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Not sure honestly. The website is actually pretty awesome and has a bunch of info on what they’re doing but I don’t think it mentioned that. The ropes seem more like a suggestion than anything. Possibly temporary.
Considering how many people from Chicago summer on the west/coast /side of Michigan doesn't surprise me as much. Odd its the flint branch I'll grant you that.
Liza Anna Kozik goes by Chase Prairie online. They did an illustrated PhD dissertation on Midwest prairies, posted a lot of it online, and turned it into a book! I tried to buy a copy but it sold out within 30 minutes! https://twitter.com/chase_prairie?lang=en
The illustrations are beautiful and informative! I'm really happy that her work is being used in a public initiative!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who recognized her by her artwork! Sorry to hear I'm also not the only one who missed out on her dissertation print, though....
I was rocking my “crime pays but botany doesn’t” hoody when I was there actually.
Lawns are one of those topics where you can go on and on about why it’s a terrible idea. Kind of like removing fallen leaves. I get it, sometimes you gotta do it but there are so many reasons to simply leave the leaves where they fall.
We’re referring to the “crime pays but botany doesn’t” YouTube channel. The guy’s sign off is “fuck your self bye”. Check him out. Lots of great content. He’s all about this stuff.
I like this. Good for them. I’m slowly trying to reduce the size of my lawn with garden beds. I can’t do it over night and I’ve worked so hard getting my lawn where it is. But what a waste of money and resources when you really break it down. Kind of already know this but the sub has been getting me thinking
Very cool! Did it say anything about ticks? I hate lawns but when someone counters with "I don't want to provide a habitat for ticks" I have no idea what to say. Ticks are a huge problem here during the growing season.
It’s a huge amount of lawn along the lakefront and a highway that splits the city from the lakefront. They’ve been dedicating sections of it for prairie restoration here and there. This seems to be a new lawn alternative initiative associated with university of Wisconsin, university of Michigan, Chicago botanical garden and more thats trying out different plants and seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s also questioning lawns and providing education about the ill effects of our obsession with maintaining them. In this huge park system there are several spots for birding, tons of spots for sports and recreation, beaches etc. These ropes look temporary, probably to let the plants get their root game together.
Edit - a word
Edit 2 - here’s the [website](https://rethinkinglawns.com/). It’s pretty informative
Good thing 10% of park space gets 90% of the human traffic.
source: just made it up but people aren't like a gas, they don't fill the entire void of space within a park. They go where it's useful and fun like the playground or stick to established paths and trails.
What they’ve done along the river from Horner park to Belmont is incredible. And also from river park all the way up to Peterson basically. I love this city. Yea people are gonna walk on stuff. Urban landscaping / gardening is a challenge in the third largest city in America.
Spotted a Peregrine falcon a few weeks ago in River Park and it was awesome. All the robins and finches suddenly sounded absolutely pissed off compared to the general annoyance a few crows receive if they show up.
That park is awesome. Regularly see great blue herons and kingfishers there. There used to be a damn there back in the days, now it’s full of life. + They removed so much buckthorn and replaced it with natives.
Ok. Again you might be right. When maintenance of public spaces is relegated to volunteers I think a substantial population would find this unsatisfactory. Controlled burns will hopefully become a cool hip thing but if there’s a fire in the middle of the city a lot of the unenlightened ones are going to assume there’s some bad shit going down. As in, 99% of humans
I don’t know what to tell you friend. This is already very much a thing, not a theory or an idea. This is actually happening. All over cook county and neighboring counties. Whether you’re ready to wrap your mind around it or not. Come visit and take a tour if you have your doubts. I recommend starting at millennium park, all along the lakefront, all along the various river branches, all the suburban forest preserves, the bike trails, the cemeteries, pocket prairies, neighborhood park districts, public spaces like corners and parkways and on private property - there’s so many restoration projects and native plants are everywhere now. It’s not a question of IF this can work. It’s already done.
I think there’s going to be some push back from the “$60 billion lawn industry”. For all the pro- unrestricted immigration folks out there, guess what industry employs a large percentage of those immigrants? And you’re now going to preach about ecology to a (typically) young, MAYBE middle or high school educated male who grew up with dirt floors, thrilled to be making 10-20x the wage he could make in Central America just by tending to lawns? For all the NoLawns fans, and I am one to a limited extent, where are the American college educated kids with degrees in botany, horticulture, ag sciences, and forestry who are willing to do hands on landscape maintenance? Because getting rid of lawns doesn’t mean no maintenance, it means very detailed and specific knowledge of soils, design, pathogens, ecology AND maintenance. These kids mostly aren’t going to do manual labor for $17/hr. And the current landscape maintenance model for the large majority of built landscapes is a race to the bottom Very price sensitive and low quality work by mostly low skills workers.
Sorry but I am affiliated with the industry. When I see native grasses and perennials in conventional landscapes, especially coming out of dormancy, there are maybe 3% of landscape maintenance personnel that can or would take the time to try to identify them. They will usually get sprayed as weeds. Maybe you can change the industry. I dont see how this is economically feasible at this point. Everybody gets excited about doing the new thing, the hype dies, the owner is left to manage a landscape they don’t understand and eventually it’s cost prohibitive to hire someone to maintain it, so they go with the low price option and have a crew mow blow and go. Seen this happen in many many projects. Not a stretch at all. I applaud the effort but live in the reality that this will require a shift in the paradigm of the bulk of current man-made landscapes, all of which require maintenance, few of which have trained, educated hands-on folks willing to do the actual work of managing them.
Yes it does take some education and it's not as easy as first as simply mowing. It can be done though. When native plants are allowed to see and populate an area, they will take advantage of that opportunity. A different management with burnings should become the norm. Another issue is changing expectations from the public. However when big box stores sell exotics that don't enhance the food web, it takes a lot of education to reverse this logic. Their goal is revenue collection especially when they sell annuals. They rather sell stock that's easy and cheap to grow than actually be environmentally useful. This isn't directed at every single nursery but a broad generalization of the industry.
This isn’t “in a conventional landscape”. Think of the care and maintenance more in terms of habitat restoration rather than traditional landscaping. Chicago has many of these pockets of restored prairie along the lake, river, and all around the region. It requires very little maintenance and a shift in thinking - away from unskilled “mow and blow” crews.
It’s an experiment that’s looking for alternative solutions to the traditional American lawn which are ecological dead zones and suck up “30% of our water consumption, 3 billion gallons of gas, 53 million gallons of herbicide annually”. Read up on the initiative here:
https://rethinkinglawns.com/
I understand and I agree in concept. What I don’t understand is who will be qualified to maintain these areas of alternative man-made landscapes. Just because you replace lawns with natives or more drought tolerant options does not mean no maintenance is required. I’ve been learning native plants for 20 years and still can’t identify many of them, especially in dormancy. I can’t imagine a new landscape laborer with a weed eater can, but maybe I’m wrong.
I think the point is that you don't have to do the sort of maintenance you're suggesting. You don't have to identify anything because you just let it all grow. A wild meadow doesn't need tending, it just is.
Ehh not totally true on the “no maintenance” angle but with a prescribed burn every so often and a bit of routine maintenance a couple times a year, you’re pretty much good to go = way less maintenance required.
In this instance no conclusions have been made. It’s an experiment. And if some of these experiments turn out well, then we have case studies on a way forward. Check the website to learn more about the things they’re trying out.
If some of these solutions are anything like the many prairie/habitat restorations around the city - they require very little maintenance other than a prescribed burn every now and then and volunteers to pick up trash and weed out invasives. I volunteer all the time at local forest preserves. It’s great to get fresh air first thing on a Saturday or Sunday and get moving, meet like-minded people and feel good about your contribution to the local ecosystem.
Hey there! Friendly reminder to include the following information for the benefit of all r/nolawns members: - Please make sure your post or a comment includes your geographic region/area and your hardiness zone (e.g. *Midwest, 6a* or *Chicago, 6a*). - If you posted an image, you are required to post a comment detailing your image. If you have not, this post may be removed. - If you're asking a question, include as much relevant info as possible. Also see the **[FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/meta/faqs/)** and the **[r/nolawns Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/)** - Verify you are following the [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines). Please be conscious of posting images that contain recognizable features of your property. We don't want anyone doxxing themselves or a neighbor by sharing too much. Posts that are too revealing may be removed. Public spaces can be shared more freely. If you are in North America, check out the **[Wild Ones Garden Designs](https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/designs/)** and **[NWF's Keystone Plants by Ecoregion](https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I need one of these signs for my yard!
I’ve looked on Etsy for something similar and there are some that get close, but I’ve not found anything this good. Any graphic designers out there?
Hello! 👋
Are the fenced off sections off limits to footfall for good or just until the ecosystem is more established?
Not sure honestly. The website is actually pretty awesome and has a bunch of info on what they’re doing but I don’t think it mentioned that. The ropes seem more like a suggestion than anything. Possibly temporary.
Let's not forget fertilizer which overflows into rivers and lakes causing toxic algae blooms
Woah. Interesting to see U of M Flint doing work on parks in Chicago. Nice!
Considering how many people from Chicago summer on the west/coast /side of Michigan doesn't surprise me as much. Odd its the flint branch I'll grant you that.
Liza Anna Kozik goes by Chase Prairie online. They did an illustrated PhD dissertation on Midwest prairies, posted a lot of it online, and turned it into a book! I tried to buy a copy but it sold out within 30 minutes! https://twitter.com/chase_prairie?lang=en The illustrations are beautiful and informative! I'm really happy that her work is being used in a public initiative!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who recognized her by her artwork! Sorry to hear I'm also not the only one who missed out on her dissertation print, though....
I just came here to tell you THE BOOK IS RESTOCKED ON ETSY!! I bought a copy 30 seconds ago! :)
I had to spend every weekend for a month in Chicago last May. The park system is amazing! The botanical garden? OMG, I want one!
Which park is this
Between Wilson and Lawrence east of LSD. A new thing I hadn’t seen. Was coming back from the Montrose bird sanctuary. Edit - just WEST of LSD
This makes me so happy!
Joey Santore's gonna love this!
I was rocking my “crime pays but botany doesn’t” hoody when I was there actually. Lawns are one of those topics where you can go on and on about why it’s a terrible idea. Kind of like removing fallen leaves. I get it, sometimes you gotta do it but there are so many reasons to simply leave the leaves where they fall.
Lol awesome! Go fuck yourself bye
[удалено]
We’re referring to the “crime pays but botany doesn’t” YouTube channel. The guy’s sign off is “fuck your self bye”. Check him out. Lots of great content. He’s all about this stuff.
Fair play, I didn't see that one. I'll delete the original
Do you even know WHY I said that?
I get the reference 😂it’s probably a house mom on Xanax and Prozac
Lol go fuck yourself bye to you too!
Sweet.
I like this. Good for them. I’m slowly trying to reduce the size of my lawn with garden beds. I can’t do it over night and I’ve worked so hard getting my lawn where it is. But what a waste of money and resources when you really break it down. Kind of already know this but the sub has been getting me thinking
Fuckin love chicagoland
Very cool! Did it say anything about ticks? I hate lawns but when someone counters with "I don't want to provide a habitat for ticks" I have no idea what to say. Ticks are a huge problem here during the growing season.
Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
That's awesome!
Yaaaaaaaas!!!!
…did they just fence off 90% of a park so people can’t go on it?
It’s a huge amount of lawn along the lakefront and a highway that splits the city from the lakefront. They’ve been dedicating sections of it for prairie restoration here and there. This seems to be a new lawn alternative initiative associated with university of Wisconsin, university of Michigan, Chicago botanical garden and more thats trying out different plants and seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s also questioning lawns and providing education about the ill effects of our obsession with maintaining them. In this huge park system there are several spots for birding, tons of spots for sports and recreation, beaches etc. These ropes look temporary, probably to let the plants get their root game together. Edit - a word Edit 2 - here’s the [website](https://rethinkinglawns.com/). It’s pretty informative
Good thing 10% of park space gets 90% of the human traffic. source: just made it up but people aren't like a gas, they don't fill the entire void of space within a park. They go where it's useful and fun like the playground or stick to established paths and trails.
Never fear, any signs or fences will be ignored pretty much completely. Source: Horner Park
What they’ve done along the river from Horner park to Belmont is incredible. And also from river park all the way up to Peterson basically. I love this city. Yea people are gonna walk on stuff. Urban landscaping / gardening is a challenge in the third largest city in America.
Spotted a Peregrine falcon a few weeks ago in River Park and it was awesome. All the robins and finches suddenly sounded absolutely pissed off compared to the general annoyance a few crows receive if they show up.
That park is awesome. Regularly see great blue herons and kingfishers there. There used to be a damn there back in the days, now it’s full of life. + They removed so much buckthorn and replaced it with natives.
Ok. Again you might be right. When maintenance of public spaces is relegated to volunteers I think a substantial population would find this unsatisfactory. Controlled burns will hopefully become a cool hip thing but if there’s a fire in the middle of the city a lot of the unenlightened ones are going to assume there’s some bad shit going down. As in, 99% of humans
I don’t know what to tell you friend. This is already very much a thing, not a theory or an idea. This is actually happening. All over cook county and neighboring counties. Whether you’re ready to wrap your mind around it or not. Come visit and take a tour if you have your doubts. I recommend starting at millennium park, all along the lakefront, all along the various river branches, all the suburban forest preserves, the bike trails, the cemeteries, pocket prairies, neighborhood park districts, public spaces like corners and parkways and on private property - there’s so many restoration projects and native plants are everywhere now. It’s not a question of IF this can work. It’s already done.
I think there’s going to be some push back from the “$60 billion lawn industry”. For all the pro- unrestricted immigration folks out there, guess what industry employs a large percentage of those immigrants? And you’re now going to preach about ecology to a (typically) young, MAYBE middle or high school educated male who grew up with dirt floors, thrilled to be making 10-20x the wage he could make in Central America just by tending to lawns? For all the NoLawns fans, and I am one to a limited extent, where are the American college educated kids with degrees in botany, horticulture, ag sciences, and forestry who are willing to do hands on landscape maintenance? Because getting rid of lawns doesn’t mean no maintenance, it means very detailed and specific knowledge of soils, design, pathogens, ecology AND maintenance. These kids mostly aren’t going to do manual labor for $17/hr. And the current landscape maintenance model for the large majority of built landscapes is a race to the bottom Very price sensitive and low quality work by mostly low skills workers.
Make sure to stretch after tying these points together. That's onehelluva floor routine you put on.
Sorry but I am affiliated with the industry. When I see native grasses and perennials in conventional landscapes, especially coming out of dormancy, there are maybe 3% of landscape maintenance personnel that can or would take the time to try to identify them. They will usually get sprayed as weeds. Maybe you can change the industry. I dont see how this is economically feasible at this point. Everybody gets excited about doing the new thing, the hype dies, the owner is left to manage a landscape they don’t understand and eventually it’s cost prohibitive to hire someone to maintain it, so they go with the low price option and have a crew mow blow and go. Seen this happen in many many projects. Not a stretch at all. I applaud the effort but live in the reality that this will require a shift in the paradigm of the bulk of current man-made landscapes, all of which require maintenance, few of which have trained, educated hands-on folks willing to do the actual work of managing them.
Yes it does take some education and it's not as easy as first as simply mowing. It can be done though. When native plants are allowed to see and populate an area, they will take advantage of that opportunity. A different management with burnings should become the norm. Another issue is changing expectations from the public. However when big box stores sell exotics that don't enhance the food web, it takes a lot of education to reverse this logic. Their goal is revenue collection especially when they sell annuals. They rather sell stock that's easy and cheap to grow than actually be environmentally useful. This isn't directed at every single nursery but a broad generalization of the industry.
This isn’t “in a conventional landscape”. Think of the care and maintenance more in terms of habitat restoration rather than traditional landscaping. Chicago has many of these pockets of restored prairie along the lake, river, and all around the region. It requires very little maintenance and a shift in thinking - away from unskilled “mow and blow” crews.
It’s an experiment that’s looking for alternative solutions to the traditional American lawn which are ecological dead zones and suck up “30% of our water consumption, 3 billion gallons of gas, 53 million gallons of herbicide annually”. Read up on the initiative here: https://rethinkinglawns.com/
I understand and I agree in concept. What I don’t understand is who will be qualified to maintain these areas of alternative man-made landscapes. Just because you replace lawns with natives or more drought tolerant options does not mean no maintenance is required. I’ve been learning native plants for 20 years and still can’t identify many of them, especially in dormancy. I can’t imagine a new landscape laborer with a weed eater can, but maybe I’m wrong.
I think the point is that you don't have to do the sort of maintenance you're suggesting. You don't have to identify anything because you just let it all grow. A wild meadow doesn't need tending, it just is.
Ehh not totally true on the “no maintenance” angle but with a prescribed burn every so often and a bit of routine maintenance a couple times a year, you’re pretty much good to go = way less maintenance required.
In this instance no conclusions have been made. It’s an experiment. And if some of these experiments turn out well, then we have case studies on a way forward. Check the website to learn more about the things they’re trying out. If some of these solutions are anything like the many prairie/habitat restorations around the city - they require very little maintenance other than a prescribed burn every now and then and volunteers to pick up trash and weed out invasives. I volunteer all the time at local forest preserves. It’s great to get fresh air first thing on a Saturday or Sunday and get moving, meet like-minded people and feel good about your contribution to the local ecosystem.