Hi All,

Wow, my little research projects have been indeed a can and a half of worms, I’ve got some updates coming, but there’s still a long way to go before things can be narrowed down definitively, however, the other day, I stumbled upon this, and thought it would be worth sharing! I’ve been watching this channel for a while, but hadn’t noticed this vid till now!
Hi All,

Wow, my little research projects have been indeed a can and a half of worms
G'day Mr Davis Yeah, that's been my experience too.
That's a great video. I had not seen it before but I am familiar with The History Guy's stuff. Many thanks and I hope members get something from it.
What stood out for me was the North American take on the history of the lawn. Generally, UK history starts from the 17th Century, but this video traces the origins of 'the lawn' to the 12th Century!
Another thing that stood out - to me - was the different take on the domestic lawn, and the growth of urban sprawl - the suburbs.
We seem to have favoured the British in focusing on the 'backyard'. North Americans were much more 'showy' in making a statement of the front yard. The reasons for this are so interesting!
The final bit of interest were the North American stats - about labour spent on lawns and injury caused by lawnmowers. Amazing!
A very thought-provoking video, Ty. I wonder what the future of the lawn will be ...?
Nice to see Australia got a mention at the end of this doco.
The future ??? who knows, but I can't see too many expanses of Lawn around Apartment Blocks that's for sure ?
Eventually lawns will only be used in public areas I'd say as space will be at a premium and water costs will keep going up as infrastructure needs to be replaced with a high price attached to pay for it all.
Meanwhile enjoy your Scotty's folks.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
An interesting video. A lot of farmers in Aus and around the world, had sheep ,horses goats that made the grass around the house like a lawn, just from the animals... As for that sythe lawn cutting. In Papua New Guinea, that had a system of a mini sythe, you just swung and cut grass with a sharp 4 inch section at the bottom. Still used today for clearing small weeds, but could cut a lawn.. Certainly easier that a proper sythe. cheers speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
When we lived on the farm in Gippsland my father made up one of those for cutting bracken where he couldn't get the tractor into. He uses a piece of steel plate about 10 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Both sides were sharpened so all he had to do was swing it side to side, a very effective slasher
There is certainly a decline in lawn area happening everyday aound here. Nearly every good old house that had a massive front yard and back yard are getting bulldozed and replaced with double story dog boxes, the lawns are getting replaced with bricks and concrete all over the place. The only little patch of grass that these damn developers can't touch or change is the tiny patch of council owned nature strips at the front of the properties.
Another thing I have noticed around here in Melbourne mainly in the inner suburbs is I guess a trend or change with people trying to be greener and maybe these hipster style groups is they are ditching the old petrol burning dirty lawnmowers and just going back to using a traditional manual push reel type mower. I have now seen quite a few people around these area's out on the nature strip pushing a reel type mower to mow that little patch of grass. I also bought a Victa 2 stroke lawnmower a few months ago from a guy on Gumtree that said they no longer used it as they now just use a manual push reel mower for the front nature strip. They did seem to be the sort of new greener hipster type folk though. The front of the house was all concreted and they had raised veggie patches in the front yard.
I have a feeling that this may be happening more and more as many younger folk want to be more greener and planet friendly. I think you will see more push reel mowers used for small lawn patches and more electric rotary mowers used in the future as lawn sizes get smaller and people want to be greener.
Well the last time I was in Bunnings I saw a Victa manual push reel type mower on the shop floor, and I was thinking I can't believe they still have them for sale. This was before I saw people out there using them recently...lol. Now i'm thinking gees Victa is smart, they have all bases covered when it comes to mowing that's for sure! lol
Cheers!
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay, another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!
I also feel it is the developers getting greedier and as such covering every square inch with concrete or bricks.
I remember a time when Councils had regulations on how much of your land you were allowed to cover and what percentage had to remain open to absorb water. This was all about not placing so much strain of the storm water infrastructure, but now it seems that every amount of land is covered and thus all run off feeds into the storm water system after the piddly little rainwater tank is full.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
You are spot on there mate around here it feels like the developers have got a green light to do as they please on the land. I know this area as I have grown up here and have watched things change over 40 years or so. One thing I have noticed is there wasn't all that much development before the year 2000 say. Then after that you would see maybe 1 new double storey house go up every now and then. As the years have gone past the new housing have just boomed to now you can't drive down a street or road around here where there isn't a new damn multi unit complex or double storey house going up all over the place!
Even my old schools here when the governments of the time and I blame both sides Libs or Labs, they just abandoned the old state schools and sold them off to the local greedy council for next to nothing. So what did our lovely local council do with all the newly acquired almost free public land? They said oh well no government wants to repair or rebuild any new schools on the massive blocks of land so they sold them to a developer for a premium and the council pockets all the profits. Now they have built massive double storey units all over the school land. It's a absolute eyesore and nasty looking building. I think that Pentridge Prison in Coburg actually looks better than what they have built here. It makes me sick to the stomach what councils and local governments will allow developers to build now. I have also now seen they are allowing 3 storey and even higher to be built right next to single level houses! I think it's gone too far double storey is bad enough, but 3 and higher? Is there any limit at all? Seriously.
Another thing I have noticed is the local parks that years ago really when everyone had front and back yards were always quiet and people only gathered when they played football or cricket on the weekends. Now i've noticed as more people are living in units and apartments with no yards they are all travelling to the local parks to see greenery and walk their dogs most of the day. I have never seen the local park as busy as I have seen lately. You can certainly tell something is changing.
I actually said this to a developer around here as he was starting to build another backyard double storey prison. I said "Mate where are your kids going to one day play and where is your dog going to run around when you will have no yard at all once you build those things, his answer was "Oh i'll just go to the local park or something".
Well anyway yes the future of lawns around here will definitely be there won't be many left at all with the developments going the way they are. The only big lawns left will be public parkland and the council nature strips and the odd old school house where people still have a front and back yard.
Also if you notice the council is mostly on the developers side, they get money from them when they build with all sorts of permits and regulations. Then the council rubs their dirty greedy hands as they get more money from a developer than the lonely old single house ratepayer that has paid their bills all their life and doesn't have a say at all when a mongrel developer buys land next to you and can build whatever they like, doesn't matter if they destroy your view or your privacy. Then if you want to object you are already on the back foot with all their rules and methods of objecting it has to be a certain way and in writing and addressed to a certain person. How can say an elderly person that can't use a computer or doesn't have the internet try to object to a new developer next door in any way when the only way they can object to a planning permit is in writing and in an email to a certain person at the council? Doesn't seem quite fair for the objector, but it's a great system for the damn developer!
Basically the way the system is now if your a developer the council is on your side. I think it should be all the neighbours get asked before anyone can build if they agree or not if they want their view and privacy for 40 or more years to be thrown out the window in the blink of an eye because of a greedy developer? See in most cases the answer would be NO from all surrounding neighbours. The councils wouldn't like that as they would lose so much extra revenue from developers in their coffers.
I guess i'm a bit narky as having grown up in this area I have watched it go from a mostly all single storey neighbourhood to now it feels almost closed in and prison like in every street you walk down thanks to greedy developers taking over all over the place!
Also it's not enough that developers not only destroy the land next to your property, some also want to grind you down with building noise and mess everywhere for so long that they actually want you to sell and leave your property so they can also snatch it up and build on it. I know this for a fact as I have overheard a surrounding new developer neighbour here talking with a mate in their yard and I know they were talking about our property as I had recently planted some things in the backyard. They thought no one was sitting in the yard and I heard the new neighbour mumble something quietly to his mate about how I recently planted trees in the yard, then his mate says quite loudly "Oh then they are never going to leave then". That's great to hear from a new developer neighbour isn't it?
Also my assumptions were correct when one day the NBN installers in the street were trying to tell me they couldn't run the new cable underneath my driveway and they had to cut and destroy it all so the new developer neighbour can have his NBN installed. Well it led to an all out argument out the front of my house I didn't let the damn NBN people cut my driveway up and I didn't care at all even though it's council land! lol. I was rather loud I think all the neighbours around heard the arguing. I said to the NBN people keep trying with their under driveway drilling machine as I didn't want my driveway cut up all because of the new damn developer neighbour who has already destroyed my views and my privacy isn't going to also destroy my f#@*&n driveway! Many swear words were exchanged and I think the NBN installer rang the new neighbour and told him about the problem so he came out and he was quite calm and actually agreed with me about not destroying my driveway. Then he came over to speak to me as I was already angry about the driveway his first words to me were "So are you guys thinking of staying here long?" I won't say much more but another family member here overheard what he said gave him an onslaught of words I think will stay with that rotten greedy developer bastard till the day he dies! Not that I think it matters to rotten bastards like that anyway!
Also we have been constantly getting alot more real estate agents cards to try and sell our property since he moved in next door. These greedy developer dogs just don't know when to stop. Anyway after another recent run in with this mongrel it has finally sunk in that he isn't going to get our property and we will never leave. It was even said that we will also build a double storey house here and also and if it was ever to be sold it will be done privately and no one around here will ever know it's for sale. The real estate cards and letters and phone calls from agents have all stopped ever since that day!
Yes well I think now I have explained to you guys why I love oops i mean loathe developers...lol
Cheers!
Last edited by Bonnar_Bloke; 11/08/1902:33 PM.
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay, another trash picked Victa, hip hip Hooray!
