to not mow my front lawn? Ever?

[FredWorms]

I just don't get this suburban thing about lawn-mowing. I do mine now and again, maybe 2 cuts a year, but I like it long. It harbours frogs and toads and all manner of creatures and I like the look of it too. I have flowers in pots and although my front garden isn't immaculate it's clearly not completely neglected either. It looks tatty, but not in that "old sofa and 3 rusty bikes" sort of way.

A couple of days ago a neighbour had a bit of a grumble about people not cutting their grass, clearly aimed at me, and I've heard other neighbours complain in the past. Why? How does it affect them? Is it because it makes the neighbourhood look run down? (quiet close in a small seaside town).

I genuinely don't get this. I was brought up on a farm, is there something I should know?

Just wanted to add, even in the countryside, things are trimmed, harvested, etc.. Long unkempt grass is actually quite bad quality grass. The grass in my horses's fields is topped (trimmed) because it makes it more nutritious. I don't turn them out on long grass with seeds because it can give them colic. My PIL were astonished when I removed the "pretty yellow plants from their lawn" as they were the weed ragwort.

You simply aren't managing your grass/garden, and it would probably annoy me a bit as your neighbour because it sounds like an eyesore.

Some people are so anal. Do you live on an estate? Do people wash their car every sunday morning too? YANBU

My dh is one of those ones who pulls up everything from between slabs then jet washes the lot. I hate it, its so stark. I prefer that soft cottage garden look with a little grass and moss.

I'm with OP, mowing the lawn is a boring waste of time. I didn't bother mowing the front at al last year. I had a rush of shit to the brain in June and mowed it, within 3 weeks it was back to the same length. What is the point? And as for those who wouldn't move near my house because of the long grass-.

Admittedly I don't live in a very suburban area but I can't imagine caring about someone else's garden or lawn. Or indeed noticing.

We actually have a fake lawn :) (in our back garden) as it's the only thing that will survive the dogs. It looks perfectly fine to me, and is very low maintenance.

It is quite possible to have a garden with long grass that looks interesting, attracts a diverse range of wildlife and is clearly well-loved and cared for. However, this option will still take quite a bit of work to maintain it.

Opting out of looking after your garden at all is, dare I say, lazy.

i saw a lawn the other day that was completely covered in buttercups and thought that would be a lovely thing to sit at your window and look upon-especially since the sun was shining. really cheerful. sow some wild plants to go with the long grass.

I don't think you are being unreasonable. There was a house down at the bottom of the hill where I live which had let their (quite large) front lawn grow - it was covered in wild plants and flowers and I thought looked quite beautiful and meadowy.

I went down on Monday and it had all been shorn into a short, boring carpet of grass.

If you've got a beautiful front lawn, that's nice too, and I can understand that having 2 year-olds blow dandelion clocks at it is probably quite annoying though..

sallyingforth, my location is suburban, we just happen to live next to a playing field with mature trees and hedges/verges.

OK then all those who think IABU, so people don't like to look at it and it reflects badly on them? But what about my neighbour's ghastly plastic windows with diamond-effect panes? I think they're bloody awful but I don't let it bother me. I don't have to look at them beyond the odd passing glance and I don't give a toss if visitors to the close think I live in an area of weirdy-trying-to-be-dickensian-sweetshoppe houses.

I don't think anyone complains about his windows, why do they complain about my garden?

Oh, and I still maintain the weed seed/slugs argument is bonkers. It's just ryegrass, and slugs are everywhere.

The neighbours ghastly windows aren't a product of laziness though, they're actually trying to make it look nice. That's a question of taste.

My long grass isn't a product of laziness.

I like it.

I have had a neighbour complain about the state of my bush!

I would be the first to admit I'm lazy. I don't think there's anything wrong with being lazy though.

Seriously I'd be a bit scared to move to the suburbs, I'd likely be the one being 'silently growled' at by my neighbours without having a clue why. I wouldn't be surprised if I have the wrong kind of windows as well .

(and you say I've got to trim my bush as well? Can I not just close the curtains? )

Our neighbour is always asking if we are 'cultivating' our front lawn, thinks it's hilarious.
He mows it every time we go on holiday.
He is obsessed.
DH mows our front lawn about every 3 or 4 weeks anyway.

That's just it Ephiny, it's like no-one's told me the rules (and now they're telling me and I don't like it )

I think with front gardens there has to be a bit of compromise. It's not just about your home and the way it looks, they merge together to form a general frontage. So if the person next door to you plants a certain tree, you're not going to plant one that's exactly the same, you tie it in with what fits in the street. Now long weedy grass looks nice up until about June, but once bits start to die off it will just look like waste ground. It irritates people because traditionally farmers would have harvested a meadow before plants have gone to seed. It makes people feel there's something 'wrong'. Essentially it's up to you whether you want to let your neighbour feel that. The house thing is different because it's not right on the street. The front garden is the buffer between street and home and should be a little bit neutral, or at least look as though someone's made an effort.

I like a short cut smooth looking lawn with beautiful colourful flower beds. However i hate gardening. If only i could get someone to keep my garden the way i like it without me getting my hands dirty.

Get some wildflower meadow seed. You'll need to cut it once a year, in July or August. It will look good, support wildlife and you'll have a valid reason to give out. People may still not choose to understand or like it but that's their choice not any sort of neglect on your part.

Gardens are a massively important habitat for wildlife, in many areas more so than farmed land. There's lots of info and advice on-line about this.

Road-verges are important too. Some are among the last remnants of ancient grassland habitats that have been around for thousands of years (before being fragmented down to verge size of course) and support a unique flora and fauna. Many Councils and Wildlife Trusts manage important ones accordingly. Mowing these would be vandalism, though not the seeded rye-grass kind of course.

Hire a gardener Wildworld. Agree lottie, wildflowers are perfect. Point any critics in the direction of the Olympic Park to show them the latest. You can get wildflower turf which is a lot more effective as weaker plants are given a headstart.

I am concerned what happens to the frogs and toads during those two cuts a year. I am worried there is a horrific amphibian massacre. Please tell us it isn't so.

I am too worried to even make a 'croaked' joke.

yanbu

I don't have a lawn out front, but my front garden is untidy. I don't have time, and I hate gardening and don't actually even notice the unkemptness -it just doesn't register with me.

I don't get the whole obsession with weeds either. Weeds are just plants, as are dandelions. I think some cultivated plants look awful, especially flowers.

Thankfully we don't get complaints , although the ILs do often volunteer to do gardening when here, so I just let them get on with it, as long as they don't plant any marigolds or anything!

Save up and get one of those automatic mowers that go out on there own.
here
unless of course you prefer it long....

We are living in the 'burbs for the first time. We moved here just about a year ago.

I don't worry about the weeds, neither my husband or I am able to pull weeds, but we do have a lovely young man who comes around every 2 weeks to mow.

We didn't for quite awhile and my mother was horrified when she came to visit. My step dad actually cut it for us. He's 79.

As for the weeds, we used some weed killer...it did nothing...in fact, the weeds seem to be thriving after it's application...

It's nearly winter. They'll all die soon anyway...

You live in a conventional place and are surprised that people are annoyed you aren't following convention? YABU. I'm not saying it's right, but you are being unreasonable to expect everyone else to accept your long grass as just as athetically pleasing as their mown grass.

The frogs are another reason to go for a meadow, you'd cut it after they've grown up and are dispersing. Good to have a log pile for them to lurk in in winter.