Comments on: I Used to Have a Lawn … Now I Have Platform!

By: Pyj

Pyj — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:28:28 +0000

You have several, well thought out ideas. I also tore out my front lawn but my reasoning was more meme than altruistic. I just needed more space. Isn’t it wonderful when being a meme turns out to be a good thing.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:25:06 +0000

Just ran in to your sweet agave post while trying to identifying one. I think it’s a weberi.

By: mary ann

mary ann — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:26:37 +0000

your front-yard garden is my constant inspiration. unfortunately mine is easily 4x the size of yours and all of that space is overwhelming…so i have made fits and starts of planting areas, but alas it is woefully LACKING. guidance is needed. do you freelance for fellow neighborhood bloggers? if so you’re hired! I’m not kidding Germie. someone needs to boss around and take charge of my front yard ungarden. think of it as the extra room you don’t have in your own platform.

-mary ann who is getting outside right now to prune my smoke tree which you instructed me to do in the fall (to encourage branching) i mean as soon as i finish catching up over here. hee

p.s. i’m going to merida for 10 days in january!!!!

By: Meredith

Meredith — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:13:20 +0000

Your garden is so beautiful and inspiring. I feel I’ve so far to go in tackling this gigantic yard we have — bit by bit though we are seeing change. I can’t wait for the Bermuda and St. Augustine to be gone, gone, gone. But we have a lot of yard to fill in. Your agave are so beautiful — I’m getting three in the ground this weekend!

By: Brian K

Brian K — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:34:42 +0000

Beautiful yard! What is that amazing plant over your front entry?

By: lostlandscape (James)

lostlandscape (James) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:23:14 +0000

I really like your transformation. Your combination of plants is great, and I especially love the color contrasts.

By: Summer

Summer — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:55:59 +0000

I’m all for lawns that serve some purpose (mixed broadleaves, please!) but so often they are just unused sterile swards (or dog s*** runs, as I call them. I have nothing against dogs, just the people who don’t clean up after them.)

I wish I remembered the authors of all my favorite comments against lawns. One was (to paraphrase), the lawn is a plant community devoid of sex. Another was, the lawn is antisocial. It requires lawnmowers and weed-whackers which inhibit conversation. A garden, though, is tended. One can talk with one’s neighbors whilst pulling the weeds.

I do all my gardening on a slab of concrete three stories up and facing a westward parking lot. (Long live the agaves!) But a day may come where I find myself gardening in the ground, and it heartens me to read that you’ve converted some neighbors. I don’t *want* to do battle with HOAs but I envision it.

I see you’ve got some fluffy daisy-ish plant creeping amongst the agaves… told you it could work!

By: Willi

Willi — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:03:54 +0000

You garden is so lovely. It makes me wish that I don’t like lawn. But I do! My lawn love makes me feel guilty so I’m slowly chipping away at it, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of my lawn completely. I like to lay on it in and wrestle on it with the dog. My lawn is organic though and I let it go dormant in summer…so my garden sin is not as bad as it could be!

By: germinatrix

germinatrix — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:49:55 +0000

Susa, thank you for always adding to the dialog! I LOVE cross talk on blogs … I should encourage more of it here. Okay all, let’s CROSS TALK more!
I love the idea of letting your lawn go feral, especially if it is a classic fescue mix – but if you have bermuda, like Katharine … AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!! Don’t let those bermuda grass seeds out into the world where they become more impossible to eradicate sod weed! Kill Kill Kill!!!

Sweet Susan, one of the OG Lawn Reformers! We have the real deal here, people! YOU are the inspiration! From my first lurking on your blog, to my first comment, to our twitter chats, your work helps me to organize my thoughts and spur me forward. I am really lucky to have come into a community of energetic, spirited gardeners and designers who are ALSO thinkers and stewards of the environment / culture! Thank you so much for your lovely words, I feel the same about you … Big MWAH! to you!

Hi MCM – I’m in Merida next week! And I’m going through all of your back comments to visit the viveros you suggested!
It’s true, lawns ARE wonderful play spaces – but in the cities, back yards are where the play lawns usually are. Parents don’t like the idea of their little kids playing in the front yard, close to the street, closer to other perceived dangers. That is why when clients MUST have lawn for their kids, it is always in the back. There really is nothing like playing on turf, and I understand that kids need that, so I’d never begrudge the family play space. But the FRONT lawn is another story!
Funny, I have noticed lawns and topiary as the dominant horticultural forms in Merida – both symbols of high maintenance, European-style or North American garden imperialism! Break Free, wonderful Merida! Let your inner Tropical Deciduous Jungle run free!

By: mcm

mcm — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:16:42 +0000

Lawn as a status symbol? Boo, hiss. BUT — sometimes lawns are more than a “pass through”…as a child, we PLAYED on the lawn — tumbling, running, falling, playing croquet, etc. The lawn was not perfect (I certainly don’t remember my folks using fertilizers on it, and we did spend time pulling up dandelions), but it was open space and relatively soft, with no CARS running through it.
Just wanted to point out that sometimes lawns serve a useful function (and they don’t have to be unfriendly to the environment).
Though, of course you’re right — they don’t suit ALL geographical areas (here in Yucatan…you might be amazed at how ubiquitous lawns are — and probably for some of the reasons you outlined in your post).