Nice Lawn!

We all hear jokes about such stuff, but I actually saw one yesterday. The whole front yard is concrete, and the owner still can't find the time even to mow the curbside, which is knee high!

(I thought about painting some dandelions on the concrete . . . )

Guy S.

You mock those people, yet as an LA, I can't believe you don't recognize the "defensible space" defined, and the obvious attempt at a linear urban prairie.

The structure even has some Wrightian qualities (if you squint hard).

I AM squinting hard -- to avoid eyestrain!

OK everybody, it's started -- how about some more gardens to die for?

Guy S.

I hate FLW...

Hey- at least it is waterwise.
It must come in handy as the gang leader to a large biker group when they all need a place to park their bikes whilst they crash on the sofa

Take your pick - I have 2 from this nonarid region here.

kids would love to play on this ;(

this fancier one is for sale - good luck Coldwell

Both of those houses look a little plain so I guess the yard might as well too.

Hmmm. Don't see that first pic as being waterwise, although I see where the thought comes from. We get charged for storm water drainage in my town, yet the ordinance says all new driveways must be cement or asphalt. Heaven forbid that water should seep into the ground. Just like that front cemented lawn, do you see a bit of stupidity here, water wise? (a rhetorical question)

I always thought it would be nice to concrete a space big enuff to fit a car on it. I could be more assured that its level, especially when jacked up and on jack-stands, when it needs work (it would make shade-tree mechanicking much easier, especially when one has a dirt driveway). But a whole front yard.. geeze.. give me grass, flowers, dirt, shrubs and trees!
Will

I wonder how many silk plants these people have inside....and how dusty.

Save the plastic rainforest!

Indeed, Leftwood. Concrete is more "waterwise" here than in other places. Grass is an evil and wasteful water consumer here. So people plant xeric landscapes and overwater them, too...
I am thinking of becoming dictator of the world and making the standard urban landscape: Tastefully-placed boulders, thick woodchip and organic mulches for most of the area, all planted with trees and shrubs to shade the homes for energy efficiency...

Oh wow, I should show you the house I'm moving into! 75% of the front yard is a gravel driveway---and it's a sizeable yard!

In fact, I think I'm going to start a thread documenting the before, during, and after photos. My boyfriend bought the house and he is almost as eager to transform the yard as I am!

The back yard is even worse. Words alone can't express how atrocious the 1/2 acre back yard is. Guess that means I'll get practice using the digital camera...

My driveway has more plant life in it than these yards!

I've seen people do it here, though. I guess it's their way of xeriscaping. But they have front yards that are all rock, or all mulch. Mine is practically all dirt, but that wasn't by design. It came that way.

I did at least weed the driveway today, so the place has slightly less of an abandoned air about it.

And all my neighbors look at me funny when I weed the drive way.

You're right James: concrete certainly is more waterwise - in well water usage - than a watered lawn (what I was referring to when I said "I see where the thought comes from"). But then there are people like me that don't water their lawn at all, and IMO, are more waterwise. Rain seeps into the ground and not down the storm sewers.

The cement lawn on top I certainly think they wanted to not have to mow 50 square feet of grass and had to have grass on the terrace.
The Mississippi pebble lawn I really think the person hated any kind of lawncare that much.
The darker stone one I think was an eco friendly effort.
I just don't think these lawns are practical or appealing. I have seen some nice small rock garden lawns and barked and treed lots around that are nice.

It's supposed to be water-conservation-friendly to not water your lawn.
Brown lawns win 3 ways: Conserve water; Dead lawns don't need mowing; Laziness is a virtue here.

The flooding we had here in June was credited to too much pavement and new development. I have NO problem letting our grass get brown - the fescue greens right up after rain. I do feel like an idiot mowing just so the tall weed seed heads aren't 'unsightly' though.

...and I always thought the tall weed seedheads gave my lawn "winter interest."

Scott

I could understand it if you were in a wildfire prone area out west. Concrete and rocks don't burn. But it just don't look right in the eastern U.S.

I guess if I am going to throw stones I better show my lawn.

Wow is about all I can say.

Not exactly eco friendly to pave one’s front yard as that is the epitome of non porous to me. The gravel front yards, although unsightly, do cut down on emissions resulting from lawn mowers and are permeable so rainwater won’t be funneled into storm sewers which means Ma Nature can filter it naturally. Other benefits would be that these types of “lawns” minimize the use of herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides while conserving water… I mean who is going to water gravel? But, those two gravel lawns are butt ugly. I have to wonder if the new owners will rent some sort of an industrial shop vac to suck up all that gravel.

Our driveway is going to be replaced with a watershed friendly product. It will be porous but I haven’t quite settled on which product I want to use yet. I like the look of the permeable pavers and I could seed those with Buffalo Grass but on the other hand, I like the grid systems that are out there these days. The one I am particularly fond of is GeoBlock-
http://www.geocheminc.com/geoblock.htm
Here are examples of the permeable pavers-
http://www.paversearch.com/permeable-pavers-applications.htm
Some nice eco-stone-
http://www.mutualmaterials.com/homeowner_projectideas.asp?pt_id=30&pc_id=18&pi_id=36
My husband said they have come a long way with porous asphalt and porous concrete but I’m not quite sold. Maybe by the time we are ready to do something they will have developed better products but to date, I’m not too thrilled with what they’ve got on the market. I’d also like to check into something called hopsack paving. I don’t know much about it but it sounds interesting.

My husband is not too thrilled about my decision to go permeable. His comments were, “Great, we get rid of the lawn and now I’m going to have to mow the driveway”. I was amused but this is the way I want to go and I’m not really interested in a ribbon driveway.

Psst, Al… I’m slowly but surely eliminating my entire lawn here in favor of raised beds, landscape islands, and prairie plants. I’m on the 10-year plan and should be a full fledged member of the Dead Lawn Society at that time. Your lawn looks great but I’m just not into chemicals any longer so I’d never get that look.

Lauren - yes I do fertilize and water, but I will tell you I only spray about 10 weeds a year as I mow high. I can bet the rock lawn guys spray a lot more Roundup as a result. I have to have a lawn for my kids to play on there's no way around it.

Yes, same reason why we're keeping ours for another few years. Also too, you're in a different type of residential setting. I don't think your neighbors would take kindly to you eliminating your lawn. I suspect you'd end up with a pipe bomb in your mail box if you attempted to break with their expectations for your lawn.

For me, I had to get rid of the chemicals for many reasons.

bigcityal, I figured out that trick about mowing high. So many people are so quick to lower the deck all the way down. I only lower mine to the second notch down and it makes a world of difference.

You are right there, I mow as high as I can. I have never applied a crabgrass preventer and never had crabgrass as a result of.

We've got major problems with quack grass around here. Does anyone out your way have to deal with quack grass?

No Lauren - it is not selectively controlled. If you are reseeding anything for your seeding projects I would kill it off totally beforehand.

I've got scraps of old carpeting I took from the curbs on garbage day when neighbors replaced their carpet on it and the stuff still "LIVES". This quack grass is mutant. Very frustrating.

The Brady Bunch had a nice lawn - are you copying them?

We have several neighbors who have nothing but English Ivy as a front lawn. It always looks so dark and dreary to me.

A Brady Bunch lawn??? My neural cells are failing me. I know I saw the show but I don't remember the lawn.

And FW97! Bite your tongue! I planted 100 plugs of English Ivy here and it took me years to get rid of that. Every once in a while I see a little bit of it trying to make a come back and I will shamelessly nuke it with my handy dandy stamp licker bottle filled with happy juice. A whole front lawn of that? I can't imagine.

It was here when we moved in, but I decided to spread it around to "fill in the gaps." Not one of my brighter ideas. I've been hand-pulling and just started using the "Glove of Death" on any new sprouts. Seems to be working.

Brady's had green outdoor carpeting for a lawn - you might be getting old now.
English Ivy - now that's masochistic.

I need to pick up one of those stamp licker bottles next time I go in Staples. You probably mentioned it on another threat because I remember reading about it.

Thanks AL-

We have wood clapboard and the darn stuff grew up under it and entered the garage! I didn't see it until I was cleaning out the garage one Spring and it had climbed half way up the garage wall. Never seen it heave a sidewalk, though. It must really like Illinois.

It looked weakly the first year so I fertilized it with Osmocote I think. What can I say. When one is dumb, one pays.

I am glad to know that you had damage to siding too. I am not alone. That beast got up under the dutch lap and started into the insulation. I've never quite seen anything like that. It buckled a decent sized area. We couldn't get an exact match so we had to take siding off the back of a storage garage to replace it in that area and then we had to replace the whole back of the storage garage so that the mismatch wouldn't be so noticeable.

Boy that sounded bad. I am not glad you had damage to your siding. I know how costly unexpected home repairs can be. What I meant was I'm glad I'm not alone. A few of my friends saw what it did and they were in disbelief but most people that I mention it to think I am delusional or exaggerating.

Don't feel bad, I'm laughing here. Misery loves company. Our damage wasn't that bad because our garage is detached and isn't insulated. We were able to cut a piece of clapboard to fit and repaint. I stuck a viburnum in front of it and all's well.

I'm also laughing because you fertilized the little monster!

I've had a bad hair day today and somehow I just seem to be adding insult to injury. Yup, I fertilized them. I'm a rocket scientist. I think we replaced 2 or 3 sections of sidewalk. The guy who came out to replace it said mine weren't the first he had to remove and re-pour because of English Ivy. Some of it was the size of my wrist within 3 years. I had no idea it was going to take off like that and I had no idea the sidewalks wouldn't contain it. Our side walks have wire mesh in them and they were poured extra thick at a higher bag mix. The English Ivy still heaved it.