Example of a post promoting highly actionable change in landscaping practices. I posted this to my neighborhood group just now:
Excess Mowing on the Beachside is a serious problem! Not only environmentally but aesthetically as well.
Yes, Planting trees and other vegetation costs money, and for various reasons it can be hard to get it established.
But at the very least, we should be able to get local government entities (and FDOT if applicable) to stop excess mowing on the beachside. Including median strips, city owned lots, riverfront edges. And also get the City to start writing-up large commercial property owners for excess mowing of their large vacant lots and other empty properties.
Recommendations: Back off mowing on Beachside lots to once a month or less in winter; twice a month or less in summer. It’s actually possible to mow quite a bit less than that, but even that would be a good start in terms of flood control and heat mitigation.
We also need to start holding churches to the standard. They get the benefit of being tax-free; they need to adopt appropriate land management practices on the considerable amount of land they occupy.
You have probably seen my posts about what a lot of the Beachside used to look like, with scrub palmetto and oaks, and other naturally dense vegetation, growing everywhere.
At the very least, if vacant lots / vacant buildings are going to stay empty, they need to be carrying their freight in terms of natural green infrastructure.
We live on a barrier island, and that comes with extra responsibilities.
Besides, as more and more of us are noticing, our dune wildflowers and other dune vegetation are exquisitely beautiful! While being extremely resilient in terms of capacity to stand up to the salt air and intermittent drought and rain.
Even as I write this, excess mowing is taking place somewhere down the block, you can hear the mower. Excess mowing (as well as other intrusive practices such as scraping fallen leaves away instead of leaving them under the trees) is largely driven by social norms that have established extremely close-cut grass as the gold standard of a well-maintained lot. These social norms are now being revealed to be actively contributing to extreme weather, including the deadly drought-flooding extremes.
Also, I suspect a lot of the big property owners (and maybe even some homeowners) are excess-mowing proactively because of the outdated standard, of writing people up for “overgrown” vegetation. On the beachside, we have different conditions and need to adjust accordingly.
If we are mowing down to bare sand, that should be a red flag. I have even seen mowing services mowing actual sand! There’s no way anyone can possibly think this looks good aesthetically.
It looks like an old teddy bear that’s been worn down to the bare fabric. If I were Mother Nature right now, I would be screaming “OWWWW!!!! you are hurting me, Stop scraping my skin!!”
It’s not necessarily the grass-cutter companies’ fault. These people (largely, local young men) have to feed their families. SO — All the more reason we need to start paying them to do things in a way that helps the environment, Rather than causing harm. We homeowners can help by paying our yard guys to plant trees & shrubs, and learn how to care for them. and to do continuing education.
And, it should go without saying but people might not think of this: Even if we reduce the frequency of their mowing, we should not reduce their PAY. Maybe pay them by the month or the quarter or something but don’t let it be a reduction in their pay if they mow fewer times. That way, they are empowered to exercise their professional discretion and take care of the vegetation & soil, rather than doing excess mowing just because the only way they can get paid is for each time they mow.
The gold standard for a well-maintained vacant lot needs to be gently mowed Meadow, Savannah, Forest, or some combination of the above. Ideally we would have no vacant lots at all except on the oceanfront — But as long as these vacant lots (and empty buildings) are allowed to persist, these property owners at least need to be not actively destroying the stormwater sponge.
Some of the above may be applicable to the mainland as well, but Beachside is an extreme case because we are literally on a sand dune so we have to start here. Barrier island protects the mainland! We need to restore our SPONGE!
Go here to see the post on my Facebook DEEP GREEN page, including photos.