The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Well last weekend I sorta moved the fence. Actually, moving the fence might have been easier, but the grass is finally greener: I replaced our front lawn. Sure, it’s only 400 square feet, but I found out I was only in shape for about 25 square feet…

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When our house was built, and the front yard was landscaped, the sod was placed directly on top of sixteen billion tons of river rock and clay. And water bottles. And fast food wrappers. And left-over concrete. So I removed the old sod, garbage, old construction supplies, and a couple of hundred pounds of rock so I could place another patch of newer, better sod.

So now I have a wonderfully even, green, smooth lawn. And that lawn will take gallons of water to maintain. And pounds of fertilizer. And gallons of lawnmower gas. It took me about ten minutes to understand the complete folly of our obsession with lawns, but I live in a neighborhood that has a neighborhood association and architecture approval committee. And I think the rules eliminate the possibility of making the front yard useful, like these folks: