At no point in my family history going back 3 generations was there ever this mythical bare poisoned land with only short-cut grass.

They either lived on a farm with a hundred+ species of weeds and flowers growing in pastures, or lived in the town with usually one or several trees in the yard.

Crops were weeded by hand ( roundup wasen't a thing back then ) but pesticides were sometimes used on the crops, not wastefully sprayed all over the place for no reason.

Family that didn't grow flowers, their grass wasen't sprayed with poisons, ever, because they didn't care further than keeping the stuff growing short.

Those that grew flowers had, well, flowers, not a bare ''grass desert''. Use of pesticides wasen't consistent so vulnerable cultivars died instead of recieving sprays, replaced by resistant cultivars.

I can still see blooms from hardy roses planted before I was born.

And still don't give a fuck when dandelions turn the front yard bright yellow.