A Reddit post showing neighbors with drastically different lawns has gone viral.
One of the side-by-side yards features lush, spiky blades of grass, while the other is a shorn carpet.
The caption called the latter "a shame," and commenters had a lot of opinions about the closely cropped sod.
"It looks like Astroturf," one user wrote. "Just awful!"
Those feelings jibe with the growing no mow and no lawn movements. People across the country are replacing their grass with natural foliage as global temperatures rise.
"A lot of homeowners are more environmentally aware," landscape architect Katie Seidenwurm told CNN in 2020. "There's certificates that homeowners can get that certify that a front yard is wildlife friendly, or attracts butterflies, or is certified by master gardeners."
Traditional lawns of turf grass — which cover more than 40 million acres of land in the United States, according to the Princeton Student Climate Initiative — are bad for the environment, and the more someone maintains their blanket of grass, the worse it could be for their neighborhood.
"American homeowners have long strived to make their lawns brighter, lusher, and more velvety than their neighbors'," the NRDC stated. "But all that competition has a devastating environmental impact. Every year across the country, lawns consume nearly three trillion gallons of water, 200 million gallons of gas (for all that mowing), and 70 million pounds of pesticides."
Grass also diminishes biodiversity, as it chokes out what could be habitats for animals, insects, and plants.
"It's a waste of resources, contaminates our water, and a disservice to the animals and insects we share this planet with," one user commented.
"Birds, for instance, may ingest berries and seeds that have absorbed pesticides from the ground," according to the NRDC. "Likewise, rainwater runoff from lawns can carry pesticides and fertilizers into rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans via the sewer system. This can poison fish and other aquatic animals and harm humans who swim, surf, and eat seafood that may be contaminated."
Many commenters also pointed out that this shorter-than-short patch of grass looked like it belonged elsewhere.
"It looks like a putting green," one wrote.
"How horribly dull and sterile," another said.
And the capper: "What a waste of limited resources to look like a microsoft screensaver."
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