Manicured lawns are an obsession here too, and quite an unhealthy one because soft, lush, dark green lawns aren't really compatible with the Australian climate, they are very much a colonial affectation. I too like to let nature take its course with mine; I let leaves and flower clippings rot, and have a pile of lawnmower cuttings that is home to about a billion worms.
I was watching Bluey with my kids this afternoon and there's an episode where they're playing in the yard and the dad spends hours mesmerised by the vein patterns on a leaf. I'm a bit like that too, I get a big therapeutic rush from weeding, do the edging with long handled scissors instead of the noisy convenience of a whipper snipper, and I like to lie on the grass when it's dry and watch the bees in the clover and all the other little life forms in the miniature forest the lawn provides.
It never ceases to disgust me how people in this city continually knock down old homes with mature gardens and build these cubic monstrosities that cover nearly every square inch of the block in concrete and plastic. On a summer day you can walk down my street and the temperature goes up 5-10 degrees when you pass a new build. Oh, but they have solar panels! We're saved!
