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Xeriscaping a lawn in an attractive way is significantly more expensive than laying sod or grading+seeding. Simply letting native weeds grow takes years and yo

Xeriscaping a lawn in an attractive way is significantly more expensive than laying sod or grading+seeding. Simply letting native weeds grow takes years and you're left with massive erosion problems in the meantime. In many locales, regulatory agencies will crack down severely if your yard is producing erosion run-off because it clogs sewer lines and clouds streams. A lawn of native weeds also looks pretty bad. Xeriscaping is a fine option and when done right, it looks gorgeous...but doing it right is beyond the means of the average homeowner.

justinator 10y ago
replace most of the lawn with gravel.
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  It's actually way cheaper to simply pave a yard on a new construction house with gravel than to sod it and install an irrigation system, which is essentially required in the kinds of deserts I'm talking about. I know if I were buying a new house today, one of which had several hundreds of dollars per month in required water costs to keep the lawn alive, and one of which did not, I'm going with the latter one every time. Especially because you know the lawn is going to die on the former anyway at some point in the future when more severe water restrictions come into play and watering your lawn is (rightfully) prohibited.
- jdblair 10y ago
  We've done all three to our yard in Oakland, and its great. We xeriscaped most of our yard, with plants fed by drip irrigation. We put in a small patch of grass (about 300 square feet) with a sod called "native no-mow" that is literally that: it gets long and we don't mow it. We do have to weed it occasionally. The rest is covered in gravel. The project wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that outrageously expensive, either, especially not compared to the cost of housing. We have to irrigate some, but nothing like what a lawn would need. And we have a nice outdoor space to hang out and entertain in, way nicer than concrete.
eggy 10y ago
Laying sod, grading and seeding only became cheap due to volume demand and peer pressure; it could swing the other way, once momentum was gained. Lawn care could become more fulfilling in taking care of different plants. One man's weed is another man's salad. It's all in what you have become accustomed to in your life. Personally, I have never maintained a lawn. Unlike my neighbors, I didn't cut down almost all of the native trees, so I have native landscaping, and it looks 100X better than flat, mowed lawn. It has wildflowers, and 'weeds' that flower and add to the beauty. I simply rake leaves in the fall, and keep my walkway clear to the house with stone from my property. The way manicured lawns and homogeneous homes depicted in Tim Burton's 'Edward Scissorhands' film was spot on to me except in real life most condo communities would not allow the differently colored houses, or at least limit the palette. I grew up in Brooklyn, but found this out when I tried to change my carburetor in my mother-in-laws driveway, and I was told you cannot work on your car in your own driveway. No thanks to that life!

justinator 10y ago

replace most of the lawn with gravel.

CydeWeys 10y ago
It's actually way cheaper to simply pave a yard on a new construction house with gravel than to sod it and install an irrigation system, which is essentially required in the kinds of deserts I'm talking about. I know if I were buying a new house today, one of which had several hundreds of dollars per month in required water costs to keep the lawn alive, and one of which did not, I'm going with the latter one every time. Especially because you know the lawn is going to die on the former anyway at some point in the future when more severe water restrictions come into play and watering your lawn is (rightfully) prohibited.
jdblair 10y ago
We've done all three to our yard in Oakland, and its great. We xeriscaped most of our yard, with plants fed by drip irrigation. We put in a small patch of grass (about 300 square feet) with a sod called "native no-mow" that is literally that: it gets long and we don't mow it. We do have to weed it occasionally. The rest is covered in gravel. The project wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that outrageously expensive, either, especially not compared to the cost of housing. We have to irrigate some, but nothing like what a lawn would need. And we have a nice outdoor space to hang out and entertain in, way nicer than concrete.

eggy 10y ago

Laying sod, grading and seeding only became cheap due to volume demand and peer pressure; it could swing the other way, once momentum was gained. Lawn care could become more fulfilling in taking care of different plants. One man's weed is another man's salad. It's all in what you have become accustomed to in your life. Personally, I have never maintained a lawn. Unlike my neighbors, I didn't cut down almost all of the native trees, so I have native landscaping, and it looks 100X better than flat, mowed lawn. It has wildflowers, and 'weeds' that flower and add to the beauty. I simply rake leaves in the fall, and keep my walkway clear to the house with stone from my property. The way manicured lawns and homogeneous homes depicted in Tim Burton's 'Edward Scissorhands' film was spot on to me except in real life most condo communities would not allow the differently colored houses, or at least limit the palette. I grew up in Brooklyn, but found this out when I tried to change my carburetor in my mother-in-laws driveway, and I was told you cannot work on your car in your own driveway. No thanks to that life!