Dislike: Mowing the lawn every week or two and then watering it to make it grow.
Mowing lawns very frequently and very short consumes a lot of energy/petrol, causes pollution (noise and air) all for one's selfish desire to have a "neat" lawn. It is a control thing, such people want to feel they have everything under control - short manicured lawns are for their ego. To make the lawn grown again, a huge amount of water is required. We have foolishly imported the concept of lawns generally from England where there is (was) plenty of water. Lawns are unsuitable for much of Australia.

Like: Native gardens with many local trees and shrubs. Native ground cover. these palnts require little water and are much more suitable for local animals, bugs, spiders and such like. A variety of plant species offers a much more interesting place for everyone and also results in a cooler space.

Ethics: It is unethical to have manicured lawns which consume so much scarce water and energy and have a significant carbon foot print.

It's nice to have the lawns though. People get a large amount of enjoyment from their lawns, especially people with children. So is that enjoyment (benefit) worth the cost (petrol)? I'm not sure. We can make some carbon footprint I think, we will simply by breathing, the issue is, to how big is a 'reaosnable' or 'fair' carbon footprint and what are the costs of having a carbon footprint? If you don't believe global warming paranoia, not much i guess.

But I do think it is unethical to live unsustainably, we should be moving towards sustainable living practices. But if a person is using a water tank to keep their lawn and uses one of those old mowers that is manually cuts the grass as it's pushed, that's a good start.

Dislikes: Dedicated followers of fashion, who are guided entirely by what others dictate. This results in them living in gated estates, each one containing larger houses than the one before. The heating and cooling costs are astronomical not to mention the barely affordable mortgages.

Likes: People who have the courage to be their own person, and live out with their own ideas.
I met a woman once, who bought some land in the country, on which she planned to harvest straw, then make straw bricks and build a house.
An original, courageous, and environmentally sound idea in my opinion.

I agree with Christine, there are things i dislike more than lawns. Starting with greedy people who consume more than their fair share of resources.

Plastic shopping bags . I loathe them. Yet I have trouble on occasions remembering to take the alternative cotton ones to the shops . The plastic ones come in handy for the rubbish I confess ... I plead guilty.

Leaf blowers to remove leaves and grass cutting. Noisy, petrol or electric driven things. What happened to a broom? Do I have a thing about gardening?

arry wrote:

But if a person is using a water tank to keep their lawn and uses one of those old mowers that is manually cuts the grass as it's pushed, that's a good start.

Great approach ... saves on gym fees too.

Christine O wrote:

Dislikes: Dedicated followers of fashion ... living in gated estates ... The heating and cooling costs are astronomical

Likes: People who have the courage to be their own person, and live out with their own ideas.

Agree 100% with first list, people being their own person if they have taken into account other people, if you know what I mean.

arry wrote:

I agree with Christine, there are things i dislike more than lawns. Starting with greedy people who consume more than their fair share of resources.

Greed is unethical by definition, absolutely!

catey wrote:

Plastic shopping bags . I loathe them. Yet I have trouble on occasions remembering to take the alternative cotton ones to the shops . The plastic ones come in handy for the rubbish I confess ... I plead guilty.

Me too, and I must use something else. Thanks for the reminder.

I love plastic shoppng bags they are handy for a number of things; garbage bags, shopping bags and particularly for tyying over ripening fruit. Our local supermarket is trying to phase them out and sells shopping bags including plastic ones, they also sell plastic garbage bags/bin liners. Still that's progress.

Those shopping bags would probably be replaced by bin liners bought for that specific purpose, the shopping bags are at least being recycled a bit.