If West Virginia had a state extreme sport, it would be all-terrain lawn mowing. White water rafting and base jumping have nothing on the death-defying acts I have seen people perpetrate on lawn mowers.
And I get it, I really do. Hank Hill is my personal hero.
I understand the appeal of a clean yard. Mowing grass is the middle-class male equivalent to meditation. I've mowed enough grass in my life to carpet the moon in lawn.
It's often what I do for a living, and when I get home I sometimes do it again just to relax. I've done some of my best thinking while mowing. If I found out the world was going to run out of oil tomorrow, I would seriously contemplate if I had enough gas to mow my grass one more time.
But we have got to draw the line somewhere.
Here is my plea for weeds. We have an amazing variety of native and naturalized plants in West Virginia. Common in fields and fence rows but usually not allowed in well-groomed yards. Fleabane, milkweed, heal-all, yarrow, dandelion, oxeye daisies, nettle, butterfly weed, vetch, violets, black-eyed Susans, ironweed, wingstem, joe-pye weed, pokeberry, thistle, teasel and goldenrod, just to name a few.
Commonly referred to as weeds, and at some point designated as evil, we have fought a war against them. We mow them down weekly and spray them with poisons just for good measure. But why?
Every one of these plants is beneficial in one way or another. These wildflowers are habitat for things we love like lightings bugs and butterflies. Some are edible. Some are medicinal, food for the songbirds and the life's work of bees. At the very least they are appealing to the eye.
The best part is, they are already here, we don't have to plant them and we don't have to take care of them. All we have to do is refrain from mowing them down all the time.
We mow hundreds of miles of black-eyed Susans and daisies along the interstate, then plant postage stamp fields of poppies and put up signs that say "wildflowers" just so no one gets confused. It's silly.
People want to save the bees? You can plant pollinator gardens all day, buy every flower at the greenhouse and still not help as many bees as you would have if you just let a piece of your lawn go to wildflowers. If you want to save the bees, grow a field of weeds.
But the lawn! I know, I'm treading on sacred ground, but hear me out. It doesn't have to be the whole thing. Just pick a spot out of the way, where you don't usually go. Pick a corner of the backyard. Maybe leave a border at the edge of the woods.
You could start with the spot on the bank you struggle to reach with the weed eater, or maybe you could stop mowing the wet spot or that place where you nearly roll the lawnmower over every time. That's a good place to stop mowing.
The primary skill to this weed-gardening strategy is patience. I know you're going to want to mow it. For a while it just looks like you missed a spot. But here's the thing: Most of the weeds I mentioned above have an annual life cycle.
They take a whole year to grow, bloom and go to seed. Luckily, this life cycle means they die off every year, and then you can easily mow them down in the fall or winter. It also means the longer you keep up this yearly routine, the more wildflowers will come back.
If you mow once a year like this, it means you can still maintain control. Keep brush from coming up and, at the same time, increase the biodiversity in your yard by a hundred-fold.
One rule I like to suggest to people is not to kill anything in the yard until you know its name, where it comes from, whether it's invasive or not and what it's good for. People are much less likely to mow down the milkweed along the creek when they realize that's where the butterflies come from.
So it's that easy. Pick a place and pledge to only mow it once a year. See what comes up, let it bloom, don't kill anything until you know what it is, and for God sake, if it's too steep, don't mow - let it grow!
Alex Cole is a native of Fraziers Bottom who's been landscaping all of his life and currently lives off the grid in a small, solar-powered cabin he built on a 217-acre farm that has been in his family for six generations. Alex has expertise in permaculture design, maintaining vegetable gardens, repairing riparian zones and creating all new perennial and pollinator gardens. Reach Alex at alexcole989@gmail.com.