I know this is a meme, but shit like this is why I allow wild growth on my property. First year I owned my home the ground got muddy as hell from the new build since the ground was all dug up and tilled.

From the second year on I’ve only mowed a path for my driveway and the front walkway and the rest grows wild. Sweetgrass and other native plants anywhere from like 1 to 3 feet tall and the area is high desert (Colorado) so the “weeds” suck up any moisture they can get, no flood, no mud. It’s great. I’ll never understand MFers in the rurals curating lawns.

Plus, it looks nice, and the deer in the area seem to like it as well.

ITT lots of people who blessedly have no idea what an HOA is.

I was purposefully allowing my grass to grow because my area is in a severe drought and the herbivorous wildlife (groundhogs, rabbits, and deer) have slim pickings right now and they started coming onto my property to eat. I even leave the gates open to the fenced part when I'm not home so the critters can get in easier.

The other day my neighbor mowed half my yard without my consent because he saw a garter snake cross the road and go into my yard. I was, and still am, so pissed. He cut the grass down to the dirt. He didn't even tell me after the fact. I had to go door to door asking my neighbors if they knew who tf touched my yard while I was out and about. My neighbor admitted to it when I got to his place to ask and had the audacity to get shitty with me about letting my grass grow.

The shape of the roots of the shrubs is somewhat exaggerated. Many do go that deep, but they’re not that wide all the way down. There are only a few types that grow roots that look like that.

There are also deep root grasses if you want a lawn, but don’t want to ruin your soil.

https://thankyourlawn.com/grass-root-depth/

Instructions unclear: lawn covered in bricks and sponges now.

We tore our front lawn out this summer. By the time we were working in July the (clay) soil under the sod was brick hard for 18 inches before it got workable again.

The yard is now 70% native and the area with high sun is drought tolerant. It's only been a few weeks and already the pollinators are here in force and there's a pair of mourning doves that come by to hang out most mornings.

Roundup doesn't want you to know this. In their eyes... Dandelions are weeds, which is such a sad opinion.

1. props to crime pays but botany doesn't. Great stuff.
2. needs a subtle Saddam in the root structure of native plant.

!nolawns@slrpnk.net

Plus lawns are typically domed up to avoid sogginess, causing tons of runoff into the storm drains (including runoff from sprinklers). It's lunacy.

Unless you have really sandy soils. Then the rain mostly passes right through (ignoring all the parts that are paved - insta-flood!), and it's just a situation with malnourished grass, probably more susceptible to "weeds", and not a lot of organic matter to hold all that soil together.

That's the thing missing from this image - it's not just being more porous that makes larger plants retain water better, it's that they're a critical part in creating the conditions that produce more of that organic matter, getting that carbon (and a lot of other stuff) in the ground. It acts as a sponge, and in sandy soils that are too porous, it fills those gaps and acts as a binder.

Not shown: the limestone 16" down.

Source: https://www.crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt.com/kill-your-lawn

Look, this guy is a phenomenon and worth at least some of your time. Not just for the kill your lawn stuff, but for making botany actually interesting. There's a whole-ass youtube channel that is sure to entertain if not educate.

Also, you can totally have a lawn. It's a great place to Do Things in your garden, and it's better than bricks or concrete. I can't host a bbq in between the shrubs after all.

Just, turn the bits where you don't Do Things into some other plant than lawn grass. At the very least you don't really need those corners, and come on, a natural zone is way easier to maintain than a lawn too!

Relevant Climate Town-video which just dropped: https://nebula.tv/videos/climatetown-americas-dumbest-crop/ / https://youtu.be/KLYMjPNppRQ

I had a house with shrubbery growing around it. the roots were dense but light, so no real danger to the foundation. I had mentioned to my wife a couple times about removing the shrubs to replace them with flower beds with smaller shrubs to make it easier to maintain.

one day I came home from work and her dad and her had completely ripped up every shrub along the back of the house.

I was livid. I asked her what she was going to do next because money was tight. She shrugged and said we can save up to plant something for next year.

I explained to her that those shrubs were protecting the foundation from water egress and by removing them we would have water in the crawlspace. she dismissed me and said I was overreacting.

this was just as spring started. guess what happened next? yep, water started to seep into the foundation and the walls were clearly wet. I showed her, explained that in 5-10 years the mortar between the blocks would soften and begin to break down and fall apart.

for context, the house was built in the early 50s and the foundation was just raw concrete blocks without any moisture barrier. the shrubs had been there since the house was built (or at least very nearly the whole time). there was one corner that had a downspout that dropped right on top of the foundation that had some pretty bad spalling but was otherwise in perfect condition.

she listens to me now.

Wonder if this affects ground water as well

Is there an alternative to grass that covers well, and doesn't spread fast like an invasive plant?

I've read about clover but it does spread fast.