A gardener has learned the hard way that a certain type of vine can actually take over your yard if unchecked.
The homeowner posted a picture on the Reddit community r/gardening, which now has an impressive 5.6 million members and counting.
"Did you know if you don't properly research how big pumpkin vines grow they don't care and just take over your yard?" the person wrote.
The picture posted in the Reddit community shows what appears to be a traditional grass lawn being taken over by a pumpkin plant.
Although the Redditor in mention may be complaining, the fact of the matter is embracing wilder lawns with native plants and without the use of lawn mowers is gaining popularity in the United States and other parts of the world.
In a report last year, the BBC highlighted how Plantlife, a conservation charity in the United Kingdom, is promoting a monthlong initiative encouraging individuals to abstain from using lawnmowers and let wildflowers thrive instead.
Plantlife has also been urging people to participate in their No Mow May project by observing and documenting the blossoming flowers.
There are numerous advantages to replacing traditional grass lawns with more natural alternatives.
Traditional lawns require substantial amounts of water. In the United States, for instance, maintaining a lush green grass lawn would consume approximately 200 gallons of drinking water per person daily (per a NASA report) if everyone aspired to have one. With an estimated population of more than 334 million in the U.S., that works out to more than 66.8 billion gallons of water per day — or a shocking 101,000-plus Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Moreover, the fertilizers and pesticides used to maintain the lush appearance of lawns contain various chemicals that often seep through the soil and find their way into streams, lakes, rivers, and sometimes even our drinking water.
Converting a grass lawn into a vegetable garden, a landscape with a mix of shrubs or flowers, or any other alternative can provide multiple benefits, including avoiding the issues mentioned above.
These alternatives can also be visually appealing and require less maintenance compared to traditional lawns.
This gives you more time to simply enjoy your yard while letting nature do the hard work.
"This is so true, of all plants, I think. Just give them barely enough, and they thrive. Fuss over them, and they fall over like some sickly Victorian child," one commenter wrote.
"They feed on your apathy," another expressed.
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