Great site, Sylvia. Thanks for finding it for us. I am definitely one who likes a mowed yard, but I'm not fussy about the grass itself. If it stays relatively green in normal weather, I'm happy with it.

I don't entirely agree with the quote about a lawn taking such a huge amount of maintenance. I mow my two acres in about an hour, and it's done for a week -- no water on ninety percent of it. I spend way more time and water tending my much smaller veggie and sunflower gardens.

I do admit that I may be a bit twisted, due to growing up on my parents' small golf course and being half of the grounds crew all of my teen years. I do love beautiful thick green turf, but I recognize the multiple costs of getting it, and I'm happy with a way lower standard.

ThinMan

Slyvia ~ I'm glad you found this web addy again. Some great thoughts there and I will read it later more in depth. DH and I have done away with most of our lawn, starting many years ago. We have little strips of grass that I weed wack and a couple of larger patches, and the driveway strip in between the tire tracks, that I use the mower on. We used to be all grass on our 1/3 acre until we built out buildings, extended the driveway to the back and added one garden or flower bed after another. We both like it this way. : -)

FlowerLady

One of my goals in life is to get rid of the grass, at least in the front garden (can't have gardens in the back, my dogs could demolish Hoover Dam).

& except for the vile bermuda that keeps creeping back in, I've almost done it!

The drainage ditch in front is still grass, but my options are limited:

I can't fill it in, & I can't plant things that would impede the flow of water.

So far, I'm trying to add lantana & such, really indestructible plants, on the slopes, so I'll eventually just have to weed-whack the bottom of the ditch.

& although I have to do a lot more bending & pulling than I would with a grass lawn, I also don't give myself a headache from the roar of the engine & the "fragrance" of gasoline fumes!

Hi Sylvia ~ I got an electric weedwacker when our old gas model croaked. I hated that noisy, smelly, hot thing. I hate those dang blowers too. There are lots of gardening crews using those things blowing the stuff all over someone else's place or out into the road. There are lots of condos and golf courses in our area sucking up the water to keep their grass green. They can pay some kind of fee to be able to keep doing this while the rest of us are put on water restrictions and worry about our little flower gardens whether or not they are going to survive or not. It is very irksome! In some places they won't even let you do away with your lawn, you have to keep it and forget filling your front yard with a cottage type garden. That is a big NO NO. I'm glad we live where we do with no HOA hassling us about what we can or cannot grow. I'm all for doing away with as much lawn as possible. Flowers, herbs and foliage are so much more interesting and life enhancing.

FlowerLady

Oh, Flower Lady, I'd hate to try to live happily where there's a HOA ((no HOA would want me for sure)!

When the front was all lawn (it never was a green velvet kind of thing, it was just lawn by default), I always had huge cracks in the yard all summer.

You literally cannot water enough to keep our clay soil from cracking in our long, hot, dry summers.

Now that most of the soil is under the accumulation of a number of years' worth of mulch, I don't have cracks in the yard.

&, although the irises & bald cypress trees always go dormant from heat stress, I'm always surprised at how much just keeps going all summer long.

Thanks for the link--I decided a few years ago to stop beating myself up trying to have a green front lawn that lasted through the summer and planted natives.

I especially liked the quotes about the butterflies--I love tending the garden and being surrounded and surprised by the butterflies, the birds (and even the bees). It makes me feel like there is so much beauty that others don't get to see.