3 ms·

I hope the people commenting about how great this is have really tried it for a few years. In my experience, living in the dry western U.S., it's not that grea

by krupan 5y ago

I hope the people commenting about how great this is have really tried it for a few years. In my experience, living in the dry western U.S., it's not that great. You go from a cheery bright green lawn that only needs a quick mowing once a week to a bunch of drab desert plants and the need to do some back breaking hauling and spreading of wood chips every spring to keep the weeds (you know, also "native" plants) from growing. And as others have said, it's not usable for anything other than looking at or for doing more yard work. No soccer or frisbee among the shrubs. People pointing out that you can still mow your "prairie grass" down to a usable lawn must not live in the western US. The "native" "grass" here is all sagebrush and a variety of thorny things.

35fbe7d3d5b9 5y ago
> living in the dry western U.S., it's not that great Over the last four or five years, my wife & I have killed 75% of our 1 acre Eastern US lawn and replaced it with native trees and plants. I have lovely grasses and flowers (asters, Susans, coneflowers and phlox) in the front, native trees and undergrowth towards the back, and a quarter acre or so of plain old lawn which we're planning to introduce clover into. We've got trees coming in nicely and starting to give shade, butterflies fluttering around the flowers, a vegetable garden in the corner, and 75% less lawn to worry about mowing. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
cgs 5y ago
It's not all roses. We are on year 2 after hardscaping/xeriscaping our central Oregon yard. We took out all grass and put in about 40 native plants and grasses, mostly on our easement. Our main lawn is mostly mulch. We ran into a few issues. 1 - one time a freak wind storm with 40+mph gusts blew some of the mulch away and we had to get about 1/2 yard more to replace it. 2 - our yard is on a slope and we did not account for proper drainage. During a huge storm, part of the yard washed out. We have since put in a drain/sink and it's fine now. We still have to weed and touch up the mulch. So just know it's not a maintenance free thing. I'd still do it again though for the the following reasons: 1 - much lower water usage. 2 - one less asshole on our street running lawn equipment. I absolutely hated maintaining/cutting grass. 3 - Really nice curb appeal. It actually looks great and we've had neighbors ask about it.

by krupan 5y ago

35fbe7d3d5b9 5y ago

> living in the dry western U.S., it's not that great Over the last four or five years, my wife & I have killed 75% of our 1 acre Eastern US lawn and replaced it with native trees and plants. I have lovely grasses and flowers (asters, Susans, coneflowers and phlox) in the front, native trees and undergrowth towards the back, and a quarter acre or so of plain old lawn which we're planning to introduce clover into. We've got trees coming in nicely and starting to give shade, butterflies fluttering around the flowers, a vegetable garden in the corner, and 75% less lawn to worry about mowing. I wouldn't give it up for anything.

cgs 5y ago

It's not all roses. We are on year 2 after hardscaping/xeriscaping our central Oregon yard. We took out all grass and put in about 40 native plants and grasses, mostly on our easement. Our main lawn is mostly mulch. We ran into a few issues. 1 - one time a freak wind storm with 40+mph gusts blew some of the mulch away and we had to get about 1/2 yard more to replace it. 2 - our yard is on a slope and we did not account for proper drainage. During a huge storm, part of the yard washed out. We have since put in a drain/sink and it's fine now. We still have to weed and touch up the mulch. So just know it's not a maintenance free thing. I'd still do it again though for the the following reasons: 1 - much lower water usage. 2 - one less asshole on our street running lawn equipment. I absolutely hated maintaining/cutting grass. 3 - Really nice curb appeal. It actually looks great and we've had neighbors ask about it.