City or country?

Not everyone who lives in the country should be living in the country.  Some people are just more comfortable with the appearance and amenities of city life.  For example, the lady who lived in our house before us landscaped her yard area in much the same way a person in the suburbs would.  There is a vast expanse of lawn -- a half-acre by our estimation -- a few shrubs around for contrast and some trees here and there.  Only one serves any purpose, it's a nectarine tree and produces tons of delicious fruit. The others just exist, producing oxygen I suppose, but not much else.

As the shrubs are of the drought-tolerant variety, they will stay, but as we settle in here, we're actively plotting the demise of the BIG lawn.  The lawn in the front yard serves absolutely no purpose and will be the first to go.  In fact, my husband and I just re-set the sprinkler timer to skip the zones that water the front lawn entirely, so within a week or two it will be dead.  In the place of grass, we will be planting drought tolerant trees and shrubs, and adding some ground cover.  That's how almost all our neighbors have landscaped and it makes sense.  We live in an area where water is a precious resource, and dumping it all onto an expanse of pleasure green is simply not practical.  And I'm reminded of that every time the sprinklers run ...  I hear the pump turn on and realize we are running up the electric bill in order to bring water up 400 feet to the surface, just to keep a lawn green.  What a waste of water and energy.


There's a large side yard which will be eliminated as well.  That's where our chicken house and raised vegetable beds will be going, which will also use much less water than a lawn does.  


Outside our back door there's another medium-sized lawn, and this lawn will be staying.  It will be where our dogs, and maybe someday, our grandkids will play.  It's a nice place for grownups to hang out, too. Because this lawn is a reasonable size and shape, we will continue watering it, but by eliminating the other two lawns, we will reduce our water usage by two-thirds, at least.  Not bad.


Let the lawn-killing commence.