The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

23 May 2007

And the yards went on forever

Your lawn? "An irrational consumer preference," says Zack Wendling:

There's no reason why we must demand sterile subdivisions with high-maintenance vegetation surrounding our homes. They only exist because we lack imagination and worry about resale value (or selling the thing in the first place if we are the developer). Hopefully, a greater awareness of the high costs of lawns (in terms of construction, maintenance, aesthetics, and ecology) and the low benefits (in terms of use and status) can change that.

Believe me, I know the costs. It's about a buck and a half worth of gas every week, plus $300-500 a year for the weed-control regimen, plus a whole lot of time, plus whatever I spent on the tools of the trade. And I do as little maintenance as I can get away with, if only to avoid the appearance of suburban sterility.

And while my front yard is mostly for show — which is a tragedy, because it doesn't look so wonderful — the back yard does get used, for sunning and (gag) occasional exercise.

Still, I have a thousand-square-foot house sitting on a quarter-acre-plus lot. I do not envision ever having the same thousand-square-foot house sitting on a quarter-acre-plus parking lot: to me, that's low status.

Posted at 8:05 AM to Almost Yogurt , Surlywood


TrackBack: 10:00 AM, 6 June 2007
» Where The Green Grass Grows from Hit Coffee
What bothers me most about the yard fixation is not that we want them but that there are so many neighborhoods where yards and lawns are supposed to look nice but not be used in order to match the house that is an investment rather than a place to actu......[read more]

You know, yards are actually much more interesting places faunally if they have weeds, and as long as one mows regularly, it's hard to tell the difference between them and the more boring grass monoculture.

Posted by: Bigwig at 8:44 AM on 23 May 2007

Chris and I have decided that if we move to a drier climate and get a piece of land on which to build, our front yard will be xeriscape.

Meanwhile our front yard, which was somewhat sodded -- or something -- when we moved in, has gone to bare dirt, so we've covered it in pinestraw and are trying to turn it into a tree island sans trees.

It beats paving it over, though don't think I didn't try to sell that idea.

Posted by: McGehee at 3:49 PM on 23 May 2007