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Commercial-Land-6806@reddit

Have the furthest thing from a perfect lawn and do 0 landscaping. Which infuriates my neighbors who are retired and spend their entire time caring for their lawns.

Sorry guys I work and after a 12 hour shift the last thing I think about is weeding.

Doesn't help it's been raining on my days off so right now it's even worse than usual.

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Sorry to laugh at a sincere question. The lawns are a personal point of pride among homeowners. You either do it yourself or you pay someone, but it *must* be done or there'll be informal social sanctions.

If it gets really bad, the city will often issue fines.

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Ok-Possibility-9826@reddit

HOAs. You can be fined for not maintaining your lawn.

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ZaphodG@reddit

My wife has a masters degree in landscape design. It’s not her day job but the yard is her passion. There isn’t much lawn. 2/3 of the front is either beds or cobblestone driveway. The back is an Ipe deck, 2’ x 3’ Pennsylvania bluestone patio, and beds. Less than half of it is lawn. Pollinators for the hummingbirds and bees. Bird feeders and suet. Hummingbird feeders. Birdbaths. Bird houses. Normally, we have clover patches in the back yard we don’t mow for the bunnies to eat but it was a new lawn last fall so no clover yet. No pesticides or chemicals.

I can sit on the Ipe deck with the Cornell Merlin bird call ID application on my phone and it will identify a dozen species in a minute or two. The yard is alive, not sterile.

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carmineragu@reddit

We do it ourselves or hire a lawn care company. It’s actually a point of pride in suburbia to have the nicest lawn on the street.

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ProfessorrFate@reddit

Yes, point of personal pride. But also the idea that you’re doing your part to keep “our” neighborhood looking sharp. Some feel a communitarian motivation to maintain their yard well.

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SincerelyCynical@reddit

We joke about this because of how often people ask for our landscaper’s contact info.

I explain that it helps that I sleep with my landscaper, but it still takes a minute for them to get it 😂

OP, lawn care is a family value in my husband’s family. They all have lawns that look like they are AI-generated, and they all do themselves. It goes so far that my 18 year-old nephew started a business four years ago. But not just a kid with a mower. By 16 he had six employees in uniform and still his own income was more than double the poverty line for adults.

A good lawn has to be mowed, weeded, edged, and more.

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mooshinformation@reddit

My friend growing up (who already had a very nice lawn) used to get passive aggressive notes from their neighbor if there was a dandelion or something. They did not have a HOA, the neighbor was just insufferable.

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letsplaydrben@reddit

I don’t have a perfect lawn. I’m not good at landscaping and don’t care enough to learn. I mow to keep it short but it the stereotypical perfect green lawn. Too much work and water.

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Taanistat@reddit

Same. My next-door neighbor on the other hand...his lawn is his warm-westher personality. I cut and trim every week to two weeks depending on how much rain we've had. Meanwhile captain curb appeal is out at 7:30pm on a Wednesday still mowing...and then again on Saturday morning. Then there is all the weeding, plucking, pruning, watering and fertilizing in between. And I have to admit, homeboy has a beautiful lawn. In the summer he's always chilling or grilling on his deck.

I just don't use mone the way he does to put that kind of energy into it.

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sneezyailurophile@reddit

Oh man we had a neighbor like this. We would joke, “oh there’s Jared again, tweezing his lawn!”

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Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit

I’m guessing he enjoys the process, just being outside and working. Some people enjoy that far more than I do

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Taanistat@reddit

Oh yeah, he definitely enjoys it. As soon as it's regularly above 70°F he's out there, shirtless, doing yard work while tanning.

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MountainDude95@reddit

I always say that as long as it’s short and green, I don’t care. And tbf it’s brown and scraggly a lot of the time.

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ghost_suburbia@reddit

The 2 nicest lawns on our street are owned by an English immigrant family and a Welsh immigrant family. Constant leaf blowing, weeding, mowing, mulching. They are a menace with noise. Not a weed in sight, perfect green lawns. Picture perfect azaleas and flowers. The rest of us...not so much. We try though.

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bh0@reddit

People like to keep the biggest purchase/investment of their lives looking good. It really doesn’t take much effort to cut the grass once a week, trim the bushes once or twice a year, etc… it’s easy if you stay on top of it and keep you landscaping on the simpler/easier side.

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amc365@reddit

My yard currently looks like ass

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emmasdad01@reddit

Residents or they hire landscapers. It is pride in ownership and maintaining something that you worked hard to obtain.

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SailAwayToTheMoon@reddit

It’s also common for Americans to task yard maintenance duties to their children. I mowed, trimmed, hedged, and aerated lawns as chores until I finally flew the coup.

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arcticmischief@reddit

As a teen, it was my job to cut the grass.

I HATED it.

That, and shoveling the snow, is probably what led me to my intentional life choices to avoid ever having to do that again. I rent an apartment specifically so I do not have to do yardwork.

I would happily buy a condo for the same reason, but in my area, zoning regulations and developer practices don’t really prioritize multifamily owner occupied units, only rentals. So choosing between buying a single-family home with a yard or an apartment with no maintenance, I choose the latter.

I am seen as an outlier. Most Americans grow up with the suburban American home as the ideal. I’m looked down upon for renting when I could afford to buy a house. It doesn’t occur to most Americans that some people might actually prefer not to spend their weekends making their yard look good. Ironically, well I know some people enjoy spending time in their yards or have kids that like to play on them, I literally never see any of my family members that judge me for renting ever spend any time outside on their lawns. They mainrian them purely for aesthetics and not utility. Such a waste.

And of course, our big houses with even bigger yards being the default way that most Americans live, or aspire to live, means that the vast majority of our residential areas in our country are not dense enough to support walkability and transit use, so everybody has to have a car—plus, our Euclidean zoning ideals mean that huge areas of our towns are set aside for residential only with no commercial, so you can’t even build a grocery store or even a coffee shop or pub anywhere close to where people live. So the only option is to drive to those places.

Just remember that as you spend your time playing around with Google Street View. I remember seeing a reel once posted by a German guy who said he always envied American suburban neighborhoods until he actually went to visit a friend in one and realized that he was trapped because he didn’t have a car. The images captured by the Google camera car look nice, but drop your pin somewhere and then iterate click by click from that house to the nearest grocery store and imagine yourself walking there.

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SabresBills69@reddit

most do it themselves, some hire teenagers, some hire home landscaping crews.

the philosophy is on keeping a nice lawn increases home value.

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I-am-a-constant-LIAR@reddit

My lawn gets enough rain and sun that if I don't mow it, the house looks abandoned.

I don't have anything but lawn, and a small potted garden front or back, but I have to mow two or three times a week, if I only did it once a week, the grass would be over 6 inches being mowed.

So, my lawn always shows as a lush carpet, perfect lawn. Just one of the benefits I have of living here. And, before I get asked, I do not know what type of grass it is. Neither do the landscapers who have asked me.

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dunncrew@reddit

Scruffy imperfect lawns are better for local environment. I prefer not living in those sterile neighborhoods.

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ObjectiveElefant@reddit

I’m in Florida and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t hire someone to mow regularly and then also have a Lawncare company on top of that (fertilizer, weed control), or do these things themselves. People really pride themselves on their lawns and in many areas, it’s mandated. Lots of homeowner’s associations.

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Quick-Ostrich2020@reddit

That's crazy to me. I live in Colorado and Im sure there are many people who do this here but I don't know any. Most of my neighbors have xeriscaped or pollinator gardens as their lawns.

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crw201@reddit

Florida is much wetter than the majority of Colorado. I would assume Colorado has stricter water restrictions at times.

Also HOAs rule Florida.

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gasolinedreaming@reddit

I’m an American and I don’t really get it either. I don’t even think “perfect” manicured lawns look all that good. They look plastic and fake to me. I have noticed a growing movement of people doing away with their lawns altogether and planting native wildflowers instead to make their yard look like a gorgeous meadow.

To more directly answer the question though, I’ll echo what others have said. In many places there are HOA’s that can be super strict, even as to dictate how long a property’s grass can be and what sort of plants can grow. I think this is meant to maintain the value of the properties, I guess.

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mrggy@reddit

The HOA can fine you if your lawn doesn't comply with regulations. We had a laissez-faire approach to the lawn growing up and got lots of angry letters from the HOA about it. We always cut the grass before they issued a fine, but we got pretty close

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guy_icognit0@reddit

If I remember correctly. Lawns were actually a British thing. It started as a flex for nobility. " i'm so rich. Just look at all this land I don't need to have crops on." It's the same mentality but on a 1/8th of an acre.

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AggressiveKing8314@reddit

You think are lawns are perfect? So nice of you to say.

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Fluid_Guard_Pie@reddit

I dont understand it. I personally love having dandelions in my grass, they are cheery and good for the bees. Whoever came up with the concept of identifying them as the enemy to lawn care was insane.

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TenMoon@reddit

That all depends on where you live. I live twenty miles south of the city, and I let the dandelions grow like crazy. I don't even mow the back part of my property for the sake of wildlife. There's a dead tree still standing that produces oyster mushrooms every fall, so it gets to stay.

I hate lawn culture. Many people share my opinion.

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DGlen@reddit

HOA

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dogsRgr8too@reddit

I hate it. We've lost so much of our bird population because those perfect lawns don't have the seeds and bugs the birds need. There is a growing movement to support native plants. I hope more people join.

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xxfireangel13xx@reddit

HOAs are a big factor too. There’s a lot of neighborhoods that don’t have nice yards though too.

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InsertNovelAnswer@reddit

I keep it clean and mowed for a couple of reasons. The first is that I spend a lot of time outside in my yard. The second, I have a dog (harder to pick up his poo if it's long).

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Outlaw_Josie_Snails@reddit

Residents maintain their own lawns or hire professional landscaping companies, which commercial properties also utilize. Public spaces are typically maintained by public works departments funded by taxpayer dollars.

There are many areas in the United States that do not have an abundance of grass due to climate conditions or water restrictions, such as Arizona and Nevada. They are "xeriscaping" : This is the practice of landscaping that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. For example, instead of Kentucky Bluegrass, you’ll see crushed rock, decomposed granite, and drought-tolerant plants like agave or cacti.

Additionally, many people are moving away from traditional lawns in favor of native plants and permaculture. This shift is better for the environment because it attracts bees for pollination, reduces chemical runoff, and decreases water usage.

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MarkyGalore@reddit

I'm native american and I have a love for lawns. I say it's my most "white person thing." My sister-in-law bought a house and the first thing she said to her sisters was, "We have a white person's lawn!"

It;'s a chore that you have to maintain. It's like a crop or field but we don't need that today so we invented lawns.

Here is a short story about kids in the city who go out of the way to make a lawn where they can https://www.englishscholar.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Antaeus.pdf

What's up with Americans and their perfect lawns?

Good question. We don't even know why.

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LivingTheBoringLife@reddit

I have a yard guy. He comes weekly in the summer time.

I live in an hoa and they have rules concerning the plants and grass so it’s just easier to pay a guy who knows how to maintain it all.

I do fertilize the lawn and the plants myself though.

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Total_Roll@reddit

Many neighborhood associations will fine you for not maintaining standards.

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eightfingeredtypist@reddit

Perfect lawns started out copying big lawns on rich houses in Great Britain. Landscape architects like Olmstead popularized expanses of perfect green lawns with a lonely tree here and there, mostly filled in wetlands.

Tract houses that destroyed landscape covered up the subsoil with lawn, perfect lawn. Television advertising pushed the idea that family harmony, civic pride, personal satisfaction came with a perfect lawn.

People lost the ability to do much outdoors besides go at their lawn with machines. I live in a rural area, mostly woods. City people move out or get a weekend place, and spend all their spare time using machines on their lawn. Meanwhile, the natural wonders of the forest lie just beyond the tree line.

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Deep_Contribution552@reddit

We don’t all have perfect lawns but in many neighborhoods there’s social pressure and homeowners’ association rules about maintaining your lawn. Some people do everything themselves, some people hire a lawn care service. It’s big business here, there’s ~1 million people who have their primary job in lawn maintenance or groundskeeping (although many of them work mainly on commercial or public property instead of private homes)

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lky830@reddit

This is the answer the OP needs. Lawns in nicer areas are usually homes bound to an HOA, so they’re probably forced to maintain them to a certain appearance.

Culturally speaking, people that live in these kinds of places tend to have more disposable income to throw at their lawns anyway, and for many having the best lawn on the street is a source of pride. Same principle as having the shiniest, biggest truck or whatever.

I’m just glad my SO takes care of it for me, because I could not care less about lawn maintenance. I’d be that person that cuts the grass just often enough to keep the city from posting passive aggressive notes on my door, but my house is also mercifully HOA free lol

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bdanred@reddit

In the bigger nicer areas it's more likely that they have someone do it for them. The average house probably does it themselves. I do my own. Theres a lot of jokes about it but its almost a competition, especially among dad's. Gotta try to be the nicest looking lawn among my neighbors. Theres 4 people I "compete" with.

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Ov_Fire@reddit

HOAs will do ficki ficki if lawn is 0,1mm too tall.

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MyDogSam-15@reddit

Americans take alot of pride in their curb appeal. I don’t know anyone where I live in Michigan who has a “gardener “, although we do hire landscape companies to do some upkeep for us. But many of my relatives in California have “gardeners”. In states like Michigan we have lots of work outside to maintain our homes through all the seasons. The grass and flower seasons aren’t long enough for all money and effort we put into them. But, unfortunately, very few people care about the damage to the environment from the fertilizers and chemicals used to make their yards look so good.

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sleepygreendoor@reddit

Don’t forget that artificial grass is a thing! Looks so real right up until you’re about to walk on it

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Outrageous_Glove_796@reddit

I wouldn't mind just letting it grow wild. I would feel bad, though, at the snakes that would attract biting the children and dogs that walk along my property. I also don't really want tall brush near the house with as dry as it's been.

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Ainjhel32@reddit

Depending on where you live, cities and HOA's can find you if your lawn isn't kept up to a certain standard. It's also a game of one upping your neighbors by having a 'nicer' yard.

That being said, there is a push for more natural lawns. Replacing the grass with local plants that often require less maintenance and help keep insect populations up

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Antioch666@reddit

In suburbia there are two main reasons. One is an actual point of pride... the other is HOA... 😅

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Quirky-Invite7664@reddit

My husband and I enjoy gardening. His thing is caring for the lawn, I’m the tree/shrub/flower person.

But we’re getting older (and I’ve developed a joint disorder), so occasionally we hire people to help with certain things that are more physical.

My parents passed on their love of gardening and nature to me. I really enjoy watching things grow. We spend a lot of time on our back porch, enjoying nature.

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AdAutomatic6654@reddit

Lawns are a culture in America. If it’s not kept up at a minimum, you’re assumed to be a trashy person.

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mm_honey@reddit

yeah my husband and I commonly joke that we gotta get the yardwork done cause “what would the neighbors think?!” we also take pride in being the first to shovel our driveways in a snowstorm 😂

i know, it’s so dumb 😂

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Frosty_Employment171@reddit

It's not dumb to care about yourself.

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Quick-Ostrich2020@reddit

That came from the British btw

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permalink_child@reddit

My lawn is all weeds.

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Hot_Equivalent_8707@reddit

Same. And moss. But it's all green.

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dwhite21787@reddit

As a kid, we had a neighbor with a lawn. I don’t remember what species the grass was, but it was like a shag carpet, awesome to lay on. Which of course he hated, and hollered at us.

So now I have a home with a yard. We have 3 random indigenous grasses, several small wild flowers amongst those, clover, dandelions, etc. all good resources for bees, birds and others. We park on it under the oak in summer. It gets used.

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Emergency-Whereas978@reddit

It's normal to maintain your lawn. I always felt guilty if I didn't keep up with it. And always did it myself, until my boys were old enough to mow and help weed. Retired overseas 4 years ago, Dont miss the yard work.

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Quick-Ostrich2020@reddit

I’d say there are plenty of Americans, myself included, who don’t feel any need to impress people with an ecologically lifeless lawn. Many of us are part of a growing movement toward native lawns and more natural yards. Instead of traditional turf, we create spaces that function more like gardens, with flowers, native plants, and sometimes xeriscaping—especially in semi-arid climates like mine. It’s also important to remember that the United States is a very large country with many different climates and biomes, so attitudes toward lawns can vary a lot depending on the region

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Impressive-Weird-908@reddit

Look up ClimateTown. They have a whole video that actually explains it. Most people here don’t know.

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1EMurph1@reddit

If you’re the last person on your street to wake up Saturday morning then you’re the loser of your street. Just don’t be last outside with your mower and you’ll good 👍

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tetlee@reddit

I live in Arizona and most people don't have lawns but still pay some one to take care of the yard. If you live in an area with an HOA they'll complain if you don't maintain it.

I used to live in England and enjoyed taking care of my garden. Screw doing that here in the heat, it's not fun to me anymore.

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Potential-Impact2638@reddit

Perfect = sterile and devoid of life. Lawn culture is so bad for our native plants and insects here.

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lost_nurse602@reddit

We do all our own yard work but we just mow. We don’t live in an area where people have nice lawns. There’s actually quite a few people in our neighborhood who are converting their yards into naive plant gardens or butterfly gardens. I like it a lot better than a cut grass lawn.

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aspenpurdue@reddit

Check out YouTube for lawncare makeover videos to see that not everyone has perfectly manicured lawns. Most people with lawns however, do take pride in upkeep of their lawns and most do the upkeep themselves.

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3mptyspaces@reddit

Ha, you should see my lawn! My god, I have 500 things better to do and I hate fertilizer. I mow & trim the green carpet of grass/weeds etc. but that’s it. I’m slowly replacing it with paths and gardens.

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4travelers@reddit

Check out New England, much less perfect lawns. Califonia and Florida have dirt brought in, sprinklers, and lawn care. Real Florida lawns look green but are not the fluffy nice to walk on grass you think they are.

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hobbes747@reddit

Watch a cartoon called King of the Hill for your research

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Ok-Sport-5528@reddit

My lawn is far from perfect. Got some weeds and dead spots. We don’t fertilize. My husband and I barely have enough time in our schedules to keep up with the weekly mowing. 🤣

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jibaro1953@reddit

It actually goes back to the beautiful lawns of English estates.

Even though our climate is not righr for it.

Narcissistic nonsense IMO.

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kmoonster@reddit

Some do it as a hobby themselves, some hire a landscaper. The city does not usually do private property unless the property is derelict.

The obsession comes from the idea of demonstrating a little wealth, very much the same sort of idea as Lords / nobles would do with estates. Just at a more personal scale.

The practice is evolving, it is strong in some areas and starting to diverge widely in others, so ymmv as you bounce around the country.

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o93mink@reddit

Like with most things Europeans ask us about, WE LEARNED IT FROM YOU!

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tacosandsunscreen@reddit

I live rural and there’s wayyy less pressure about lawns here. I mow when I get around to it. There are sticks and weeds in the yard. Maybe there’s a dead spot here or there. It’s not one homogeneous type of grass. Most of my yard isn’t visible to anyone but me and I’m surrounded by woods.

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Rhapdodic_Wax11235@reddit

Chemicals!!!

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Iwentforalongwalk@reddit

It's required by city ordinances in many places to maintain your lawn appropriately. Its also a point of pride to live decently and not allow your place to become rundown.

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GoddessOfOddness@reddit

It also affects property values. A house next to an eyesore loses some value.

Cutting grass is a common teenage summer job for the entrepreneurial sort.

How often depends on area, rain, etc. Sometimes two weeks is too long to wait, sometimes three weeks is fine.

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Airamis0007@reddit

It became a pride thing related to how “well off” a family was…you could afford to use your property space for just manicured grass. Basically, it began as an ego thing in 1950’s suburbia. Before that, it was common to have gardens in the front of the house instead of a lawn because even homes on smaller lots traditionally grew a good chunk of their own food. We’re starting to slowly see things swing back the other way with the steep rise in popularity of homesteading. Permaculture is starting to be implemented more and more, resulting in natural, self sustaining food forests, etc.

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IReplyWithLebowski@reddit

I’m more interested in you “as a Brit” spending hours on Street View. Is that a common thing for Brits to do?

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West_Put2548@reddit

well...no one wants to actually visit your country atm

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IReplyWithLebowski@reddit

Australia?

I probably shouldn’t have commented, it just came up in my feed.

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Impossible_Memory_65@reddit

As an American, I too explore the world through Street View.

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_Veronica_@reddit

It sounds fun and interesting - virtually “walking” down the street in another country and observing differences.

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xivilex@reddit

I do this all the time. It’s super fun! I learned which village my grandparents came from in Romania before they came through Ellis Island, and I was able to take a tour there through the countryside🥺

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cnation01@reddit

I look around over there quite a bit on street view lmao. Im in the Midwest and the British countryside is amazing. So, I go on street view to see it

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xivilex@reddit

I mean, as an American I take tours on Google Street view all over the world. It’s super fun to look and learn other country’s buildings, signs, traffic signs and geography.

Do you not do this? I highly recommended it if you’re ever bored lol it’s fun as hell

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xivilex@reddit

I mean, as an American I take tours on Google Street view all over the world. It’s super fun to look and learn other country’s buildings, signs, traffic signs and geography.

Do you not do this? I highly recommended it if you’re ever bored lol it’s fun as hell

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gasolinedreaming@reddit

Idk but as an American I do this too sometimes. It’s fun to check out other places when you aren’t actually able to travel there because of work or financial constraints

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ArickxEightOne@reddit

Most are far from perfect but look perfect from afar. We just have a lot of grass that's pretty easily maintained by mowing once weekly. It is actually useless and people are starting to gravitate towards more native wildflowers and clover to help the pollinators.

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cnation01@reddit

Spending time in the garden is a hobby of mine so I keep it pretty well maintained.

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PA_MallowPrincess_98@reddit

If you don't have a well kept lawn, people might think you're a trashy person. That's why the HOA exists😂

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CindersMom_515@reddit

We live in an HOA. Part of the fee we pay every month includes lawn care and maintaining the front garden.

We are older and moved to a community like this because we were tired of maintaining it ourselves.

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mothman83@reddit

This is very funny because as Americans, we are always struck by the perfect gardens of the UK. The nation of gardeners.

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confused_lancelot@reddit

yeah I definitely associate lawns with Britain. never tried to figure out why until now! I was also laughing at the “California” comment in this because…. where in California? most of us don’t even have lawns anymore. the number of years we’ve been in drought over the last two decades has led MANY people to change their lawns to less water-intensive front yards (sometimes native plants, sometimes just… rock gardens), and basically everyone else to just let their lawn die every summer.

I guess I don’t live anywhere near an HOA, though, and there’s definitely rich people who are dedicated to keeping those invasive grasses green. plus, I only see a small part of the state, so who knows what’s going on in the central valley?

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oliviashrewtonbong@reddit

I've lived in both places. It's mostly rich people in both countries that have nice gardens. Tourists tend to steer clear of shitty areas so there's some confirmation bias at play

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fattymcbuttface69@reddit

We are?

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Accomplished-Car4069@reddit

not really

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WendyWilliamsFart@reddit

You’ve generalized a massive swath of an entire continent based on your hyper-localized google earth meanderings.

Traditional American lawns are, indeed, very Lynchian and have creepy crawlers underneath.

Multitudes exist tho. This redditor’s PNW garden is resplendent and I wear red blue jeans when I walk through it.

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divinerebel@reddit

Depends on the location! My father used to mow the lawn at our Maryland (middle of the East coast) house (we had about 3 acres of grass) every weekend in the summer. A lot of people, traditionally men, take great pride in a perfectly mowed, lush green lawn. Or lawn was a lovely, soft Kentucky Bluegrass.

When my parents moved to a retirement community in Florida, the whole community has a landscaping service. It's part of the deal.

A good example of American lawn culture is shown in Hank Hill, of King of the Hill. Any episode, really, although a few specifically deal with his lawn. Just google any of that.

Also, gardening in general is a very popular hobby. There are competitions, neigbborhood showcases and tours, and just a general sense of peace and/or accomplishment for some people. Landscape design, or specifically growers of roses, orchids, peonies, etc....it's a whole thing.

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John-Dune-Awakening@reddit

If you're rich you can often afford groundskeepers but the vast majority of people just do it themselves. Great place for the kids to play.

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skatoulaki@reddit

Homeowners usually maintain their lawns themselves or hire someone to maintain them. I think if we let our lawns get overgrown, we'd have a mosquito problem, and mosquitoes carry disease.

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DefrockedWizard1@reddit

actually mental illness in my opinion. years ago I had house in the burbs and was the one house on the block not in the HMO. over 4 years that I lived there was accosted by 4 different neighbors with various complaints. one literally tried to pull the morality card, that the sign of a good person is a well maintained lawn. this psycho literally mowed his lawn six times a week and would alternate mowing vertical, horizontal the alternating diagonals. I laughed in his face. when I finally moved a guy 3 doors up came down and said, "I know we've never met, but I'll miss you.'

why?

because all the HMO meetings are about how they all hate your lawn and with you gone, they'll pick on me

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VirtualMatter2@reddit

The Germans in certain parts are like this too. Maybe it's something they brought to the US in the old days. The lord makes devil's work of idle hands and all that. My neighbours are like this too.

I much prefer the UK gardens to the German ones.

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Murderhornet212@reddit

Hahahaha we don’t have public services that help us with stuff

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Ms-Metal@reddit

Mainly we do our own but sometimes we hire a mowing service or Landscaping service, it's not really gardeners as in what you see on tv. Also, most HOAs actually require you to maintain your Lawns and other plantings in a certain way. In fact in my community we had to plan to certain amount of trees a certain amount of bushes and a certain number of annuals. Yeah I get it everybody's going to say don't live in an HOA Community but if you want to live in my state, you pretty much have to live in an HOA Community unless you have a really old house.

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seaneihm@reddit

It's a dick measuring contest. A nice lawn means you have money and time. It means you buy good fertilizer, can afford to hire a gardener/spend time gardening, and (if you're in California) money for water.

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MsPooka@reddit

Maybe you're in an HOA area. My lawn is far from perfect. I'm yet to even touch it this year. But the weather's been so crazy it's too hot to work outside until I get used to it.

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Certain_Shake_5157@reddit

The city will send you a notice and charge a fine if you let weed grow too tall, rats or the likes of animals will thrive there.

Other people do care about aesthetic

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

Much of this are going to be homes subject to HOA bylaws that often dictate not only that the lawn be kept neatly trimmed, but also what types of plants can be grown, what color houses can be painted, etc. Though even in non HOA communities there are often city ordinances requiring the grass to be kept cut, etc. failing to do so will result in a notice of non compliance, and if not promptly cut, often the city will dispatch a crew to cut the lawn then bill the property owner,(usually at several times the going rate)

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Acceptable_Essay_475@reddit

Alaska

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swishkabobbin@reddit

Lol at the idea that government would do anything to serve the public in America.

It is a mix of the other two options, depending on income level and physical ability.