I live in a small house with a medium lot now. When I moved here there was one tree. One! Now I have two redbuds in the front and back, a dogwood on the side, four spirea near the house and an oakleaf hydrangea. Along with other assorted butterfly plants. I hope to be rid of the lawn completely in a couple years. Or five : )
I grow nothing but ornamentals. Food for the soul! I inherited the lawn from the previous homeowner. I never water it, but we get plenty of rain here. It does, however, grow so fast as to beg to be mowed even more than weekly. That is, the suburban neighborhood standard expectation is to keep it mowed. So there is pressure to be a considerate neighbor and mow the damned thing.
I hate lawns. I am replacing mine as quick as I can with flower and herb beds. The remaining remnants I eventually hope to replace with low maintenance groundcovers, maybe clover for the honeybees.
Agreed whole hog! Lawns are good for exactly dick, except raising and perpetuating Japanese Beetles, my all time nemesis.
I wouldn't have a lawn if I didn't belong to a condo assn.
Still, every year, that lawn gets smaller and smaller, while my prairie gets bigger and bigger.
Frog in a skillet.
@Leafhead Oh no! Lawn is nowhere near as good as "dick!"
Keep shrinking that lawn! Stupid condo associations!
@MikeInBatonRouge
Actually, as far as condo assns go, this one ain't half bad. They give me carte blanch on groundskeeping, save a ton on maintainance, and even pay me a small stipend for my work.
It's win-win
And of course, I use NO pe sticides!
@Leafhead I stand corrected. Just "stupid association lawn rule." Maybe that rule is based on a non-gardener assumption that generally whatever takes the place of a lawn is an eye sore.
I totally support this idea. We've an irrigation system for the lawn and garden beds. I'm always amazed and ashamed in the summer.... my morning hike through the suburb.. literally thousands of gallons of drinking water pumped on our lawns, and the runoff going down the storm drains. MURICA!!!!
Because someone in the past thought I needed unnecessary work to do!
IKR!! I have been expanding flower beds and veggie gardens. Grass is stupid.
And unnatural!
@AstralSmoke (except landscape grasses)
Posted by JolantaHoverflies, not to be confused with wasps.
Posted by FrostyJimI picked my first 2024 rhubarb... so I made cobbler - yum!
Posted by FrostyJimI picked my first 2024 rhubarb... so I made cobbler - yum!
Posted by FernappleThe pond and stone bridge are lush with growth now.
Posted by FernappleIts foxglove (Digitalis ) time.
Posted by JolantaEarthworms are amazing workers.
Posted by JolantaLadybirds, the gardeners friend.
Posted by JolantaLacewings are useful in the garden.
Posted by FrostyJim...as you Sow, So Shall you Reap
Posted by FrostyJimSurprise! Alaska has farm country too.
Posted by FrostyJimSurprise! Alaska has farm country too.
Posted by JolantaHappy hormones.
Posted by FernappleThe little woodland garden, is a symphony of blue, purple and white now. Hyacinth, Honesty, and Ornithogalum.
Posted by KateOahuThis morning I went to a class for making a terrarium with native plants at the Waikiki Community Center, which is about three blocks from where I live.
Posted by FrostyJimToo cold to plant outside for another month here in Wasilla Alaska.
Posted by FrostyJimToo cold to plant outside for another month here in Wasilla Alaska.