3 ms·

I actually enjoy a well kept lawn. I feel it helps the house appears tidy from the outside. It strokes my pride of home vibe. But, I pay for it all and it proba

I actually enjoy a well kept lawn. I feel it helps the house appears tidy from the outside. It strokes my pride of home vibe. But, I pay for it all and it probably averages me $400/month all said (water, seasonal stuff, mowing, etc). It's stupid, sure. But I've never installed a lawn. I've bought houses with lawns. I couldn't justify ripping it out for some zeroscaping style landscape that is aesthetically worse (to me), has less functionality (kids+pets like grass), and comes with a price tag of $30k or more AND it still grows weeds. Most zeroscaping I've seen in my area appears to get zero attention and is completely overgrown in year 2. Also, tree care won't go away so best case I reduce my monthly spend by 50%. I don't really know what is best. I think if I were building a new home, I'd look into artificial turf. So, while interesting, what is the actionable now that we all have these horrible money pit lawns? Is there an alternative?

Fiahil 5y ago
> Is there an alternative? Well, I mow twice a year, don’t water except for young trees, put the leaves of my 30 trees in compost in automn, and that’s it. Just let it grow. You can use clover or any kind of cover instead of “grass”, and plant trees to keep it in the shade so it doesn’t burn. You can also grow 20-40cm high flowers as well if you like.
nrr 5y ago
There is, but note that I write from a particularly rural perspective here, so it might not jive well with the more suburban sensibilities I've read from your comment. Your mileage may vary. That said, you can look into growing grasses°, sedges, hostas, and wildflowers that are indigenous to your geographic region. Become good friends with the folks at your local nursery, and they'll be glad to help you out. °: not things like Kentucky bluegrass (which isn't indigenous to North America) or the various types of fescue (many of which are native to Europe); more like buffalograss and Canada wild rye
analog31 5y ago
>>> Is there an alternative? My family lives on a 1/3 acre lot in a neighborhood that was built around 1960. Thankfully, there is no social pressure in our locale to maintain a "perfect" lawn. Each house does its own thing, ranging from fully wooded lots, to "perfect" lawns, and everything in between. I'm using the term "perfect" for the kind of lawn described in the article, more or less. Our house is in between. What I can tell you is that there are portions of our lot that we mow. Everything else is left to chance. We don't fertilize or use weed killers. We don't water. (Fertilizer increases the need for water). The lawn is grass plus maybe a dozen other species. The grass grows in the spring, we mow a couple times, then it goes dormant as the weather gets more dry. The weeds keep it green. Through the remainder of the summer and fall, we mow maybe 3-4 times at most. I rake the leaves from the trees, use the mower to shred them, and use them for compost in the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is growing by a few square feet per year. I bought an ancient roto-tiller off the Craig, and gradually expand the garden at the expense of the lawn. I would also be happy to let other kinds of brush grow, but it hasn't begun to happen yet. The kids were fine in our back yard. They didn't care about the weeds. The neighbors have not complained. By and large, the people in our 'hood with "perfect" lawns, are retired, and have the time to work on their lawns and gardens, plus, no kids. When I travel to the neighborhood where I grew up, in another state, it's a totally different world. Every single lawn is "perfect," with no weeds. My parents told me that a couple of their neighbors had large trees cut down because the trees were shading their grass! The difference is so stark that it's almost creepy. There's also one or two full size pickup trucks in front of every house, that almost completely obscure the lawns from the street. Bizarre.
- conductr 5y ago
  Interesting. This sounds exactly like my house & neighborhood but not climate/upkeep. I have to mow weekly 7-8 months of the year. I don't water much unless it's over 100F out and hasn't rained in a week (typical in June-August). I basically do the minimum to keep it alive. I keep mowing in place in the winter because it's so short and they mulch the leaves (they continue falling most of the winter here because it's a mild winter) which fertilize and keeps things tidy, and it probably needs mowing every 2-3 weeks anyways. Some grasses here go dormant, mine always grows unless it's <40F (which is seldom here even in winter). I don't care if a patch dies or whatever, it will fill back in in a few weeks. Weeds can't pop up because it's constantly being cut, etc. Since it's a weekly chore, and hot/long summer, I outsource the mowing. If it was 3-4 times a year I would totally DIY. I've lived in the places like your parents neighborhood. My neighbor a couple doors down had a flawless lawn. But he also had a guy come over every day for ~4 hours to piddle around in the yard, hedges, trimming things, pool; he was a full stack grounds keeper. Imagine what that cost, lol.
  - analog31 5y ago
    We definitely live in different climates. I lived in Fort Worth, Texas for a few years, and an indelible memory is seeing a guy mowing his lawn on Christmas. Our grass was generally dormant until we had one of those big thunderstorms. Then it would just go nuts and I'd have to mow it. So my mowing occurred at more or less random intervals. Also, I have a hunch that a portion of our yard was being gratuitously fertilized by runoff from the neighboring lawn. The ant hills would pop up after a storm too.
djleni 5y ago
There is no way xerisxaping should cost you $30k. I did mine for about $500 and if you mulch sufficiently weeds aren’t a big problem.
- conductr 5y ago
  I’ve done a significant amount of landscaping projects both diy and paid. I have rental properties and have flipped homes regularly. All to say I’m confident on $30k number localized to me. Probably $15k of material for my lot plus tool rental if done diy. Also I usually hire laborers if I do this so there’s some labor in there. I’d spend more than $500 just trying to dispose of trash on a project this big.
  - djleni 5y ago
    Interesting, what’s the square footage/acreage? Maybe that’s the disconnect.

Fiahil 5y ago

> Is there an alternative? Well, I mow twice a year, don’t water except for young trees, put the leaves of my 30 trees in compost in automn, and that’s it. Just let it grow. You can use clover or any kind of cover instead of “grass”, and plant trees to keep it in the shade so it doesn’t burn. You can also grow 20-40cm high flowers as well if you like.

nrr 5y ago

There is, but note that I write from a particularly rural perspective here, so it might not jive well with the more suburban sensibilities I've read from your comment. Your mileage may vary. That said, you can look into growing grasses°, sedges, hostas, and wildflowers that are indigenous to your geographic region. Become good friends with the folks at your local nursery, and they'll be glad to help you out. °: not things like Kentucky bluegrass (which isn't indigenous to North America) or the various types of fescue (many of which are native to Europe); more like buffalograss and Canada wild rye

analog31 5y ago

>>> Is there an alternative? My family lives on a 1/3 acre lot in a neighborhood that was built around 1960. Thankfully, there is no social pressure in our locale to maintain a "perfect" lawn. Each house does its own thing, ranging from fully wooded lots, to "perfect" lawns, and everything in between. I'm using the term "perfect" for the kind of lawn described in the article, more or less. Our house is in between. What I can tell you is that there are portions of our lot that we mow. Everything else is left to chance. We don't fertilize or use weed killers. We don't water. (Fertilizer increases the need for water). The lawn is grass plus maybe a dozen other species. The grass grows in the spring, we mow a couple times, then it goes dormant as the weather gets more dry. The weeds keep it green. Through the remainder of the summer and fall, we mow maybe 3-4 times at most. I rake the leaves from the trees, use the mower to shred them, and use them for compost in the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is growing by a few square feet per year. I bought an ancient roto-tiller off the Craig, and gradually expand the garden at the expense of the lawn. I would also be happy to let other kinds of brush grow, but it hasn't begun to happen yet. The kids were fine in our back yard. They didn't care about the weeds. The neighbors have not complained. By and large, the people in our 'hood with "perfect" lawns, are retired, and have the time to work on their lawns and gardens, plus, no kids. When I travel to the neighborhood where I grew up, in another state, it's a totally different world. Every single lawn is "perfect," with no weeds. My parents told me that a couple of their neighbors had large trees cut down because the trees were shading their grass! The difference is so stark that it's almost creepy. There's also one or two full size pickup trucks in front of every house, that almost completely obscure the lawns from the street. Bizarre.

conductr 5y ago
Interesting. This sounds exactly like my house & neighborhood but not climate/upkeep. I have to mow weekly 7-8 months of the year. I don't water much unless it's over 100F out and hasn't rained in a week (typical in June-August). I basically do the minimum to keep it alive. I keep mowing in place in the winter because it's so short and they mulch the leaves (they continue falling most of the winter here because it's a mild winter) which fertilize and keeps things tidy, and it probably needs mowing every 2-3 weeks anyways. Some grasses here go dormant, mine always grows unless it's <40F (which is seldom here even in winter). I don't care if a patch dies or whatever, it will fill back in in a few weeks. Weeds can't pop up because it's constantly being cut, etc. Since it's a weekly chore, and hot/long summer, I outsource the mowing. If it was 3-4 times a year I would totally DIY. I've lived in the places like your parents neighborhood. My neighbor a couple doors down had a flawless lawn. But he also had a guy come over every day for ~4 hours to piddle around in the yard, hedges, trimming things, pool; he was a full stack grounds keeper. Imagine what that cost, lol.
- analog31 5y ago
  We definitely live in different climates. I lived in Fort Worth, Texas for a few years, and an indelible memory is seeing a guy mowing his lawn on Christmas. Our grass was generally dormant until we had one of those big thunderstorms. Then it would just go nuts and I'd have to mow it. So my mowing occurred at more or less random intervals. Also, I have a hunch that a portion of our yard was being gratuitously fertilized by runoff from the neighboring lawn. The ant hills would pop up after a storm too.

djleni 5y ago

There is no way xerisxaping should cost you $30k. I did mine for about $500 and if you mulch sufficiently weeds aren’t a big problem.

conductr 5y ago
I’ve done a significant amount of landscaping projects both diy and paid. I have rental properties and have flipped homes regularly. All to say I’m confident on $30k number localized to me. Probably $15k of material for my lot plus tool rental if done diy. Also I usually hire laborers if I do this so there’s some labor in there. I’d spend more than $500 just trying to dispose of trash on a project this big.
- djleni 5y ago
  Interesting, what’s the square footage/acreage? Maybe that’s the disconnect.