What should Mahogany do about her lawn?

[mahogany]

I'm going to try to convince my dh that we should get rid of our lawn. I've never been a fan, and I've decided that this might be the year that we get rid of it.

I'm thinking of overseeding my lawn with a wildflower mix with flowers that are native to the pacific northwest, with some extra fragrant flowers thrown in.

[Poll #1713216]

Comments

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

It totally makes sense. It's moot point anyway because as I wrote above, dh is 90% against the idea. I am allowed one little trial patch in the back yard to see how it looks, so I guess I have a small window of opportunity to show that it can look great. I am looking at a wildflower mix that's pretty much exclusively flowers, which I'll sow densely. I'm choosing low growing varieties that have mounding habits to give the whole thing a more deliberate look, as the taller varieties do tend to look haphazard if spread over an entire front lawn.

We are painting the house red over the summer, so I'm hoping that the overall look of the house will give us a bit more wiggle room to be playful with the yard.

I must get rid of this lawn. I must. The European chafer beetles are a huge problem here. Beneficial nematodes don't work, unfortunately. Really, there are only three solutions: - Live with a lawn perpetually looks like crap because animals and birds are ripping it to shreds to get at the grubs.
- Spray the entire lawn. Every. Single. Year. Preferably twice a year, to kill off the grubs.
- Get rid of the lawn.

Over the winter, we live with the eyesore that is option 1. Last year, we went with option 2, which I really hated, and don't want to do again. The only permanent solution that I see, is some form of option 3, and I'd like to do it sooner than later.

Since you checked off other, I'm curious to know, what would you put in the front if you wanted to get rid of your lawn?