this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 107 points 3 days ago (6 children)

My neighbor HATES me because I've been converting my backyard into clover. We have fireflies, Butterflies, bees, bunnies, all sorts of wildlife. It smells beautiful, but we are an oasis amongst upper-middle class lawn zombies... Mowing, edging, pesticide spraying, weed killing zombies.

Meanwhile, I have milkweed, clover, chive, snapdragons, black eyed susans, grapes, raspberries, lilac, echinacea, chamomile, lavender, hydrangea, coreopsis, and salvia. I welcome wasps that eat pests, I buy bags of ladybugs, I compost... I'm really trying. It's only 1/4 an acre, but I'm trying.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I love this and I'm working towards a no lawn/native plants setup as well. I hope your neighbour's hate fuels you. Keep at it!

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago

Please keep doing it. As a poor landless peasant I celebrate your attempt to preserve some of nature. You're buying time, which is vitally important

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Since getting my own place I can actually have a more natural garden, removed so much concrete. So many bees! I can even hear them from inside now that they are swarming around the poppies. Sage and to some extent chive flowers got a few bees earlier in the year but those flowers have died off now.

Should take pictures of them so that in the future we can remember what bees were.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Hey, that's pretty cool! Just make sure they're not actually starting to build a hive inside your walls

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago

From 1 internet stranger to another, thank you. It really means a lot to me that people are doing what they can at their own level like you. I know how demotivating and isolating it can feel to be the only one doing the necessary work.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I dislike the mowing robots because they seem to encourage the Flatt grass only gardens and I hate them.

You can still have flowers around them yes, but the grass is mostly a plant and insect desert.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Spray your neighbors lawn with salt water

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

The cartago treatment

[–] [email protected] 85 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Mine too! My lawn is slowly turning into a sea of clover, I throw wild flower seeds all over the place, and get to see all kinds of cool bugs! Hopefully they enjoy my 8 acres of natural habitat.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago

Incredibly based thank you for your service o7

[–] TheSlad 61 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Man im working so hard to be that yard, but its not as easy as just stop mowing!

Always on the lookout for invasives, poison ivy, tree sapplings (my yard isnt big enough to support any more trees without threatening the house), and other undesirables.

Then theres also the english ivy encroaching from the corner that I've pretty much given up on :/

[–] Mouselemming 18 points 3 days ago

It's great that you're helping your native plants stand against the invasives, they're like the schoolyard bullies of the backyard.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

English ivy is a tough one, but at least getting the vertical growth is a fairly easy to manage. the vertical growth is also more problematic because it is a requirement for producing berries and killing trees

[–] Mouselemming 6 points 3 days ago

It's great that you're helping your native plants stand against the invasives, they're like the schoolyard bullies of the backyard.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Alright I'm going to need all of your suggestions as this is the project I'm working on right now.

A bought a small townhouse in Ontario 7 months ago and I have a tiny yard.

The yard had mostly grass, but had a little bit of moss, crab grass, and clover. There is a small garden, and many dirt patches in the yard.

I have spread clover seed in the yard, especially in the dirt patches.

Then I weeded the garden area, removed about half the rocks but left some in the garden, I have my mother coming over next month to help me pick local garden flowers, and I had to pull a tiny tree out because it was planted right beside the foundation of the building and would eventually cause damage.

What else should be added to the lawn? Should I be pulling out the crabgrass? What wildflowers are native to Ontario?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

Visit some Garden Centres near you- often they'll have seed mixes of local perennial flowers available for purchase, you just need to spread the seeds in the spring or autumn.

Also, "weeds" aren't always weeds, they're just plants that some people decided get in the way of monocultures. If it's flowering, it's feeding insects, so leave it be.

The fireflies are awesome in my area this summer and my humble yard is part of that. It's honestly so satisfying watching plants come back year after year, bigger and bigger

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I'd check for native species of clover, which is invasive in most of Canada.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Lightning bug, eh? I smell a Pennsylvania native

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

They're called that in a lot of places.

Source: I'm from Texas.

And here's a pretty picture to prove it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Funny that Californians even have a strong opinion

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Ha, great observation. For those that don't know - the fireflies/lightning bugs known to the east coast don't live on the west coast.

Apparently there are species that live west of the Rocky Mountains, but they are active during the day, and even at night the light they produce is too dim for the human eye to perceive. So the west coast doesn't get the beautiful light shows that the east enjoys.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

It makes me happy to see the phrase "lightning bug" used so often here on Lemmy. I grew up calling them lightning bugs, yet I felt like it's been ages since I heard or saw that word. Then I started coming here, and I see it in every post about this topic. The term brings me back to my childhood, picturing the way my parents' backyard used to light up every summer evening.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Germans:
"glow-wormsies"

(Glühwürmchen)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

That's delightful

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Huh, the more you know.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] baggachipz 30 points 3 days ago

My lack of mowing gives us a light show every summer night.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago

My yard is the only reason we have frogs and dragonflies.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Lightning bugs never existed where I live 😞 I didn’t realize they were real until my mid teens even

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

West Coast?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

i'd never heard fireflies called lightning bugs before

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I have a small, yet still growing, grove of wild flowers and grasses. I just let my side yard grow whatever it wants (except invasives).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Aren't those called fireflies?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Depends on where you're from

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Oh Lemmy, I saw all the lightning bugs in the trees last night, blinking fast as hell because of the high temperature, and I thought of you!

I was just discussing my raggedy-ass yard and it’s contribution to the local fauna.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Ha! This is me and my yard. Let’s go!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

You can do a hell of a lot with a meter squared

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