Looking back
Back when I was still working at the City of Coquitlam as a temporary full-time parks employee, I did a side job near the city yard. It was for a friend of my city gardener boss and it was an easy lawn cut. I remember doing it once or twice. Maybe.
The homeowner was a nice lady of a certain age. She was definitely too old to push a mower on skinny strips of lawn that never seemed to look good. One reason for the front lawn struggles was the evergreen giant above raining down acidic needles all year. As for the back, the dog did a number on it.
If you add that up, it’s a lot of work to keep two small lawns looking decent. And off-loading the work on people like me also costs money. So, what is she to do?
Lawn alternatives
The lady had a plan to switch from lawn to rocks and place a few pots on top of the rocks. And it worked. She stopped caring for the front lawn completely: no more mowing, edging, fertilizing, over-seeding and paying me to cut it. Problem solved!
Fast-forward to 2024
I think the switch happened sometime in 2015. I happened to drive by recently so I stopped to check out the installation. And it was holding, but it could use some help.
The rocks should be topped up because weeds are now starting to show. You need several inches of rock to shade out weeds. I say pull the weeds, blow it off a little bit and add more rock. That should freshen it up nicely.
Conclusion
I’m not a fan of all lawn alternatives. For example, plastic turf only makes sense where dogs damage the lawn daily. But the switch I covered in this blog post made a lot of sense.
We had a senior lady living by herself struggling to maintain a small front lawn. Once she installed the rocks she had zero maintenance to do, which gave her time to spend on her beloved dogs. This was a great switch for her, even with the upfront costs. The rocks look much better than the sad lawn and she can plant her favourites in the pots.
Don’t be afraid to make changes in your gardens.
