A Pretty Yard for Inspo

The only thing I would object to it the visibility of the fire hydrant.
- I thought the same thing. But it does look like there’s a stone path leading to it. Still, perhaps a post with a sign would be a practical solution.
  
  Hopefully there is already a blue reflector on the road. Where I am they are used to mark hydrant locations for easy finding at night.
  I imagine other areas could use a different color reflector though.
- I’m a bit surprised at how far into the parcel the hydrant is placed but they also practically don’t exist around here, is it common to have them basically on your lawn?
  
  Around here, if they are not directly in the sidewalk, (or there is no sidewalk) they still have a cement apron around them and are near the curb.
  
  Same question. Why did they placed the fire hydrant on the lawn of that house.

Cannot believe that someone would prefer 2022 photo instead of 2023...
- I worked for a municipal government. Some houses have 'nature reserves' near them, wild areas of mostly indigenous vegetation.
  Resident: "This needs to be cleared. Snakes live in there "
  Me: "Good. That's the point."
  
  True nature in cities is not only for humans, but also for the animals, bugs and all the little creatures.
  
  Almost every single snakebite in a city is caused by escaped pets. And the majority of snakes are not venemous. If people want to be worried about animals, they should be worried about the untrained and poorly controlled dogs they see every day, not the hypothetical snakes that won't even leave the shrubbery.
- The 2023 pic is beautiful and looks really nice. But if we're comparing in good faith, it's also pretty obvious that the 2022 photo was taken in early spring when nothing is growing.
  There's surely a lot more plant life on the bottom anyway, but it would not look that vibrant if it was all dormant right after winter like the top pic.
- TBF, the 2022 photo looks like it was taken in the winter (no leaves on trees, empty/dead garden beds), and a 2023 winter pic would look about the same but with more empty/brown garden instead of grass.
- Once established it's probably significantly less water and maintenance too. Just trimming and weeding every quarter instead of mowing, fertilising and/or watering every few weeks.
- My yard is becoming 2023 and my neighbor's yard is 2022, and he complains about my yard every opportunity he has, but he never complained when it was only grass

home owners association: "I'm calling the police!"
- Doesn't even need to be an HOA, plenty of municipalities don't accept anything but lawn in front of the house.
  
  Or just a neighbor with no life that studies ordinances.
  My parents have a neighbor that waked around the block with a tape measure, measuring how far from sidewalk people had trees or shrubs. Township ordinance said it had to be 6 feet away.
  She then called the city and reported everyone in violation. The neighbor never met most of those people. She was just bored with no life.

No way the bottom one doesn't need any watering? No?
- If it's local, it's designed to survive on its own. I'm in North Texas and this summer has been hell on everyone's lawns and gardens. The exception for me is my garden with trailing lantana. It is completely unaffected and growing like mad while everything else is drying up and dying.
  
  Also in North Texas and also have thriving lantana while nearly everything else is dried up. I'm kinda at my wits end.
- The goal is to have local plant which can survive in local climates. Then you don’t have to water as much or ever.
- Big reason why grass lawns require so much constant watering is because they have pretty bad water retention. Having a thick layer of foliage protects the soil from direct sunlight which prevents it from drying out too quickly. Much of that water you see people spraying onto their lawns is actually just gonna evaporate back into the air before the grass even has a chance to use it.
  
  Turf grasses are also very shallow rooted.
- The real question is do you have to weed or do other maintenance? I'm looking for a zero maintenance yard not just a zero watering
  
  That sounds like a personal thing. If you want weed in your garden you let it grow. If you don't or if it starts to suffocate plants you care about you get rid of it.
  You can have a zero maintenance garden by doing no maintenance and letting whatever grow. If you want to curate your plants that obviously requires effort.
- In addition to what the other comment says, the raised garden edgers would reduce/eliminate rain runoff and usually a variety of plants like this provide deep, wide roots which anchor and aerate the soil, increasing it's water retention ability and recuing water requirements, especially compared to shallow root grass
- Also the grass could be left to go dormant in dry weather; it doesn't need to be watered. The second photo looks great but it'll be a ton of work to maintain.

I'm sure no HOA would ever fight you for this. /s
- And that's why when buying a house, avoid ones with a HOA
- I think HOAs are luckily rare in Canada.

The comments here really are interesting.
"2023 is going to attract snakes or bugs" ah yeah that's how nature works.
2022 is when you work against nature.
- I immediately thought about insects. Is it not how it works?
  
  If you do it right yup, and your yard becomes a hotspot bees and other pollinators
- After attracting pollinators the last few years, I finally attracted crickets, grasshoppers, and spiders in my little urban sanctuary this year. I considered it a compliment from nature
- It's a legit question. Are these yards more likely to result in additional home repairs due to destructive pests? I'm significantly less pro nature when that nature has destroyed my home by chewing wires, eating the wood from my support structure or causing leaks and water damage. I've dealt with rodents causing thousands of dollars in damage before and it completely sucks.

a whole tree in one year? that seems misleading...
- I think the tree was already there. It just didn't have any leaves.
- There's two trees, the big one is more in frame in the second image

While working on my graduation thesis at the natural sciences faculty, this is exactly what we studied: the usage of autochthon plants as a replacement for garden varieties in an urban context
Edit: grammar correction
- what is authocton? google didnt know.
  
  I think they meant this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochthon
- Thats super cool! I'm sure folks here will be very appreciative should you share your knowledge with us ☺️ regardless, we're happy to have you in this community
  
  The best part about it is that I'm no universal expert, I just know plants that are indigenous in the place I live in (northern Italy).
  If you guys are interested you can find plenty of literature on the internet, or you can simply walk around unkept fields in spring and select plants you like the most. The ones I always suggest are those from the Ericaceae family, since they can be found pretty much worlwide, are really low maintainance and have beautiful flowers that are a beacon for bees and other pollen insects.

looks good. wonder about the total cost (garden + burned down house).

I want to do something similar to our front yard, which is currently mostly grass as well. Also some patches for butterflies and bees will be needed.
- simple start is adding native clover and dandelion to the grass (and obviously not spraying herbicides or pesticides)
  clover adds nitrogen (and was a traditional part of lawns up until WWII)
  dandelions attract pollinators and every part of dandelions are edible
  don’t trim/mow shorter than 6" (15cm) – triggers grass grazing response rather than damage response
  once that’s established, then you can move onto planning and design
  native wildflowers, bunching grasses, erosion control, vegetable garden, fruit trees
  for a garden area, the turf can be flipped over for a basic sheet mulch starter
- Sounds lovely, I'm sure folks here would be delighted to see progress pics as you're working on it!

Impressive. Any edible stuff? How much work would it take to keep these plants so well groomed? They start to get tangled and fight each other when I do it :)

"Muh golfin' grass!"

Seems like a lot of work.
- The initial planting, maybe. But afterwards it's something that largely maintains itself. Maybe the occasional trimming if you want it to stay neat. One of the big draws of native landscaping is how low maintenance it is by virtue of the plants being adapted to the environment they're growing in
- Putting in a brand new lawn is work as well, but a native plant garden is actually less work usually once installed because you don't have to mow all the time.