Another wonderful use for pesticides here is to kill Fire Ants. They look like innocent little ****ants and climb on your ankle while you are distracted and then the lead ant blows a whistle or exudes a signal and the little bastards all bite you at once and the sting hurts and stings for a couple of weeks. Almost everyone changes their mind about pesticides after a run in with Fire Ants. Almost no one defends them with the "they were here before we were" defense.

Sometimes Greenies are helpful and sometimes they are unrealistic. Try to cut the use of one use plastics, and reuse, recycle and repurpose and don't feed the alligators or the birds. Palm trees also attract Palm Rats. They get into your attic and raise families and their urine is very strong.

fire ant stings - Bing images

graass
 

If it were allowed I would take out the grass, add some more plants , a tree, some rock, and a little bit of artificial turf. No more fertilizers, no more mowing and a lot less water used.
:a040::bigbow:

Would I get my lawn removed if allowed? Not even a remote chance. After a lifetime up north of costs that are 4 to 5 times the cost here to maintain a beautiful lawn, I take great pride in our little patch of paradise.

I get it that others have the directly opposite view as mine. That's fine. I respect that.

I love the idea of my neighbors having an unspoken competition on whose property looks the best. There are over 45 houses on my street and every one of the owners loves their lawns. Nobody has taken the lawn removal route yet. (If you know me, quiet on which street it is please)

I'd give up that Palm Tree in a heartbeat.

What a nice feeling it is to come home to a manicured lawn and a crisp, sharp looking Love Shack. :1rotfl:

Previous owners paid to have a big brown patch of the lawn weed-controlled and re-grown at the edge of the driveway, and now it's a big brown patch again.

No idea what's causing it but I don't care. We'll probably just pull up that section, dig up whatever they're calling "dirt" underneath it, replace that with actual dirt, some natural (descented) manure fertilizer, crushed shell, and finally ground cover. The maintenance will be minimal once it's in - maybe $25 per year. Get some railroad ties or other edging material to make it look manicured, maybe have some kind of short flowering shrubbery on the edge closest to the house.

We definitely agree on the palm tree issue then! Not a fan of palms in Florida. Love those gorgeous water oaks, as long as they're a healthy distance from the house and equally healthy distance from the street. Them roots are scary!

Totally agree, I was on my hands and knees pulling weeds a while back and I must have put my left hand in a fire ant zone. I got about 15 bites on my hand and wrist that were extremely painful and lasted almost two weeks. I could barely grip a golf club the first week! I will now never hesitate to take any necessary measure to kill those little bastards.

There are great alternatives if you can use them:

Herniaria Glabra Green Carpet Ground Cover Seeds - Rupturewort

How much water does Nestle's take?

Set up a standard for no grass lawns and get rid of them, You have to remember that every drop of water that goes on a lawn, you pay more for the sewer than the water. Get rid of it, save money and if you want Grass. keep yours and I'll get ride of mine.

I am so pleased that you do not have the majority opinion. In order to have drinkable water you must boil sea water and capture the vapor. OR let the earth do it, it recycles water all the time through rains and evaporation.

If a person does not wish to live in a neighborhood with cut green lawns then they can choose to do so. It is $150 a month cheaper to live outside The Villages. I am not ashamed to say that I very much enjoy our watered and cut lawn and our planted flowers and bushes and are not ashamed of using insecticides. These waves of opinion on what is right or wrong go to far sometimes.

Majority of water waste ruins down the storm drain due over watering, sprinklers not adjusted right watering street or driveways and watering too much. If you see water running down the street drain for 15 or 20 mins. Of you’re 40 to 45 minutes over watering each station then you’re wasting water 💧. See it all the time 3/4 of water run off and going down the drain especially in CYV that has rock yards with few shrubs.

If you want to see Florida "natural" yards, drive on Warm Springs Ave and check out the homes on the south side of the road west of the entrance to McClure Village. One place has it's own antique (junk) collection, glad I'm not his neighbor. There are some on the north side of the road that are quite interesting with their natural Florida flora. As they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but in my eyes those places look nasty and reflect the lack of the owner's pride in their home.

Naturalistic gardens are not unkempt. What you're looking at are yards of people who don't give a damn about what their property looks like.

You can have a beautifully well-maintained, tidy landscaped property without a lawn, and many people do. A google search will provide you with hundreds of thousands of photos showing you exactly that.

Most people here, I would guess more than 90%, do not like that style. They like grass that is well kept and bushes that are well kept. Most residents are older, and used to the time when people took great pride in their homes and yards. They don't like wild flowers growing here and there and they really don't like railroad ties unless they are carefully placed as beds. Most don't even like to see a car in the driveway or a carport with a bike and a couple of golf carts unless they are precisely parked.

Your "naturalistic garden" isn't natural then.

No offense meant, but if a nice lawn is more important than the benefit of all, I find you guilty of selfishness. We have seen water rationing in The Villages several times during our life here. That alone is an indicator of a problem with water in our area. Water to many of us is a way to show off, but water to many less fortunate is a source of survival. I am in for an Arizona style rock yard if that will help.

After looking back at previous posts, I feel the need to add a comment. I am older, I love a golf course lawn with flowering bushes etc, BUT, I also accept the fact that I am not the only one living in Florida that needs fresh water. If changing my yard from plush green to desert sand will help the greater population, count me in. I am thankful that I am wealthy enough to water a yard during a drought, but I am also kind enough to understand that what is best for all is far more important. Please think of others first.

I like the look of manicured lawns but it’s difficult with our grass in Florida. I also like well kept native plants and “natural” landscape. I am an unashamed admirer of beauty.
Rocks are easy to maintain (the lazy part of me seriously considered this) there are some lovely Zen meditation gardens in Japan. It is possible to achieve in TV but would probably look hot and arid and unnatural. Perhaps with a water element added it might look less artificial. Nothing replaces living things for me.

Original question .. Would I get rid of my lawn ? Hell no .. While I prefer Zoysia over St Augustine, my green lawn will accept all of our rain and absorb it into ground.. If you like brown, head west to Arizona where the brown landscape is butt ugly IMO.. and we get a bit too much rain for cacti here. Don;t need the earth science lesson or told my answer to a simple question is wrong. Would I ?? NO, thank you for asking.

If we’re going to “think of others first”, you would need to get rid of all the golf courses here. Pickleball courts should probably be dismantled because they cause run off along with the golf cart paths and to save all our resources the rec centers should be torn down. Fact is there will be little to keep. Well, isn’t that a sad thought. But for the good of others...

I would like to have a choice, but in The Villages I do not.

Take a look here to reduce your lawn size and maybe, carefully, get rid of it - Villages chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.

Especially look at the Landscape tab and the Resources tab.

Home - TheVillages

:cool:

Good info source, thank you.:coolsmiley:

You do have a choice, you can choose to move to a community that meets your expectations.

Rocks are not as easy as you think especially if you have bushes. Few years weeds will still pop up and If you have the ugly hollies those leaves are very had to kick up out of rocks. course most think there yard man got it easy because of the rocks. I hear blowers and suckers for hours trying to get leaves and twigs out of rock yards. Course most expect every leave to be cleaned up and don’t have clue how hard that is. Neighbors jut had there yard shrubs (all of them) and rocks removed. Mat repair and new rocks put down. Well see in couple years if weeds start to pop up.

We just did a small test area about three weeks ago. We scrapped out the stone about 4 inches deep that we put down last year with a double layer of weed block then we crisscrossed 4 layers of an even better quality weed block in the 5 x 5-foot area. We then screened and cleaned the stone which was no big deal and put down the beautiful clean stones and manicured them perfectly. I bet Mrs. Nucky a Coffee that the weeds or grass would pop thru within a month. Well, BINGO it happened within a month with a vengeance. We tried the Industrial Vinegar route to be environmentally friendly before the test with no luck.

I have every intention of slowly removing every stone that we laid down last year and putting down 4 layers of the weed block and skipping the no big deal screening of the stone and then putting the wiring for the decorative Pink Flamingo Lights (Kidding) in conduit under this operation. We will then spray it all with the strongest most Miserable Heavy Duty Industrial Weed Murderlizer (Not Kidding) that I can find. I will do 2 to 3 feet a day until finito completo. Our youngest son will probably help me during the Chrismas week and knock it out in a couple of hours. He likes to work in the yard.

I can't imagine anyone thinking about stoning the entire lawn. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I've done a lot of decorative landscaping in my life. I know I am in the south. I know there is a gigantic difference between here and there. I know that if you put weed block down and stone the entire lawn you will be one sorry individual. You can't say you haven't been warned. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We live in The Tropics, Jurassic Park.

One last thing. There is a house on W Boone in The Hysterical section that took up the lawn and put down wood chips and then a few weeks later added small plants that I would imagine are going to be ground cover at some point. You wanna see a disaster? Give it a look-see. I wouldn't call on them, that's not my thing but to prevent another person from making the same mistake you gotta see this. Don't call on them lets see where this goes in a year. Should be just wonderful.

Drop The Stone Keep The Lawn!

Right on the money with your observations, Nucky! I’ve never seen nice looking natural landscaping after a few years pass, unless.professional yard care is administered along with pest control and lots of weed killing chemicals.

I wouldn't want an all-stone lawn either. Something more on the order of this: USA and Canada 2013/PowellsWood Garden Federal Way 130503/IMG_9051_Powellswood_Garden except Florida-specific plants.

Then go look at the native plant society club and they have lots of great looking yards. Also it is very easy to stop most weeds and grass. Use pine straw it smothers weeds, stops seeds from germinating, adds organic matter and keeps soil moist. Look inn all the beds in public spaces not much grass or weeds.

I noticed in the areas near LSL - I think on Buena Vista, where the line of those gorgeous oak trees are - there's no grass but instead, a low-growing ground cover. By low-growing I mean just a few inches off the soil, and it's a lovely shade of green. I was thinking of finding out what it was and whether or not it'd make a good addition to the flower bed.

Perfect example of why it doesn’t normally work. You either need pros or someone in a group dedicated to the style. Most people don’t want to focus that hard at this age to maintain all that.

Pine straw has been discussed previously on TOTV and it can create a fire hazard, attract bugs and vermin when close to homes. Weeds still grow through it, it has to be replaced often and probably works fine in the public spaces here where they are constantly reapplying it, spraying for bugs and have rat traps set.

I agree, the GRASS in the pics looks beautiful!

Most things worthwhile take effort. Whether you pay someone else to do the effort on your behalf, or you do it yourself, or gather like-minded people to embrace a group effort. Just like perfectly manicured grass lawns take effort to maintain.

I agree with the pine needles but there are alternatives, and bugs and vermin are usually not a problem with a properly maintained naturescape. You plant things that naturally attract pollinators, and either repel pests, or attract other animals that will consume the pests (such as common snakes found all over the Villages). Again - it takes effort.

Which will be the perfect hobby for a retiree who loves to spend their now free time with their yard. That is fine but most of us are not so inclined and want to pursue interests that waited while we toiled for over 50 years. The truth is that it takes just as many dollars, just as much time if not more and just as many chemicals for the “natural” look. As I said several posts ago, to each their own.

Grass seems to be the exception here. :icon_wink:

Access to this page has been denied.:icon_wink:

Not sure why you'd bring up Arizona - it's a completely different climate. Sun City is a desert town in an arid desert state. Growing grassy lawns there would be truly wasteful because they literally don't have enough water to maintain it. Water is a premium there. Not sure why they don't have desert-friendly stuff on their lawns like cactii and flowering sage and the like, it looks sparse.

So what is the difference in paying to have yard mowed, fertilized, bug sprayed, chemicals to stop disease and beds weeded vs putting down pinestraw. It is also false about attracting bugs and vermin. A fire hazard possibly but not very likely.

Bugs and vermin are staples in all areas of lawn here.

Lawn Insect Pests - Gardening Solutions - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Fire Ants and Lovebugs and others are seasonal, but some are year around. Most of us are grateful for pesticides. Even tiny ants rise out of the bath drain at times. And Palm Trees and Fruit trees and feeding birds attract Rattus Rattus.