Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yen Man
I don't believe that, to be honest. You're telling me the only reason why I like the look of lush, green, well maintained grass vs. patchy, weed ridden growth with dry patches is because marketing trained our brain to do so? So natural aesthetic preferences have nothing to do with it?
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No.
To be totally clear, what I mean is that the monoculture version of a nice lawn that inevitably requires chemicals and excess watering, the "ideal lawn" was a manufactured ideal for the purpose of selling chemicals.
This isn't a debate between whether you should have a beautiful-looking green lawn or a patchy mess full of weeds. That would be stupid, who isn't going to prefer the former? The reason I brought it up is because someone suggested exactly that in response to not watering or using chemicals, as though that's the only option. And the only reason it's the only option to you, is because marketing decided that was so.
The point is that you can achieve a lush, green, well-maintained lawn without the use of chemicals or excess watering. Different grasses that are drought resistant (some low growing types if you want to mow less), clover, low growing spreaders. Adding these to your lawn + working to ensure the health of your lawn by making it stronger (compost, organic fertilizer, etc) is going to establish something strong, lush, green, and well maintained that needs less (or no) excess water and fights off weeds by itself. Problem is, you keep using herbicide, and you're never going to get there. It's a cycle they want you to be in.
Marketing and chemical companies didn't decide you would prefer a nice green lawn. They created the ideal composition to a standard that ensures you'll always need their product. Why? Because their product also happens to kill the good things that aren't weeds (things that coexist nicely with grass and help it fight weeds), so instead of fixing the product, they convinced people the good things were bad, too.
The importance of a flawless putting green was a thing 30-40 years before the invention of the types of lawn maintenance chemicals we have today. How do you think that was achieved?