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.

Hayfever will be small fry compared to having no bees.

Assuming you receive NHS treatment I think you'll find that is already the case.

Op you'll love my next door neighbours, they cut down the beautiful magnolia tree, and because they don't have a mower they are getting astroturf, instead of a mower. Their garden will be a barren landscape of plastic and concrete with nothing growing.

Miserable.

I'll stick to the plants growing happily in my postage stamp garden, thanks.

Seeing as most of the homes round here have concrete, plastic grass or no garden at all, it's good to have somewhere for insects and birds to nest and feed.

I'm allergic to half the plants out there, so will come out in massive wheals, my eyes will burn (they're dry as hell anyhow) and I'll be itching all night if I do anything remotely resembling cutting it all down. But it looks and smells beautiful and to be able to sit and watch twelve different species of bumblebee, honey bees from the allotment a mile away, multiple other solitary bees, lacewings, butterflies (especially Red Admirals and Peacocks that need nettles to lay their eggs on) instead of dirty grey is good for the soul.

The Birch, firs and Red Horse Chestnuts would get me in any case, followed by oilseed rape from about 5 miles away as the crow pollen cloud flies, so obliterating wildlife whilst ensuring that there are no endangered orchids, poppies, yellow rattle, clover, green alkanet, dock, ox eye daisies or ragwort (can't be around livestock but vital for cinnabar moths) or other native food sources alongside the roads wouldn't make a blind bit of difference. If they're a problem for drivers, close the windows, use air con and just look where you're going.

I am horrified at the idea of steroid depots being given outside a medical context, though - they've got very real risks.

Wow, what a first world problem..

Grass needs cutting. I came off the motorway this week and couldn’t see cars coming off the roundabout because the grass wasn’t trimmed at the edges. I’m fine about verges being wild with the edges cut, then it looks tidy and is safer. We should be able to see approaching cars. Dangerous!!

I have terrible hay fever at the moment, but I don’t expect the world to revolve around me.

Get a decent HEPA filter fan for your room and use it to nuke the pollen.

My cut my front and back garden every week in season. I also cut my neighbours front whilst there (no fences between). Our council website has a report it page which includes eyesore Gardens. I report overgrown gardens and sofas/fridges. Roughish area of East London

Bad hay fever? Local honey is a miracle; 1 or 2 tea spoons every day.

Go to your GP, there are better meds.

No.

I have hayfever and a corneal disease, and I think you sound very entitled, OP. Although we don't really see eye to eye anyway (ha!) because I find it far, far worse when everyone is cutting the grass every five minutes and disturbing all the pollen.
Have you tried an eye ointment/gel at night? I use Vitapos. Soothes my eyes wonderfully. Also an eye bag (the kind you pop in the microwave for 30 seconds).

I don't give a stuff about any kind of 'movement' unless it's related to my bowels, so our lawns are always cut to look and feel good.

My hay fever has been ok so far this year but some years it's awful.

Does cutting the grass make a difference to pollen levels. Genuine question.

Cut it every week in the growing season. I love a tidy lawn.

What a ridiculous thread. I also have horrendous hayfever and can't take much due to being pregnant. I can (apparently safely) take Piriton but it totally knocks me out and I have a toddler to look after so can only have it when she's asleep at night.

I do not expect people to live their lives around me, but not only that, as PP have mentioned, people mowing their lawns and tending to their gardens flings much more pollen into the air than if they had left it alone. And of course, due to differing levels of shift work and retirements etc, not everybody has chance to do their garden on the same day as everyone else so gardening is ongoing daily throughout the Summer months, and understandably so!

Mow or don't mow, I don't mind, but my hayfever is my problem - not my neighbour's!

Our mower has died. Can't currently afford to replace it. So no. I won't.

Go to your GP, there are better meds.

Good luck seeing a GP for hay fever (or anything else for that matter)! When I did speak to mine I was given Fexofenadine and an inhaler and sent on my way. When it didn't agree with me they couldn't have been less interested.

I do agree that roadsigns, roundabouts and the edges of verges should be kept clear for safety reasons.

Councils do not cut hedges at this time of year because it is nesting season. Nor do they cut roadside grass verges at this time of year either, because they are waiting for all the wild flowers to set seed first. They are now an important wildlife corridor.

I do sympathise OP because I too am a lifelong allergy sufferer, but you can't control pollen in the atmosphere. It will travel very long distances, so your neighbour's garden is going to make a miniscule difference in the grand scheme of things.

Really sorry for you OP, but we really need the fucking bees, and the roundabouts and verges left uncut provide a bee corridor so the little buzzers can move about at far as they need to. If we kill them all off there will be no life for the rest of us.

I live in the country - am I allowed long grass?

I have severe hayfever, allergic to grass, flowers and tree pollen. I'm a single parent with 3 children (two are under 7) who love to play outdoors. I maintain my lawn for the benefit of the youngsters in our family and suffer terribly in the evenings as a result of the fresh cut grass which triggers my sneezing, watery itchy and red eyes, runny nose equivalent to a tap and bad itchy skin if grass cuttings touch my skin when changing out of sleeved clothes etc once I've done what needs to be done for the children to be able to play safely in the garden without stinging nettles which are fierce in our garden (we live directly in front of a reserve and surrounded by pollenated trees!) . YABU to suggest cutting grass will solve the pollen problem because it certainly does not.

Another comment suggested the injection - i will certainly be enquiring about that with my GP because it sounds great! Being drowsy from counter medication for my allergies i found is far from ideal when you have active children who are constantly energized from dawn til dusk and i suffer more when grass is cut than when it is not cut 🙊 imo it really is no ones business wether one cuts their grass or not. Seek better allergy medication as suggested i think and leave people alone to do as they like with their lawns

Dh cut the grass this afternoon, I am a big snotty, eye watering mess 😭

@stripesorspotsorwhat councils certainly do cut grass verges at this time of year.

It's not my garden's fault you're allergic to life!

It's more than peoples opinions of what nice is has moved on.