First, we eliminate all of the diverse, natural, healthy plants that attract butterflies, bees, and other bugs that are important to nature, branding them as “weeds”. We replace them with a monotonous, single species of grass that doesn’t do anything but serve as a hiding place for bugs that we think of as “pests”. We then pay money to buy harmful chemicals to keep out these “pest” bugs. Even more irrationally, we also pay to cut the grass on a routine basis, have the clippings removed, and even water this grass when mother nature won’t maintain it herself. We do all of this for a plain, green lawn that doesn’t provide us any real benefit for all of our time and money. It isn’t even particularly beautiful, especially when we take into account every house down the street has the same lawn. So, why do we do it?
1. The arguments about children playing on lawns is somewhat irrelevant, since there are plenty of people who think so highly of their lawn that they don’t want anyone to walk on it.
2. The alternative to a lawn is not just “dirt”, unless you live in a place inhospitable to most plants, in which case you’re wasting a hell of a lot of water.