HOAs are absolutely the cause of outdated, environmentally unsustainable, bullshit lawn requirements.
Lots of things are inexpensive when ignoring externalities.
(I'm assuming an area where grass actually fits the environment. If grass won't just grow then that's a problem that doesn't need more explanation.)
It took years for the neighborhood to convince the HOA to allow other kinds of ground cover (jasmine, frog fruit, etc.). In the mean time, people were paying yearly to resod with new grass, or have to pay fines that cost more than just paying for new sod.
But I'll give you one anyway - it's a nice buffer between me and my stupid neighbors.
If humans displace natural grazing animals, something has to replace them. A lawnmower.
I live on 6 acres. Half of it I leave wooded. I have a small hobby vineyard. And the house and garage. The rest, well, it has to be mowed. Because I don't have sheep or goats to do it for me.
Even when I lived in Toronto on a 25'x100' property, I had to mow almost weekly to keep weeds down.
Yes, the lawn thing is a bit silly. But people who act like a native plant or whatever garden or landscaping is less labour intensive are fooling themselves. I've tried both. Around here, it'll fill with burrs and dandelions and pigweed and ticks and whatever in no time at all.
Invasive species can be a nightmare on their own but even the native ones can become impenetrable if you let it go too long.
Even if you have nice forest around your house you’ll pay for it with wood rot, termites, moss and mildew, and gutter cleanings. I loved living with trees over the house but ultimately decided I’d rather live with a bit more clearing.
It's not just grazing animals btw. It's fire. Large parts of the US Southeast, for example, used to be savanna, basically grasslands interspersed by trees. Fire is necessary to maintain that, to beat back woody growth.
Also long before that, there were now-extinct species like mastodon that cleared forest floor, etc.
Anyways, all that is side-ramble. The reality is that in humid temperate areas the things you replace a lawn with end up being just as much or more work.
Nature is not the self-maintaining self-balancing paradise that it is often sold as. It is a world of constant intense competition (Say this in a Werner Herzog tone). If you leave ground bare, and there's water, something will grow there. That's fine in the woods. In the city, it's usually something you don't want that takes root.
Those areas were instrumental in the "American Dream"-style imagery so the rest of the country imitated it, even though it's absolutely insane in some places.
Also the amount yards are used varies greatly by area, and by family size.
I live in upstate NY, where grass grows more or less on its own. You can have a lush lawn here without weeding or watering if that's your choice.
Yes, I participate in no mow May. And I know my golf course fairway yard neighbors judge me. Especially with all the dandelions and clover patches I let go un-mowed all year long.
It is really dumb that we spend so much time, energy and costs on something that is only visual. Imagine if people spend the same amounts on something that produced food.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-stupid-is-our-obsession...
kickball
whiffle ball
touch football
tag
hide-and-go-seek
"Mother, may I?"
throwing baseballs, softballs, footballs
the neighbor's teenage son practicing his golf swing with a plastic ball