There's a lot of places out there where they enforce lawn "beautification" by enforcing mowing and grass height limits. Those places aren't getting smaller, and they are popping up all over the place. I really hope everyone does whatever they can do to fight that kind of stuff, even if it's just spreading awareness or bad mouthing the concept from an informed standpoint. Anything to stop that nonsense from spreading, it's worse than any ash or pine bore.
“Not anti-grass, we’re anti-lawn” good to know!! I’ve been rewilding my yard and guerrilla gardening along the interstate behind my house. I thought the goal was anti-grass!!
The goal is native plants to your eco region. Those may be native flowers, grasses, shrubs or trees. The idea is to bring it back to what it was. Make sure you're using natives to your area. Grasses are critical for butterflies, moths, and skippers and other animals.
They're also important for filtering contaminants out of water and reducing erosion. I'm trying to focus on bunch grasses, those w/o stoloniferous or rhizomatous growth habits, those are supposed to be pretty behaved and allow wildflowers to compete. Not that all natives are necessarily bunch grasses but a lot of them are...
@@LibertyCairde Cool! Not sure where you are ( in the US?) but we have some native clovers out west and others in the SE I think! Sadly they are not super available in nurseries but I think that is changing slowly. They can be hard to start bc they get ravaged by European slugs. The main clovers we see everywhere like white dutch clover and red clover were brought over from Eurasia as forage plants for livestock. I do think they are more beneficial than other exotic plants and lawn grass certainly. I let a bunch of red clover grow this year because my native bumblebees like the nectar and the native seeds I put out failed to germinate in a lot of spots. The grey hair streak butterfly I think can use the white clover as a host plant? So when they come up as weeds I don't remove them if I don't have anything native to replace them with, and I dead-head them. But there are other native ground cover plants, like Prunella vulgaris, yarrow, native sedges and wild strawberries too that can be ground cover options for bee lawns and would help even more insects
Native Prairie smells of beautiful chamomile. I’ve started replacing my family’s lawn with Native prairie plants and now we have so many lady bugs, fireflies, butterflies, moths and grasshoppers everywhere! The birds also come in droves!
I remember this vividly from when I was a kid and we went on nature hikes at camp or whatever, the way the prairie grass smelled like strawberries and catnip in the sunshine, A++++ recommended
as a guy who studied latin for a bit, i can say without an ounce of sarcasm that i love how this fella pronounces these latin names, it almost sounds like if formal latin survived and evolved into new languages as vulgar latin did and this would be a modern dialect of it
So great to see you in the Midwest covering some of our natives! There is a beautiful oak savanna north of me that I love to visit because it has insane amounts of plant and insect diversity.
Native Chicago-area guy right here who moved to the south of France a few years back and last summer in my new adopted city of Toulouse the municipal government called for some test areas where strips of grassy patches in between streets and sidewalks and bike paths were to be left uncut for the first part of the summer. They even went out of their way to make signs explaining all the beneficial reasons behind their decision (biodiversity, supporting pollinators, cost savings skipping mowing , etc.) and it really seemed to turn out great! My neighborhood bloomed up in stretches which was really noticeable and appreciated.
I lived in the Midwest during my formative child years, and when I learned about prairies I determined to find one that hadn't been charted yet near my home so I could visit any time I did. And I found one! It is on an odd little pie-shape piece of land near the Burlington tracks in Naperville. Would get on my bike and visit it and watch the seasons progress.
My backyard is 80 acres of prairie grasses and flowers. It’s absolutely amazingly beautiful and the smells and THE BUTTERFLY MIGRATION is coming through again this year. Two years in a row after 10+ without. The farm was purchased by pheasants forever and they planted it 3 years ago
I grew up in the burbs and was never exposed to this. When I did some conservation work in the west and came back, i was absolutely floored by how beautiful the prairie preserves. I felt robbed of that sense of wonder from my childhood. It's so important that illinois push environmental education in public school curricula. You should grow up knowing your closest prairie preserve as much as you know the layout of the museum of science and industry!
I grew up in the Chicagoland burb public school system and we definitely took field trips to see this kind of stuff. That was back late 80's early 90's
@@DarkGrottan Yep one of the biggest ones in the area is the one growing at Fermi-Lab, we'd take trips to go see it. Blackwell Forest Preserve off of Butterfield Road has a pretty big prairie stretch as well
I wish he would do more videos around Chicagoland. I love learning about the local flora. Probably boring to most people, but these are by far my favorites.
I love being in fields of goldenrod and grasses. As a kid, I used to love finding the big orb spiders that made their webs and nests in the tops of the goldenrods. You can find them by looking for the flowers being bent over to create a canopy to hide in.
I love wolf road prairie! I used to live near there, it's one of my favorite "happy places" outside. When all of the sawtooth sunflowers are in bloom, it's so beautiful.
I just let the grass grow long this year and I've loved sitting in it hearing the grasshoppers and watching the bumblebees buzzing about the potted flowers. Frogs have been sneaking in the grass too looking for slugs.
Started planting native seeds here in Texas bc of your wonderful videos, man! This drought has kicked our butts but I won't give up! ❤ Native grasses are essential to controlling water when it floods down here in Houston. Trying to support our pollinators too ❤
Who doesn't like NOT mowing a lawn?? Or throwing money at pesticides and herbicides and "aerating" it, leaving giants dirt things that look like goose poop.Leave it alone and it will take care of you. Who thought a green monoculture made sense?? "Nuff said.
Ill give you some genuine, unbiased answers: - Less bugs - Less pollen - It looks tidier to have a clean, green, mowed lawn than tall flowers, shrubs, and grasses - Some people have it as a hobby. I enjoy taking care of a lawn, I enjoy seeing that there are no weeds and it is fully green with no bald spots. I see that my efforts have caused it to go from a weedy, brown, half-bald lawn into something genuinely beautiful. I also have a flower and vegetable garden, so the grass paths make that look better, as well as provide a walkway through the garden. - Some people like the control over a lawn, this sort of ties into the previous point. Working a dead-end job that you're unhappy with, having no other hobbies to indulge in? Make your lawn look better than everyone else's in the neighborhood. - It is still seen as a status symbol to have a perfect lawn. You know where shitty lawns are found? In shitty areas where people cannot afford, or care to, make their lawn look well kept - A lot of people don't want to do it because of the liberal, hippy dippie, lazy people that might be associated with a wild lawn. In other words, because they dont like the people associated with the movement, rather than the movement itself. Of course, these are not my opinions, and they do have flaws. But I don't think it's fair to paint the "other side" of this debate as "stupid rich white yuppies that hate nature, biodiversity, and want a dictatorial control over their lawn!". I think it's important to see why the other side does it, and maybe that will make it easier to converse with them, as well as find a middle ground. Not everyone needs a grass lawn, and not everyone needs wild sunflowers and goldenrod in their front lawn.
@@MaxS535 Except for the first two, those are all pretty shallow and even petty reasons to have a manicured lawn. They fit right into the “stupid, rich, white yuppies who [don’t care about] nature and want dictatorial control over their lawn” stereotype. You can have a lawn that’s well maintained that doesn’t look like a plastic monoculture with diagonal lines. Some non-grass lawns stay green through deep drought while grass lawns go dormant and brown… unless they’re being watered, which is selfish, shortsighted, and irresponsible during water shortages. Prairie and wildflower gardens don’t have to look unkempt, either. They require work and maintenance to keep from being taken over by hardy, invasive weeds like Queen Anne’s lace, creeping thistle, and smooth brome. Like Tony said, insect pollinated flowers don’t have allergenic pollen. The grasses do, but native wildflower gardens don’t have to have prairie grasses. Prairie restorations need the grasses, but not pollinator gardens. Tony’s not completely anti lawn. If people are actually using it, like they have kids playing running around, or they play sports or bocce ball on it, or it’s a walking path between structures and gardens, then the lawn has a purpose. If the only purpose is to look fancy, that’s kind of lame, like having a huge pickup truck when you never go off-road or haul things. It feels like conformity for conformity’s sake.
Wolf Road Prarie! my Dad used to take us there when we were kids, we loved looking at the trees with knees! I still go there sometimes when I need to clear my head. You're right, it really does feel good to be around all those colorful grasses and flowers.
There’s a sweet PBS program hosted by Chicago institution Bill Curtis where it is claimed that an acre of tallgrass prairie scrubs more CO2 than an acre of rainforest. While it doesn’t have the same habitat density due to the relative lack of vertical stratification, it’s a powerful data point that shows how important prairie restoration is to our future.
Great to see you at WRP again brother!! Thanks for all you do. I’m working on the Villa Park trustees to install a prairie reconstruction on a massive open space across from Willowbrook high school out here. Man, if you’re still in town, come walk a couple acres of a true railroad Prairie remnant out here in Elmhurst. Survived between two train lines, the Chicago Great western and the Chicago Aurora and Elgin railway. Silphium city right now. 🤝
Love it! My favorite thing to do in the summer (especially early when the flowers are blooming) is walk around with a cup of coffee in the morning and watch the bees/bugs doing their thing on the prairie plants. My favorite is Prairie Dock
I had this in Northwestern Hungary, basically all native plant growth through neglect. The town tried to fine me for it, but I sold the place before they could. lol
My neighbors (who all strive for perfect monocrop chemically induced lawns) have given up. Written me off as some old hippie who loves all creatures great and small. The one admitted to me a few months ago that insects were indeed essential to life on the planet. This guy poisons the earth for a living. Farm chemicals. ONLY Chemicals. It's terrifying really seeing from the front row what people are doing to the land.
I love it as much as you do. Thanks for reminding us that we can be a part of something truly wonderful. My little acre is 2/3 pollinator plants/food forest/crazy wildness. And I get enthralled, peaceful, happy watching all the critters able to come and sustain themselves without danger of herbicides/pesticides being sprayed all over the flowers and plants. You're right about that liatris. I've got up to a dozen monarchs every day working those blooms. Next year: MORE NATIVE LIATRIS.
There was a 36 hole golf course just outside Middletown, Ohio that now looks like this prairie. I’ve taken a shit ton of swamp milkweed seeds out there and let that blow all over the place.
One thing to remember about praries: to be fully functioning ecosystemd, they need browsers: bison, deer, antelope. Not doable with a lawn or small prarie garden (except for deer that may wander in), but it's important for preserves.
We've let a lot of our yard go native, with many of the same plants you pointed out in this video. I can look out my windows and watch the various lepidoptera and bees of different families busying themselves in the sunflowers that have grown higher than the gutters on our roof. It's pure joy.
Heaven!!!💚🌱This is exactly what I am trying to do here. I dig up wild plants and bring them home when I can. It's mostly all trees on our small acre but I'm finding a bunch of new plants and grasses because I don't let my husband mow. And so many mushrooms!!
I just started doing this in my garden, pretty cool i got this video recommended. I even git grasshoppers and other insects ive never seen before in my garden BUT THE BEST THING is that my garden was so welcoming that an hedhehog female decided to build her nest here with her partner, cant wait to see all the babies.
Holy shiz, it's GLORIOUS! A dream yard! The solidago is super going off in NorCal right meow. Looks fab! Last time we went up by Bowman there were like 20 bumblebees on each stalk as far as the eye could see! Getting a nice sprinkle today to rinse and revive everything.💚🤘
Got a lot of open area with Golden Rod and milkweed at work here in Wisconsin. I picked up some native prairie seed and and going to spread it around these areas this fall. Hoping to add some diversity.
Ahhh love it Tony. Call it a morning affirmation watching you speak wisdom over the prairie at twilight. Front lawn….dead, for a couple years now. Cheers neighbor, from South Bay!
In my hometown in Alberta, Canada there are organizations and vendors that will hook you up with native seed mixes and low-height ground cover native seed mixes with which to repair your awful lawn and require minimal upkeep, water, gasoline-powered lawn mowers, herbicides, pesticides, etc. HEAL YOUR YARD, HEAL YOUR ACREAGE, HEAL YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, HEAL YOUR TOWN
Joey I'm currently doing this to my less than an acre yard here in Baltimore county, Maryland. I have over 25 native species currently and I want 50 or more. My favorite would have to be my rather large stand of Phytolacca americana. About 13ft tall at the moment. They pop up all over the property but I only want this one cluster. Do you have a favorite Piedmont species? Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to tell you that you're who inspired me. I've been watching your stuff for a long time. What you do is so impactful! now go get yourself a burrito real nice.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt Thank you, I got so excited when you saw the Lobelia cardinalis. I'm so stoked you'll be in my state. Have a great time and try to get yourself a real crab cake while you're here.
I really liked this, we need to be reminded of how interesting natural areas can be and are, especially some of the grasses. I love finding the bugs too, I live in a small senior/ disabled building in a very urban area. It sits on about 3/4 acre ( ugh mostly grass) but I’ve been allowed to make many “ gardens”, 2 years ago I got Certified Butterfly Habitat from the NBA …unfortunately this year not one monarch even though I have 2 kinds of milkweed in the back. We still have 2 kinds of Praying Mantis though! ( Chinese and South Carolina ones). Thank you so much as usual, Joey 🌿🌾🌻
@@doug8525 I hope so, only thing so far is a lot of Skippers on the self seeded biennial Black Eyed Susan type bushes. The Moonflowers ( Datura metaloides) are doing fantastic though! 🌱
Growing up there was a wonderful prairie field within walking distance of my house - absolutely gorgeous when all the wildflowers were blooming. Unfortunately, it is now a series of parking lots and supermarkets.
Oh baby, been waiting for you to do one of these. You know we love ya, time for more to get your message. Proud steward of a native yard, still a work in progress getting the invasives out. Tons of improvement in a few short years & best of all, no mowing, tons of birds!
Tony. As an old fleet sailor it's wonderful to hear someone that doesn't castrate the fucking language. Love your videos. Electronics has my heart, but botany almost seduced me. I've had an old copy of Munz around since I was in my 20's. (Could never afford Jepson) Got a comment, lose the hat! Wear a ball cap if you like, but make sure there's at least 1/2" of air space between the top of your head and the top of the hat (more is better). That'll make a little dead air space to insulate you from the sun's heat. Learned this playing around the California deserts.
At Wolf Road, I always wear leg gaiters presoaked with permethrin because I pick up ticks without them. Wolf Road is pretty bad with the ticks. And I also peel off tons of Desmodium seedpods from my clothes later in the summer. It's noisy from the traffic, outskirts are depressing condos and suburban crap. BUT all was forgiven when I saw my first Lilium philadelphicum in bloom there! It's a pretty neat place.
To be sure, there are snakes in the grass. But they can be friends too once we quit being buffoons about how we walk the prairies. ; ) On my little acre EVERYBODY is welcome.
The park in Chicago near me is growing a natural area with a walking path. It’s all come along beautifully and has grown so fast. It makes the park feels like a fantasy place. So comforting in the afternoon
god, I LOVE seeing the diversity and the color of life in all different places around earth, once we stop trying to monotonize and kill everything! It's so vast and lovely, thank you for sharing your experience of beautiful chaos. I dream of one day having a big lawn here in Denmark that I can promptly turn into a wild meadow haven.
I drive between Michigan and Ohio and because of this video I can now recognize that there's native bluestem Indian grass and native sunflowers popping up all over the areas I drive. It's a change over the past 10 years
Conservtion organizations of every state should provide, for free, shaker boxes of native plants, primarily those thay flower or can be used as herbs. They give away tree seedlings i believe but most people wouldnt benefit from the latter immediately (no butterflies, hummingbirds) so many only do it after logging. They should have programs where you collect native flora seed and can distribute it, get paid for your time, and pay shipping, etc. My tax money should go to things im passionate about
I live in a small space in the far south Chicago ‘ burbs and I have many natives. It can be done in a small area. The seeds will then disperse. Go for it!
I fucking love your videos, man. Keep being your beautiful self. Slowly been converting my urban yard into a more natural state. The city finally stopped sending me nastygrams by mail and actually encourage homeowners to participate in "No Mow May" which is a well overdue step in the right direction.
I bought my house 4 years ago, and ventured to do the same with my 2 acre back yard. Happy to say it is thriving, even attracting various species of butterfly. Backyard prairie is a whole lot cooler than my front yard lawn (5 times as big too!)
Way to be Tony! Keep doin what you’re doin. Your passion is just oozing out everywhere. A video like this is timeless and certainly has what it takes to change some perspectives on this existence. Very well said, all of it! Cheers from the big island of Hawaii
True to the kill your lawn motto, my rear backyard is kept as wild as possible. I've got loads of sorrel, wild horseradish, many different types of grasses, wild flowers galore. Crapload of pollinators and other different bugs.most importantly due the tall grasses the garden stays all year long green without watering. My neighbors were getting a bit annoyed at first but i keep a stripe a meter wide around the fencing clear so it doesn't get into their property.
hope Urbana IL saves its Weaver Park, 35 acres of which is restored prairie - and don't turn it into frickin pickleball courts. people need to do some frickin goldenrod bathing around here.
Wish I could that here, your yard is gorgeous 🤩 I tried a small plot here (A FL) over the last year but just a 10x10 spot getting thick & high massively increased our skeeter problem. I feel like a heel everytime I mow but I can't quit w malaria rebounding here💔
Recently our council decided to save money by not mowing large fields which are starting to turn into wildflower meadows. It's really beautiful.
hah! that's a win for nature AND people. really hope they understand that!
There's a lot of places out there where they enforce lawn "beautification" by enforcing mowing and grass height limits. Those places aren't getting smaller, and they are popping up all over the place. I really hope everyone does whatever they can do to fight that kind of stuff, even if it's just spreading awareness or bad mouthing the concept from an informed standpoint. Anything to stop that nonsense from spreading, it's worse than any ash or pine bore.
Should be mandatory
Awesome
To make it really work, they could do controlled burns. It’d be educational.
“Not anti-grass, we’re anti-lawn” good to know!! I’ve been rewilding my yard and guerrilla gardening along the interstate behind my house. I thought the goal was anti-grass!!
The goal is native plants to your eco region. Those may be native flowers, grasses, shrubs or trees. The idea is to bring it back to what it was. Make sure you're using natives to your area. Grasses are critical for butterflies, moths, and skippers and other animals.
@@n1ckf00c good to know!! Thank you
They're also important for filtering contaminants out of water and reducing erosion. I'm trying to focus on bunch grasses, those w/o stoloniferous or rhizomatous growth habits, those are supposed to be pretty behaved and allow wildflowers to compete. Not that all natives are necessarily bunch grasses but a lot of them are...
@@Hayley-sl9lm I have been adding a lot of clover (well the bees help a lot with that) over the past few years.
@@LibertyCairde Cool! Not sure where you are ( in the US?) but we have some native clovers out west and others in the SE I think! Sadly they are not super available in nurseries but I think that is changing slowly. They can be hard to start bc they get ravaged by European slugs. The main clovers we see everywhere like white dutch clover and red clover were brought over from Eurasia as forage plants for livestock. I do think they are more beneficial than other exotic plants and lawn grass certainly. I let a bunch of red clover grow this year because my native bumblebees like the nectar and the native seeds I put out failed to germinate in a lot of spots. The grey hair streak butterfly I think can use the white clover as a host plant? So when they come up as weeds I don't remove them if I don't have anything native to replace them with, and I dead-head them. But there are other native ground cover plants, like Prunella vulgaris, yarrow, native sedges and wild strawberries too that can be ground cover options for bee lawns and would help even more insects
Native Prairie smells of beautiful chamomile. I’ve started replacing my family’s lawn with Native prairie plants and now we have so many lady bugs, fireflies, butterflies, moths and grasshoppers everywhere! The birds also come in droves!
Good for you and thank you for giving Mama nature a bit of play space. As I watch my nose is smell-hallucinating amazing wonderful fragrances.
Same deal here, I'm right with you Jose ! Why be monocultural when you can be multicultural !
Me too. You're a legend.
I remember this vividly from when I was a kid and we went on nature hikes at camp or whatever, the way the prairie grass smelled like strawberries and catnip in the sunshine, A++++ recommended
Fireflies! I haven't seen those in years!😢
as a guy who studied latin for a bit, i can say without an ounce of sarcasm that i love how this fella pronounces these latin names, it almost sounds like if formal latin survived and evolved into new languages as vulgar latin did and this would be a modern dialect of it
Hey actually do you know how to pronounce liatris? Unlike him I've always said "LEE-uh-tris" but I know no latineers
So great to see you in the Midwest covering some of our natives! There is a beautiful oak savanna north of me that I love to visit because it has insane amounts of plant and insect diversity.
I got to go up there a few years ago. Beautiful biome we don't get to see very often
Native Chicago-area guy right here who moved to the south of France a few years back and last summer in my new adopted city of Toulouse the municipal government called for some test areas where strips of grassy patches in between streets and sidewalks and bike paths were to be left uncut for the first part of the summer. They even went out of their way to make signs explaining all the beneficial reasons behind their decision (biodiversity, supporting pollinators, cost savings skipping mowing , etc.) and it really seemed to turn out great! My neighborhood bloomed up in stretches which was really noticeable and appreciated.
I don't think the neighbours like my wild lawn replacement - but the insects love it, and so do I.
I lived in the Midwest during my formative child years, and when I learned about prairies I determined to find one that hadn't been charted yet near my home so I could visit any time I did. And I found one! It is on an odd little pie-shape piece of land near the Burlington tracks in Naperville. Would get on my bike and visit it and watch the seasons progress.
Been watching Kill Your Lawn recently. It's so good! Every episode I wonder "is this real life?"
Filming season 2 right here in Chicago this week and next. Hopefully they are even better
My backyard is 80 acres of prairie grasses and flowers. It’s absolutely amazingly beautiful and the smells and THE BUTTERFLY MIGRATION is coming through again this year. Two years in a row after 10+ without. The farm was purchased by pheasants forever and they planted it 3 years ago
King 👑
I never knew pheasants had hands
I'm jealous. most people don't even have a small 10m squared backyard.
I grew up in the burbs and was never exposed to this. When I did some conservation work in the west and came back, i was absolutely floored by how beautiful the prairie preserves. I felt robbed of that sense of wonder from my childhood. It's so important that illinois push environmental education in public school curricula. You should grow up knowing your closest prairie preserve as much as you know the layout of the museum of science and industry!
I grew up in the Chicagoland burb public school system and we definitely took field trips to see this kind of stuff. That was back late 80's early 90's
@@DarkGrottan Yep one of the biggest ones in the area is the one growing at Fermi-Lab, we'd take trips to go see it. Blackwell Forest Preserve off of Butterfield Road has a pretty big prairie stretch as well
I wish he would do more videos around Chicagoland. I love learning about the local flora. Probably boring to most people, but these are by far my favorites.
Not even! I'm from California, and I didn't know you had such cool flowers and grasses there.
🍀✌️😎🦋
Glacial Park up in McHenry Co. would be a great place to shoot footage.
Same i live in chicago to and I actively visit the places he talks about lmao
Me too. I searched his account for all of the Illinois videos
I love being in fields of goldenrod and grasses. As a kid, I used to love finding the big orb spiders that made their webs and nests in the tops of the goldenrods. You can find them by looking for the flowers being bent over to create a canopy to hide in.
I love wolf road prairie! I used to live near there, it's one of my favorite "happy places" outside. When all of the sawtooth sunflowers are in bloom, it's so beautiful.
I just let the grass grow long this year and I've loved sitting in it hearing the grasshoppers and watching the bumblebees buzzing about the potted flowers. Frogs have been sneaking in the grass too looking for slugs.
Started planting native seeds here in Texas bc of your wonderful videos, man! This drought has kicked our butts but I won't give up! ❤ Native grasses are essential to controlling water when it floods down here in Houston. Trying to support our pollinators too ❤
How in the hell do you not want this instead of a lawn, you don't have to do a damn thing to it except breathe and enjoy
Who doesn't like NOT mowing a lawn?? Or throwing money at pesticides and herbicides and "aerating" it, leaving giants dirt things that look like goose poop.Leave it alone and it will take care of you. Who thought a green monoculture made sense?? "Nuff said.
Less mosquitoes and less feeling of control over a patch of land.
It's all about the illusion of control and order.
Ill give you some genuine, unbiased answers:
- Less bugs
- Less pollen
- It looks tidier to have a clean, green, mowed lawn than tall flowers, shrubs, and grasses
- Some people have it as a hobby. I enjoy taking care of a lawn, I enjoy seeing that there are no weeds and it is fully green with no bald spots. I see that my efforts have caused it to go from a weedy, brown, half-bald lawn into something genuinely beautiful. I also have a flower and vegetable garden, so the grass paths make that look better, as well as provide a walkway through the garden.
- Some people like the control over a lawn, this sort of ties into the previous point. Working a dead-end job that you're unhappy with, having no other hobbies to indulge in? Make your lawn look better than everyone else's in the neighborhood.
- It is still seen as a status symbol to have a perfect lawn. You know where shitty lawns are found? In shitty areas where people cannot afford, or care to, make their lawn look well kept
- A lot of people don't want to do it because of the liberal, hippy dippie, lazy people that might be associated with a wild lawn. In other words, because they dont like the people associated with the movement, rather than the movement itself.
Of course, these are not my opinions, and they do have flaws. But I don't think it's fair to paint the "other side" of this debate as "stupid rich white yuppies that hate nature, biodiversity, and want a dictatorial control over their lawn!". I think it's important to see why the other side does it, and maybe that will make it easier to converse with them, as well as find a middle ground. Not everyone needs a grass lawn, and not everyone needs wild sunflowers and goldenrod in their front lawn.
@@MaxS535 Except for the first two, those are all pretty shallow and even petty reasons to have a manicured lawn. They fit right into the “stupid, rich, white yuppies who [don’t care about] nature and want dictatorial control over their lawn” stereotype.
You can have a lawn that’s well maintained that doesn’t look like a plastic monoculture with diagonal lines. Some non-grass lawns stay green through deep drought while grass lawns go dormant and brown… unless they’re being watered, which is selfish, shortsighted, and irresponsible during water shortages.
Prairie and wildflower gardens don’t have to look unkempt, either. They require work and maintenance to keep from being taken over by hardy, invasive weeds like Queen Anne’s lace, creeping thistle, and smooth brome. Like Tony said, insect pollinated flowers don’t have allergenic pollen. The grasses do, but native wildflower gardens don’t have to have prairie grasses. Prairie restorations need the grasses, but not pollinator gardens.
Tony’s not completely anti lawn. If people are actually using it, like they have kids playing running around, or they play sports or bocce ball on it, or it’s a walking path between structures and gardens, then the lawn has a purpose. If the only purpose is to look fancy, that’s kind of lame, like having a huge pickup truck when you never go off-road or haul things. It feels like conformity for conformity’s sake.
Wolf Road Prarie! my Dad used to take us there when we were kids, we loved looking at the trees with knees! I still go there sometimes when I need to clear my head. You're right, it really does feel good to be around all those colorful grasses and flowers.
There’s a sweet PBS program hosted by Chicago institution Bill Curtis where it is claimed that an acre of tallgrass prairie scrubs more CO2 than an acre of rainforest. While it doesn’t have the same habitat density due to the relative lack of vertical stratification, it’s a powerful data point that shows how important prairie restoration is to our future.
Yay! Another IL prairie video! More new videos of Midwest native plants please!
I'm planning on cutting up my front lawn this fall and seeding with native wildflowers. Vamos.
Great to see you at WRP again brother!! Thanks for all you do. I’m working on the Villa Park trustees to install a prairie reconstruction on a massive open space across from Willowbrook high school out here.
Man, if you’re still in town, come walk a couple acres of a true railroad Prairie remnant out here in Elmhurst. Survived between two train lines, the Chicago Great western and the Chicago Aurora and Elgin railway. Silphium city right now. 🤝
The mixed plains boreal forest in southern Ontario where I live is also in bloom right now. So many beautiful natives.
Thank you for all you do Tony!
Standing beneath the Midwest prairie giants like Big Bluestem and Prairie Dock is truly magical.
"Embrace the Beautiful Chaos of the Prairie" needs to be on a shirt.
Looks amazing. I'm always excited when I see similar efforts here in the UK.
Love it! My favorite thing to do in the summer (especially early when the flowers are blooming) is walk around with a cup of coffee in the morning and watch the bees/bugs doing their thing on the prairie plants. My favorite is Prairie Dock
I'm trying to cultivate a native forest/prairie out here in the soybean fields of central Illinois and this is so inspirational 🙏
Thank you. That's where we need it most
I had this in Northwestern Hungary, basically all native plant growth through neglect. The town tried to fine me for it, but I sold the place before they could. lol
Love your work brother awesome watching from Scotland 🏴🏴🏴
I loooove out native illinois prairies and savannas so much. I appreciate you highlighting them!
Being from da south side, I appreciate when you do these episodes in Illinois… I’m in Spokane, WA now… come here and do dis shite!
My front lawn looks similar, a bit more tame but I adore it 😍 I dont care what my neighbors think I love my natural native garden
My neighbors (who all strive for perfect monocrop chemically induced lawns) have given up. Written me off as some old hippie who loves all creatures great and small. The one admitted to me a few months ago that insects were indeed essential to life on the planet. This guy poisons the earth for a living. Farm chemicals. ONLY Chemicals. It's terrifying really seeing from the front row what people are doing to the land.
I love it as much as you do. Thanks for reminding us that we can be a part of something truly wonderful. My little acre is 2/3 pollinator plants/food forest/crazy wildness. And I get enthralled, peaceful, happy watching all the critters able to come and sustain themselves without danger of herbicides/pesticides being sprayed all over the flowers and plants. You're right about that liatris. I've got up to a dozen monarchs every day working those blooms. Next year: MORE NATIVE LIATRIS.
There was a 36 hole golf course just outside Middletown, Ohio that now looks like this prairie. I’ve taken a shit ton of swamp milkweed seeds out there and let that blow all over the place.
One thing to remember about praries: to be fully functioning ecosystemd, they need browsers: bison, deer, antelope. Not doable with a lawn or small prarie garden (except for deer that may wander in), but it's important for preserves.
We've let a lot of our yard go native, with many of the same plants you pointed out in this video. I can look out my windows and watch the various lepidoptera and bees of different families busying themselves in the sunflowers that have grown higher than the gutters on our roof. It's pure joy.
I grew up near the Morton Arboretum and we alway took class trips to visit different sections including their Illinois Prarie... good stuff
Heaven!!!💚🌱This is exactly what I am trying to do here. I dig up wild plants and bring them home when I can. It's mostly all trees on our small acre but I'm finding a bunch of new plants and grasses because I don't let my husband mow. And so many mushrooms!!
I just started doing this in my garden, pretty cool i got this video recommended. I even git grasshoppers and other insects ive never seen before in my garden BUT THE BEST THING is that my garden was so welcoming that an hedhehog female decided to build her nest here with her partner, cant wait to see all the babies.
Loved this new format! Make a few more and see how they go. Shotgunning all that information was satisfying.
Right on Tony, I love your message. 👍
Just aggressively telling you how nice flowers are and to look at a sunset lol
I’m here for it
Holy shiz, it's GLORIOUS! A dream yard!
The solidago is super going off in NorCal right meow. Looks fab! Last time we went up by Bowman there were like 20 bumblebees on each stalk as far as the eye could see! Getting a nice sprinkle today to rinse and revive everything.💚🤘
Got a lot of open area with Golden Rod and milkweed at work here in Wisconsin. I picked up some native prairie seed and and going to spread it around these areas this fall. Hoping to add some diversity.
Ahhh love it Tony. Call it a morning affirmation watching you speak wisdom over the prairie at twilight. Front lawn….dead, for a couple years now.
Cheers neighbor, from South Bay!
In my hometown in Alberta, Canada there are organizations and vendors that will hook you up with native seed mixes and low-height ground cover native seed mixes with which to repair your awful lawn and require minimal upkeep, water, gasoline-powered lawn mowers, herbicides, pesticides, etc. HEAL YOUR YARD, HEAL YOUR ACREAGE, HEAL YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, HEAL YOUR TOWN
My fiancee lives in alberta what town is it that does this and maybe I can hook her up
Joey I'm currently doing this to my less than an acre yard here in Baltimore county, Maryland. I have over 25 native species currently and I want 50 or more. My favorite would have to be my rather large stand of Phytolacca americana. About 13ft tall at the moment. They pop up all over the property but I only want this one cluster. Do you have a favorite Piedmont species? Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to tell you that you're who inspired me. I've been watching your stuff for a long time. What you do is so impactful! now go get yourself a burrito real nice.
So kind of you. I owe yiz one 🙏🤘
We'll be there in October FYI
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt Thank you, I got so excited when you saw the Lobelia cardinalis. I'm so stoked you'll be in my state. Have a great time and try to get yourself a real crab cake while you're here.
Great message, keep going. Much love and respect to you J!!!
Looks beautiful. Thank you for sharing all your knowledge and passion for botany. Your channel literally rules the botany and science charts.
Another great video from the all knowing Joey Santore .
i was having such a terrible morning. this video cheered me right up. absolutely love your channel and work. thank you
Dude, I thoroughly enjoy your enthusiasm!
I really liked this, we need to be reminded of how interesting natural areas can be and are, especially some of the grasses. I love finding the bugs too, I live in a small senior/ disabled building in a very urban area. It sits on about 3/4 acre ( ugh mostly grass) but I’ve been allowed to make many “ gardens”, 2 years ago I got Certified Butterfly Habitat from the NBA …unfortunately this year not one monarch even though I have 2 kinds of milkweed in the back. We still have 2 kinds of Praying Mantis though! ( Chinese and South Carolina ones). Thank you so much as usual, Joey 🌿🌾🌻
Be patient! I bet monarchs show up eventually! I hope everyone enjoys your gardens, and take care.........
@@doug8525 I hope so, only thing so far is a lot of Skippers on the self seeded biennial Black Eyed Susan type bushes. The Moonflowers ( Datura metaloides) are doing fantastic though! 🌱
Growing up there was a wonderful prairie field within walking distance of my house - absolutely gorgeous when all the wildflowers were blooming.
Unfortunately, it is now a series of parking lots and supermarkets.
Oh baby, been waiting for you to do one of these. You know we love ya, time for more to get your message. Proud steward of a native yard, still a work in progress getting the invasives out. Tons of improvement in a few short years & best of all, no mowing, tons of birds!
Tony. As an old fleet sailor it's wonderful to hear someone that doesn't castrate the fucking language. Love your videos. Electronics has my heart, but botany almost seduced me. I've had an old copy of Munz around since I was in my 20's. (Could never afford Jepson)
Got a comment, lose the hat! Wear a ball cap if you like, but make sure there's at least 1/2" of air space between the top of your head and the top of the hat (more is better). That'll make a little dead air space to insulate you from the sun's heat. Learned this playing around the California deserts.
I love listening to the background noise of birds and insects.
Love the prairie and seeing you on camera.
imagine the horror of being lawn grass
" im going to grow up big and tall !! "
and then the weekend rolls around
I'm with you 100%! I got rid of my lawn and just let the wild flowers grow amongst the veg.
At Wolf Road, I always wear leg gaiters presoaked with permethrin because I pick up ticks without them. Wolf Road is pretty bad with the ticks. And I also peel off tons of Desmodium seedpods from my clothes later in the summer. It's noisy from the traffic, outskirts are depressing condos and suburban crap. BUT all was forgiven when I saw my first Lilium philadelphicum in bloom there! It's a pretty neat place.
Man, you are the best! I hope you and yours are all well, and thank you for what you do!
If I could take a nature walk with anyone, it would be this guy right here. ✌️🙌
I like how all these plants tolerate each other, like there’s room for everyone.....so nice!
The collective have been brainwashed into believing in FEAR about wild chaos.
To be sure, there are snakes in the grass. But they can be friends too once we quit being buffoons about how we walk the prairies. ; )
On my little acre EVERYBODY is welcome.
Fear is awfully seductive. There's so much we don't know at any given moment.
To your point. On a warm day you'd be surrounded by butterflies, Bees and other beautiful pollinators. It sounds like a heaven on earth.
The park in Chicago near me is growing a natural area with a walking path. It’s all come along beautifully and has grown so fast. It makes the park feels like a fantasy place. So comforting in the afternoon
Started ripping up my lawn this week brother, that's all on you. ✌🇦🇺
god, I LOVE seeing the diversity and the color of life in all different places around earth, once we stop trying to monotonize and kill everything! It's so vast and lovely, thank you for sharing your experience of beautiful chaos. I dream of one day having a big lawn here in Denmark that I can promptly turn into a wild meadow haven.
I drive between Michigan and Ohio and because of this video I can now recognize that there's native bluestem Indian grass and native sunflowers popping up all over the areas I drive. It's a change over the past 10 years
Illinois Beach State Park (especially the south end). The place is ultimate for the feeling he describes in this video.
TH-cam recommending me the best content
thank you for your service 🙏 for sharing your knowledge in such an entertaining and digestible manner. you’re the man. keep up the good work!
100% agree!!!! My front yard is mostly garden and pumpkin patch!
Thank you. I appreciate your knowledge and videos. I love the field of botany! Rock on plantman!
It was so nice running into you at the botanic gardens today and I hope I wasn’t too annoying. Love all of your videos!
Love everything about this, from the lessons on wild flora to the attitudes towards crime and the petite bourgeoisie
Guess I'll have to stick around
Love it.❤ That's such an important point, too, about how we need natural nature to ground ourselves.
Conservtion organizations of every state should provide, for free, shaker boxes of native plants, primarily those thay flower or can be used as herbs. They give away tree seedlings i believe but most people wouldnt benefit from the latter immediately (no butterflies, hummingbirds) so many only do it after logging. They should have programs where you collect native flora seed and can distribute it, get paid for your time, and pay shipping, etc. My tax money should go to things im passionate about
I live in a small space in the far south Chicago ‘ burbs and I have many natives. It can be done in a small area. The seeds will then disperse. Go for it!
Postage Stamp Prairie
I fucking love your videos, man. Keep being your beautiful self.
Slowly been converting my urban yard into a more natural state. The city finally stopped sending me nastygrams by mail and actually encourage homeowners to participate in "No Mow May" which is a well overdue step in the right direction.
I bought my house 4 years ago, and ventured to do the same with my 2 acre back yard. Happy to say it is thriving, even attracting various species of butterfly. Backyard prairie is a whole lot cooler than my front yard lawn (5 times as big too!)
Is this the preview of the long-awaited CPBBD/Native Habitat Project collab?
Oh brother a walk in the fields and prairies would heal my soul right now. That ain't something i can do down here on the border. Bless ❤
Beautiful chaos and beautiful video. Thank you!
Native plants are my jam! 😊
Way to be Tony! Keep doin what you’re doin. Your passion is just oozing out everywhere.
A video like this is timeless and certainly has what it takes to change some perspectives on this existence. Very well said, all of it!
Cheers from the big island of Hawaii
True to the kill your lawn motto, my rear backyard is kept as wild as possible. I've got loads of sorrel, wild horseradish, many different types of grasses, wild flowers galore. Crapload of pollinators and other different bugs.most importantly due the tall grasses the garden stays all year long green without watering. My neighbors were getting a bit annoyed at first but i keep a stripe a meter wide around the fencing clear so it doesn't get into their property.
Human beings have to look at the chaotic repeating patterns of plant life to be ok. This seems to be pretty clear anywhere on earth you look.
Looks beautiful. Would love to experience it
Hey Joey I love this short format, but I hate the vertical video. Love your stuff
Thank you Joey 🫶
It's amazing how many people out there don't know what a field looks like when you just let it grow.
Everything about this video is stunning. 🌾💚🌟
hope Urbana IL saves its Weaver Park, 35 acres of which is restored prairie - and don't turn it into frickin pickleball courts. people need to do some frickin goldenrod bathing around here.
Wish I could that here, your yard is gorgeous 🤩 I tried a small plot here (A FL) over the last year but just a 10x10 spot getting thick & high massively increased our skeeter problem. I feel like a heel everytime I mow but I can't quit w malaria rebounding here💔
I love when Joey talks Latin to me
My neighbor is going to think you're a terrorist.. Mf-er loves mowing his yard at 8 AM.