i get confused with the references to lawn mowing.  are we not supposed to be nomads.  with our acute water shortage we in the south should not have lawns but should be turning to more natural uses of our lands and landscaping.  more native plants, more bark , in the cities more japanese and roman type backyards so that we do not drain our dams.
ps estate agent on periodic visit to house i rent, pointed out that i have a garden bed (oh my goodness never knew that one) it was covered by long grass?

pps i am not psychologist, but perhaps the constant reference to mowing lawns is the desire to show conformity in our society.

A bit of humour in our lives.That is what the lawn mowing comments are about.Cheers.Ibbo

doubt the road ranger thinks that, Ibbo, when you have 2 acres of grass 2 and 3 ft high it becomes a neccesity, I returned here one year and had to wade throught it to get to the shack, when I got there I was covered in ticks, took me over an hour to remove them from Pixies belly, Yep even full time Nomads need a base, I can hear you Dave, " trouble in paridise"

End od discussion from me.

Should have read end OF discussion from me.

Dear!!! oh Dear!!!!! Oh Dear!!!!!! "here I sit broken hearted, paid my penny and only farted" dont really know why that snippet from my youth bounced back into my head at this time, all this whingeing and complaining about something or other called "grass" I guess I sit on a double block, we have a 60 x 30 fernery full of exotics with double 90% sunblock shade cloth as well as Hessian under that, the 45 degs plus temps that lasted here for two weeks was like a blast furnace, killed 60% of my plants my 5 year old native trees (computer controlled watering system) keeled over, my back lawn (HAH!! HAH!! "lawn" he says jokingly) is a dustbowl for the spoggys, everything has simply dried up and blown away, I tried to keep just a little bit of green just to remember what it looked like, all I see is bloody brown brown brown dry did I mention dry, Its as dry as a dead dingoes donger around here!! I would truly love to have a lawn to mow just to remember the smell of freshly mowed grass, I have everything under a you beaut automated watering system (cost me $5,000) 7 years ago yep, thats right just before they ordered no automated sprinkler systems, I just thought "yep, that'd be right, worlds plotting against me again" so when you mention mowing a wee bit of grass, do it with a smile and remember old Dave and his desert for a backyard

Tell ya what Sir Dave I will mow again tomorrow. just for you OR, you may come up and do it for me. ps, my fernery needs a little water and weeding, stag horn and tropical tree ferns are looking slightly unhappy pps - want the whipper snipping job too? Mind you, "her indoors" (you know who) wants the job too, but too blonde for machinery

It is "Her Indoors Dave" Mind you if I could have got that whipper snipper I would have snipped more than grass.

well when we returned from Tassie our stags and elks ( when we bought them at roughly 6 inches round, had them fo five years, struggling all the way to acheive a growth of up to 3 feet round) were almost dead they are dried right back to the heart, had 5 stags and 4 elks but lost all my elks and only have two stags struggling to survive you make sure you look after that lovely lady of yours, you are indeed a lucky man

Simple, I've converted our rather large backyard to a "wildlife reserve" one day I'll follow Gracie to see what she finds on her dail perambulations in the "yard"

I really wish I could send you all a piece of the park I'm parked in here in Cairns. The grass is green and they mow every week. No watering here. The stag horns and orchids hang from the trees, and everything is lush and green. I really isn't fair. Everyone up here has been wishing we could send some of this water down south. So the solution is, come to the Qld tropics. It's not quite the same in WA tropics, but Darwin would be green and lush at this time of the year. Hang in there you dusty southerners. Just think of the mowing time and fuel you're saving. Pity about your green house Dave. It sounded so beautiful. What a shame! Keep smiling. Cheers Granny

granny it was a sight to behold, my pride and joy but now I am struggling to regain it to its former glory neverlone more growth, it will come back and I will replant but as you know stags and elks are getting rarer, well they are down here, and a hell of a lot dearer I will just buy more ferns and just continue trying to grow, but the water restrictions are effecting the nurserys here as well, my last two stags came from the top of N.S.W. through the mail so I will have to do the same again, just breaks my heart though, to get them so large and then to lose them

Keep loving them Dave, and they will reward you. The stag horns grow on everything up here. Wherever the birds have dropped the spores. Gardening in the tropics is really cheating. I've gardened all over SA, quite successfully, but things grow so slowly down there. When I sowed bean seeds in the pindan sand of the Kimberley, I just added water and watched. They would germinate in only 2 or 3 days. Then add some fertiliser, a little more water, some liquid fert made up from the chook shed clean out, and I picked in about 3-4 weeks. Like I said, it was cheating, but very satisfying gardening. I propogated palms from seed, ferns from spores, and anything else I wanted to grow from cuttings. Water of course is the magic ingredient. Sometimes the size of our country is our enemy, but that's what makes it unique. It can be snowing in the mountains while it's hot and dry after a black frost overnight, in the desert. And we nomads can see it all. Talk about a lucky, free country, and let's keep it that way. Cheers Granny.