If you don’t live in an actual desert, there’s probably some local plant you can use as a groundcover which will cushion your kids when they fall. In my area for instance carex pansa (sand dune sedge) is popular. You might be growing some local sedge or ground over now, only you think of it as a weed. The first thing to do is to stop thinking of a uniform surface as the goal. Think meadow rather than lawn. If you painted a picture would you have a swath of flat green without nuance? Even if your kids are playing sports out there, so you need to trim it to a few inches all over, it’s still better for the environment to use native plants. And even tolerate the non-natives like dandelions rather than spread poison. Obviously you don’t want poison ivy or puncturevine, anything that can harm your kids.
Yeah I share the house with the in laws so dont have complete control.
My mother in law wanted turf installed in the front after we installed a fence to keep anyone from parking on the yard (father in law) but it was way too expensive for the nice stuff,so father in law came in quick and had some guys install a lawn for cheap.
He was excited for a lawn since the start, on move in day he got two lawn mowers even though it was all dirt.
At least I was able to get a big barrel and water pump so showed them how to use laundry water to water the lawn so we haven’t actually had to use the sprinklers at all so far. I’ve been wanting to find something that I could sprinkle seeds around to get it to be more California summer resistant. At least the kids really like it, and the dogs go nuts when we hangout in the front with them because they can run along side anyone that walks by sniffing their butts
I thought of something you could run by your FIL. He’s obviously loving the idea of a green lawn the kiddies will enjoy. But maybe he’ll be open to allowing the addition of some California wood sorrel amongst the pointy grass. If mowed it stays at about the same height as the grass, it’s nice and green, it’s soft to sit on and the kids can hunt among the three-leaf clovers to try to find a lucky one with 4. If it gets the chance it will make pretty yellow flowers and then nifty seed pods shaped like miniature okra, when they are ripe you can twist to make them pop seeds everywhere. It also handles drought well. And it can help crowd out non-native weeds. But it could possibly take over the whole lawn. Which will make him mad if he thinks of it as a weed rather than a chosen inclusion. So if you think he might say yes, ask him. If you know he’ll say no, don’t bring it up. It’s legitimately possible for it to start growing in the lawn all by itself because it’s so prolific, and you don’t want to be blamed. Especially if you did surreptitiously scatter some seed…
Fair enough. If your house has the water heater far from the bathroom you can also collect a few gallons of the “waiting for hot water” at the tub spout. I don’t have a yard but I have a big balcony garden using that water. Maybe do native flowers around the edges since FIL will mow short anything on his turf
If you don’t live in an actual desert, there’s probably some local plant you can use as a groundcover which will cushion your kids when they fall. In my area for instance carex pansa (sand dune sedge) is popular. You might be growing some local sedge or ground over now, only you think of it as a weed. The first thing to do is to stop thinking of a uniform surface as the goal. Think meadow rather than lawn. If you painted a picture would you have a swath of flat green without nuance? Even if your kids are playing sports out there, so you need to trim it to a few inches all over, it’s still better for the environment to use native plants. And even tolerate the non-natives like dandelions rather than spread poison. Obviously you don’t want poison ivy or puncturevine, anything that can harm your kids.
Yeah I share the house with the in laws so dont have complete control.
My mother in law wanted turf installed in the front after we installed a fence to keep anyone from parking on the yard (father in law) but it was way too expensive for the nice stuff,so father in law came in quick and had some guys install a lawn for cheap. He was excited for a lawn since the start, on move in day he got two lawn mowers even though it was all dirt.
At least I was able to get a big barrel and water pump so showed them how to use laundry water to water the lawn so we haven’t actually had to use the sprinklers at all so far. I’ve been wanting to find something that I could sprinkle seeds around to get it to be more California summer resistant. At least the kids really like it, and the dogs go nuts when we hangout in the front with them because they can run along side anyone that walks by sniffing their butts
I thought of something you could run by your FIL. He’s obviously loving the idea of a green lawn the kiddies will enjoy. But maybe he’ll be open to allowing the addition of some California wood sorrel amongst the pointy grass. If mowed it stays at about the same height as the grass, it’s nice and green, it’s soft to sit on and the kids can hunt among the three-leaf clovers to try to find a lucky one with 4. If it gets the chance it will make pretty yellow flowers and then nifty seed pods shaped like miniature okra, when they are ripe you can twist to make them pop seeds everywhere. It also handles drought well. And it can help crowd out non-native weeds. But it could possibly take over the whole lawn. Which will make him mad if he thinks of it as a weed rather than a chosen inclusion. So if you think he might say yes, ask him. If you know he’ll say no, don’t bring it up. It’s legitimately possible for it to start growing in the lawn all by itself because it’s so prolific, and you don’t want to be blamed. Especially if you did surreptitiously scatter some seed…
Fair enough. If your house has the water heater far from the bathroom you can also collect a few gallons of the “waiting for hot water” at the tub spout. I don’t have a yard but I have a big balcony garden using that water. Maybe do native flowers around the edges since FIL will mow short anything on his turf