AIBU to ask you to cut your grass?

[BadEyedManiac]

I know there's a movement around not cutting grass and not trimming hedges and so on which I have to say our local council has enthusiastically embraced to the point that road signs are partly obscured by various shrubbery.

However although this might be lovely for bees (although the absolute benefits are probably limited in the context of the age of industrial farming which no one is doing anything about) it is hell on earth for people with pollen allergies. And is particular hell on earth for people like me who have pollen allergies and a corneal condition.

I've just woken up due to corneal pain and have spent ten minutes pouring eye drops into my eyes and I know it's only going to get worse as summer goes on. The environmental benefits from people failing to tend their greenery in urban areas are negligible while the effects on the people around you can be absolutely brutal. Please, please cut your bloody grass. This is awful.

I think there's a compromise between monoculture lawns and meadows in everyone's gardens. Smaller lawn areas, what you actually use, planted around, preferably with native plants.

Low growing wildflowers, Corsican mint, thyme, stonecrops, micro clovers, there are lots of ways to have a 'lawn' that doesn't need mowing, watering and it doesn't attract rats. It looks much nicer. And still smells delicious. Drought and heat tolerant as well which is probably good since it's getting hotter and hosepipe bans don't worry you.

Awwwww, they are just the cutest!

YABsoU. And I say that as someone with awful hayfever. Because I recognise that any small thing people can do to help wildlife and particularly bees is positive, despite the discomfort it causes me.

Also your basic logic fails. Either it's a minor thing which has no impact on nature (so surely doesn't affect the wellbeing of those with allergies) or it's a major thing that causes huge health issues (but has an enormous impact on nature). It can't be both OP.

Same here

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned, but I heard on radio today about an environmental report that says that there’s not actually anymore pollen this year, it’s just super strong. Hence more people are suffering. I know I’m worse this year than usual.

By the way OP, if you have asked your acquaintances, neighbours, etc with the same manner and tone in which you’ve posted here, I’m not surprised those around you haven’t listened to you!

I do my bit for the bees and other insects by having a couple of patches dedicated to growing wildflowers and by only mowing the lawn every 2 or 3 weeks, and I will continue to do so unless perhaps I end up living next door to someone who has the same problems as you do, and they ask me POLITELY to reconsider. YABVU to demand strangers consider you before anything else.

People mowing lawns makes my hayfever worse. I can tell people are cutting grass when I'm in work and there are no windows and it's air conditioned 🤷‍♀️

We have plenty of bees and butterfly's in our garden but keep our lawns cut, as do all our neighbours. In fact, there is a lot of praise around here for the beautiful gardens. We plant flowers and bushes that attract bees.
However, I got hay fever for the first time last year - it was horrendous and I've got it this year too. I'm using just about every product on the market to keep it under control and failing miserably.

Oh my Christ

I don't normally suffer from hay fever, but I recently went to my local park and the grass was being cut. Instant streaming eyes. Also, there was huge white balls of pollen floating off of several trees too. It looked like it was snowing.

Sorry, but you come across as incredibly entitled.

Yeah,

‘bees yadda yadda’

‘Fucking field mice’

’because nature’

Cut your grass

No, how about you fuck off (just thought I’d
swear too since you seem so fond of it) and take an antihistamine and, well, just live with it.

Quite.
So incredibly rude and not eliciting any sympathy at all.

YABU.

Have worked a ludicrously long week, have a DS who is under the weather and clingy and have a shitload of laundry to do. Frankly, the grass is the least of my worries.

Sorry you are struggling OP but You can't dictate how other people live their lives....

No, how about you fuck off (just thought I’d
swear too since you seem so fond of it) and take an antihistamine and, well, just live with it.

I'm not defending the OP at all, her attitude is awful and if she spoke to me like that I'd make sure DH didn't cut the grass!

However it's not a case of take an antihistamine and live with it for some people, it really impacts their lives. Over the counter Antihistamines do very little for me (I take 3-4 a day in summer) and the stronger ones make me drowsy. I have an inhaler for when it's very bad but even when it's normal I itch all over and cough and sneeze constantly which was fun during Covid! Even my teeth get sensitive. It pretty much ruins everything I do outside from March to October and my GP couldn't be less interested if they tried.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Have you tried Fexofenadine 180mg? It's prescription only at that strength, I think. Anyway my GP surgery precribes them.

They help a lot with my itching skin, and don't make me drowsy.

I had a 3 year course of Grazax treatment through an Immunology referral probably about 10 years ago now. It was a daily sublingual tab that contained grass pollen. It helped massively! I still do get hayfever symptoms but nowhere near on the level it used to be. I'm also allergic to nettle polleb and I think Birch pollen (I can't remember but definitely a tree pollen) so maybe it's those causing a problem. But anyway I would definitely look into it!

I tried Fexofenadine @SpindleSheWrote but one didn't make any difference and when my GP told em to take two I felt fuzzy and 'out of it' and it upset my stomach. In the end I went back to cetirizine as it's the only one that helps slightly providing I take enough.

Sorry, no. Preserving the environment and and planet is more important than any individual human. And if you think urban gardens don't make a difference, you are misinformed.

Let me think about it…

No.

Have a good day.

We left ours in May but have since mown it. You can leave it so long, but unless you have an industrial lawnmower you have to do it at some point otherwise your mower won't cope.

As for hay fever, I find anti-histamines are a good solution!

As for hay fever, I find anti-histamines are a good solution!

Lucky you!

Preserving the environment and and planet is more important than any individual human.

I agree to a point but you can't expect people to suffer if there's something they can do to reduce it. I would never have grass I needed to cut for example, if DH couldn't do it or I couldn't afford a gardener it would have to go. I wouldn't plant a birch tree in my garden either. I wouldn't expect other people to get rid of theirs or mow it to suit me!

My lawn is my own business, and I've more sympathy for the bees anyway.

You pay for my prescriptions and I'll cut the grass more often OP, deal?

The number of people with severe allergies has gone up astronomically as the world has become more urbanised.
People growing up in cities are more likely to suffer with hayfever & other allergies .

You've got the generations of city dwellers before you to blame for your own illness.

The more wild spaces the better, doesn't matter how small they all add up then at the very least we're not creating even worse problems for future generations.