Oddly enough, I am presenting Phase IV of a 1970' condo redo tomorrow morning. The thing that you might find interesting is that they are converting a lot of area into lawn to save on maintenance costs. The cost of bark mulch and weeding has been killing them. The maintenance crew cheif loves it more than anybody. Mowing equipment is very fast and just about anyone can do it with good results. Environmentally incorrect? Well, here's the thing. There is high nitrogen in the ground water from septic systems that migrates from miles away toward the coastal ponds in the area. Lawn is a heavy consumer of nitrogen. One way to look at that is to assume that excessive fetilizer will be dumped onto the grass to try to make it greener than green resulting in the excess going into the groundwater and eventually causing algae blooms in the ponds. An alternative is to harness the grass's ability to consume nitrogen by using wells to remove the existing groundwater with its excessive nitrogen from the ground and feeding it to the grass. The water returns to the ground and continues on to the ponds with less nitrogen than it had before because the grass uses it up. I'm sure that it is a very different ecosystem where you are than what we have up here, but it is interesting in terms of regional differences. Think about all of the conditions the various parts of your site are in such as lawn, natural woodlands, perennial beds, younger shrub plantings, treed areas, understory areas, buildings, pavements, surface water or whatever else there is. Ask yourself and others what they really like about where the current landscape. That is how we started with this and another similar condo redo project that I was involved in. That will give you (the collective you) a better understanding of the quality of life issues that are part of what you as a community value. Those quality of life values have to balance out with other values such as cost, environmental consciousness, or others. It can be very easy to make a mistake in applying only your own balance of values and imposing them on your community with only the best of intensions. You stated that one of the problems that is driving up the cost of your maintenance is the mature planting. You also make a strong statement about the unused lawn area in terms of energy, water, emmissions, and money. The assumption is that what lies between these two extremes of conditions is either very little in terms of area, or does not drain your resources. Could converting toward those undescribed conditions keep maintenance costs down without introducing an experimental condition or changing the quality of life that the community enjoys? Look around your area to see what is working on other sites before you become a pioneer. Usually, good ideas catch on and become common place especially if they are economical. If you don't see fabulous swathes of wildflowers as you envision it is much more likely that they are not so easy or not so economical than thought rather than you being the first to consider it. One of the best things you can do for economy, environment, maintenance, and successful landscaping is to put in place what would grow naturally. You need to be more proactive than just getting a list of native plants. You need to know the local conditions very well and recreate what would grow there if we all disappeared and nature reclaimed it. You also have to be very aware of what might try to "reclaim" your plantings. The biggest problem with the wildflower "set it and forget it" seed mixes is Darwinism. Competition. Sometimes it is competition between what comes out of the seed bag, but more likely it is going to be some other crop that is better suited than what was in the mix. Local conditions are going to weaken some plants dominance while enhancing anothers. What will you wind up with? Hopefully, others in your area have found out and it is good, but you should do your best to find out before you commit.

Here's what it looks like now.

It is so very frustrating, isn't it? My kitchen took 9 months from demolition to completion (well, we still have a punch list of stuff, but no one has been here since before Thanksgiving, not pushing because completion of punch list means last payment). I was assured it would be done in the spring, and then certainly by July 4th, and then I realized I'd better cancel the party I had planned for my husband's birthday in August. When my mother said that I would be lucky to have it done in time for Thanksgiving, I laughed, but she was right. We had a major mistake midway that required a big redesign, and some brand new cabinets to wait endlessly for. Weeks where no one came, vacations that interfered with the job, a million little problems that added up to big delays. But you know what? I had a party on Sunday. Late Saturday night after I finished cleaning my kitchen to perfect, I sat staring at it, and I love it. All the bad times are just a funny story to tell. I was discussing the whole process with some women, and we decided renovations are like pregnancy. It feels absolutely endless while you are in the middle of it, and it is so unpleasant and painful at times. You swear you will never do it again, and you'll never get over how much harder it was than you thought. But then when it is done, you forget all the pain and agony, and just marvel at your creation. My advice? Vent like crazy here. Read stories about people's much worse experiences to make yourself feel better. Remain calm, and realize that just about any problem can be fixed, and human beings make mistakes. And as my mother likes to say "this too shall pass." And in the end, it will all work out, and you'll be thrilled with the end result. It really is worth the wait.

I'm baaaaaaaaack. I went away for a conference for a day and a half and I'm already on page three! This board does move fast! So...my husband is fed up. This isn't exactly the first time I have jumped the gun and then tried to get him to fix it for me. He said that we need to live with it for at least a month, and then if I still want to move the rods up, or take them down completely and put rods somewhere else, fine. He'll help me then. And I'm fine with that. It seems reasonable. I did, however, find some different drapes, just to see what they would look like. They are a darkish green with a hint of gold in them. I don't know if they clash with my sofa or compliment in the same sort of family. My husband loves them, but errr... What do you think? Too dark?