While I agree with you on the whole lawn issue. They are a waste of water and labor, I remember what my Dad told me more than once.

He owned a company that employed several hundred people and the 70s recession hit. He told me that the noise of the lawnmower and the repetitious motion gave him the needed mind-set to really think about how to solve the problems and keep a bunch of people he loved fed and housed. (There were a lot of multi-generational families that worked for him for many years welding and machining.)

The solutions he came up with while taking care of the lawn saved his company and kept them all employed.

I get my best ideas in the shower, maybe that's the same thing, but it worked for him.

While I agree with you on the whole lawn issue. They are a waste of water and labor, I remember what my Dad told me more than once.

He owned a company that employed several hundred people and the 70s recession hit. He told me that the noise of the lawnmower and the repetitious motion gave him the needed mind-set to really think about how to solve the problems and keep a bunch of people he loved fed and housed. (There were a lot of multi-generational families that worked for him for many years welding and machining.)

The solutions he came up with while taking care of the lawn saved his company and kept them all employed.

I get my best ideas in the shower, maybe that's the same thing, but it worked for him.

Ack! Sorry about the double post. Twitchy mouse finger.

While rocks, native plants, and other such xeriscaping are great for lawns that aren’t going to be played on, I was reminded or the grass of my youth- soft and green. Actually, it was clover. It was mixed with grass before the broadleaf weed killer came along. For school playgrounds, often clover was used alone. It didn’t have to be mowed or fertilized and it stays green in the summer with little or no watering.

Look, not everyone lives in the desiccated shit hole of LA. And I'm guessing that your family had a giant lawn to show off to neighbors. That's your dad's fault not the lawn's.

And if your idea of a yard is stones and chips, it means you don't intend to use it for anything. Many people do like going outside and having a place for kids to play.

What the sanctimonious anti-grass fucktards don't realize is that grass is actually a lot easier to maintain and more useful than almost all other organic surfaces.

The history of lawns from the Lawn Institute. Yes, apparently there is such a thing as a Lawn Institute.

We let our grass alone during the summer in TX. So do most of our neighbors (yay for living around reasonable folks and in a neighborhood with no HOA). It goes dormant and then comes back. It’s not pretty when it’s dormant, but you don’t need to mow and we’re not about to waste a bunch of water on it when it’s over 100 every day.

We are in the process of creating Amy’s dream yard (rocks, xeriscaping and wide swaths of creeping low-maintenance ground-cover that can be walked on). It’s a slow process to DIY, and rock delivery isn’t cheap, but we are hoping to have it all done in 5 years with nothing left that needs to be mowed regularly.

We might keep our backyard grass to make the house sellable, though, because families and dog owners may want a lawn.

While we live along the Colorado River in one of the hottest parts of the country, it makes no sense to have a lawn. We have a few desert tolerant trees and shrubs but that is all.

We are in the process of creating Amy’s dream yard (rocks, xeriscaping and wide swaths of creeping low-maintenance ground-cover that can be walked on). It’s a slow process to DIY, and rock delivery isn’t cheap, but we are hoping to have it all done in 5 years with nothing left that needs to be mowed regularly.

May I suggest planting some Pitaya cacti?

https://www.selfsufficientme.com/fruit-vegetables/dragon-fruit-pitaya-how-to-guide-for-growing

What the sanctimonious anti-grass fucktards

Shhhh. Besides, why limit your options to organic surfaces?

https://www.houselogic.com/by-room/yard-patio/fake-grass/

@sixclaws

Low water needs, cool-looking and edible? Sign me up!

I believe the origin of lawns as a fashion thing was the English estates with neat lawns kept trimmed by....sheep. In cities in the old days every house was crammed next to another--no lawns. Of course this was because everyone walked everywhere so space was at an absolute premium.
The rationale for fining people who let their yards go is that it brings down the neighborhood property values. Of course this is intrusive and Orwellian. When I was very sick and our lawn was going wild my neighbors came and cut it without asking. It was so nice.

Why is this the government's business? Because government is an instrument one uses to bully one's neighbors.

Don't like the way he keeps his yard? Sic the housing board on 'im. Don't like the way he parks his truck halfway across the sidewalk? Sic the local police on 'im. Don't like the way he invites clients and customers to his house? Sic the local zoning board on 'im.

I always thought the origin of western lawns was looking for religious law loopholes. At one point you would confess your sins to your local priest and he would assign a punishment to keep you on the straight and narrow. A common option was to walk barefoot in the wilderness. Having a nice garden with soft manicured grass ment you could walk 'barefoot in the wilderness' and have a pretty good time.

I agree that it’s government overreach that a city has laws on the books that relate to lawn health. Limits on grass height might be justified, because of vermin, but forcing residents to water and feed a lawn is forcing people to waste resources. I might expect that of an HOA- not the city.

Lots of people enjoy mowing and yard work and gardening. Mowing, especially, gives an immediate sense of accomplishment. One of the good things about mowing is that the kids have to stay away!

Anyway, I live on a few acres, so I don’t waste water on grass. I do spend a couple hundy a month during the summer watering my fruit tree orchard, roses, and vegetable garden, and for the goats and mini horses. (People raise lots of goats and dorper sheep out here; they’ll keep the grass trim.) We’reworking to restore a couple acres of pasture, too, which involves the tedious task of juniper (“cedar”) removal. It’s very hard work, but it’s rewarding.

And, as noted above, plenty of us WANT a lawn (or field) because we have kids.

"Lawns are dumb."

Nowhere near as dumb as the people who move into coastal desert, then wonder why water's at a premium.

Or those who buy into housing developments, then wonder why the flood plain changes.

"sanctimonious anti-grass fucktards"

The 1950s called. They want their conformity back.

"I'd get rid of the lawn and have stones and native plants"

There, I fixed that - woodchips invite termites.

Count me in as a plus 1 for xeriscaping. I live in Colorado and lawns in semi-arid climates are stupid.

Does the city code in Ogden say that you must have a lawn? Or does it say that if you have a lawn, it must be green? The latter makes some sense from the neighbors' point of view, as a dead-looking lawn lowers their property values in a way that xeriscape doesn't.

Not that I approve of such laws; I'm a hard-core libertarian. But I understand why they exist.

I cant even fathom the amount of water it would take to keep grass green here. It was 113 actual temp, in the shade, at my house Monday. I had sprinklers going over the pig pen and chicken coop. But the grass? Its crispy brown.

Here in Israel almost all my neighbors use artificial grass for the play area. the rest of the yard is drip-irrigated shrubs planted in drought resistant ground covers or gravel/wood chips, which cover the drip hoses nicely. The only major expanses of grass are middle-school soccer fields and the larger public parks.

As an avid gardener who can never have a big enough lot, I can think of many more creative and useful ways to landscape a house frontage.