People Who Live In Suburbs: Classy, Icky, or Dudes?

lol yeah i mow something out there every two weeks in the summer but i'm sure a lot of it isn't really grass.

Yeah, it's a good vibe! Lot of pretty flowers out there right now.

xps

I remember my parents telling me that neighbors complained to them about our lawn maintenance, and that once a neighbor actually cut our grass without asking

One of the nice things also about not spraying a lot of chemical fertilizer and pesticide and weed killer is that you get tons of birdlife in the yard. I realized when I moved where I live that the reason a lot of suburbs I've been to feel sort of fake and sterile is that lawn maintenance and landscaping practices basically destroy the possibility of any kind of habitat.

A traditional lawn is fucking dumb, and it's insane that a more natural yard could get you fined in some communities.
Most front lawns by me here in AZ are gravel + landscaped plants/trees. But a few ppl have green grass lawns and they stick out like a sore thumb. Just that much more apparent how fake and unnatural they are when you see them in a desert environment.
My backyard seamlessly merges with the undeveloped "state trust" land behind me and I think it looks great. My gf who still spends good deal of time living in Illinois thinks I need to "get rid of all the weeds". Just indicative of a fucked up relationship with nature that most people have internalized.

We bought our last house directly from some acquaintances and they gave us a tour of the place which included thirty minutes of the dude explaining his lawn care routine and watering schedule (in a very arid climate) and my wife and I didn’t have the heart to tell him his life’s work would be brown and full of weeds and dog piss within three months.

A guy down the street has a magnificent golf course lawn that he spends hours maintaining and my neighbor and I just kind of laugh at him as we do the legal minimum required to not get ticketed by the city. A lot of the lawns nearby have permanent dead rings that surround the students outdoor drinking game tables anyway so nobody gives a shit.

yeah fuck a lawn, grow a damn habitat

Grass is stupid. I've been gradually replacing it with clover, ground ivy, and purple deadnettle.

I grew up in the woods. We had an acre of pine trees and pine needles between us and the road. Going through all that trouble so it can look like Soldier Field is ridiculous.

THAT SAID, God, I hate privet with a passion.

FWIW my favorite development since our move is that H has gotten massively into gardening, and even more recently into native plants. Going forward we are planting only native and especially plants that are good for pollenators, butterflies and birds. And we have begun plotting out our gradual lawn replacement plan and have already added clover and wildflowers in some areas.

Just started composting as well.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=nature%27s+best+hope&gclid=CjwKCAjwi9-HBhACEiwAPzUhHELZtaWTJlj0_-7Nitv5EV9KiXUlr8mwnOVQgJPD8oSQKDDDISkLABoCj9IQAvD_BwE&hvadid=409958545374&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9004253&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17557947266658875369&hvtargid=kwd-780715891398&hydadcr=13631_11415873&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_4o3wjs332b_e
Have not read yet, wife is reading. Author also runs this:
https://homegrownnationalpark.org/

Did you just post the book itself?

I really want to replace our lawn with native plants as well, kind of intimidated to start on my own since a) I know next to nothing about how to make sure it looks nice too and, b) I have literally the opposite of a green thumb. I've always wanted to get more into gardening, but I can't keep any plants alive.

part of the idea of planting native plants is they are more likely to just stay alive without constant intervention

Haha, I know, but this is how little faith I have in my skills. I understand they generally need a little help at the start though.

In Seattle there's a program that will pay for you to install a rain garden on your property and will help you with the installation; might be worth seeing if there's anything like that near you.

My wife is just kind of diving in and trying a lot of different plantings. I'm doing my best to help. There's a company called American Meadows she sometimes uses that will send you plants that go together, and in some cases they have seed packs of stuff that grows really easily and is hard to fuck up (like wildflower mixtures).

The book I tried to post above is called Nature's Best Hope, not sure what happened with the link.

We're only just getting started with replacing some of the front lawn, moreso have been planting in rocky areas in our backyard. H is way more the one doing it than me, I just kind of supply labor when I can, but I would say one way to avoid the intimidation factor is just to pick a small patch to start with, maybe something out of the way so it doesn't fuck with the "curb appeal" if you fail.

There may be a Native Plant Society facebook group in your area. They are usually good about offering advice to beginners.

Actually doesn't have to be local, statewide is fine. I'm in the California group and they give advice for every locale in the state.

Native plants are just taking off and it's amazing. We have a whole strip of steeply sloped land in between the patio and the terrace above our retaining wall that H just went nuts planting native wildflowers and other native stuff from seed, and it went from being this kind of scrubby, rocky, vaguely green blah to exploding with flowers and stems and colors, it's awesome.