Three years ago, it was too soon. I wasn't ready to give up a lawn full of grass. The man wanted to rip out a bunch of it and replace it with something -- anything else. I couldn't come to terms with it. I am not a fan of totally xeriscaped yards. The last place we lived in California was covered almost entirely in lava rock front and back, and I absolutely hated it. I resisted any change until now. After three years of pulling weeds out of the grass (and seriously, there are more weeds than grass in some places now), paying tons of money to water it and it still turns brown, patching holes where Murray digs, and coming to terms with the fact that I live too close to the Sun to be able to mow it without wilting (me, not it), I am ready for something different. I even admitted out loud, in public, in front of strangers, that the man was right to want to pull out most of the grass up front.
We have been collecting small boulders for years, and lately we've been cruising past the building salvage yards for flagstones as well. (It's the time of year people rip out patios, and we are taking advantage of it.) I think we are close to having enough material to start the transformation. The flagstones are mostly destined to expand the patio on the south side of the back yard, once we rip out what was there, and provide a proper base. (Learn from our mistakes: we roto-tilled and then set the rocks down. All we did was grind up weed roots, so there was a smooth, even distribution of purslane. It was awful.) I'm going to start watching those same salvage yards for wood with a good patina to build a pergola over that same flagstone patio, so that it's more accessible to me, but that's a brand new idea, not fully formed yet. Might not happen this season.
The front yard is going to be a larger undertaking. Once the grass comes out, we're going to use boulders to make raised flower beds, in the same style as my Unless garden, but covering much more ground, probably with more and higher levels. There will need to be gravel and stepping-stone paths between the flower beds. I want there to be more space between plantings than there is in the Unless garden, so I might dig a few things out of there and move them around. I bought another cherry tree two months ago, to go near the driveway. We can break up iris bulbs and spread those out too. But obviously I'll be acquiring new flowers and shrubs. I don't know how much will happen this year. It might make more sense to do it in stages. For sure it's going to be a whole different vibe outside, starting very soon.
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