Lawn Gone

Like many water conscious Californians, we decided to rip out our lawn and replace it with rocks and flowers. OK, maybe we're not that overly concerned with water consumption, but we did get tired of caring for a lawn during the summer when it can be well over 100, and during the winter when it can dip down to the high 20s.

After the lawn's near death experience in early May, my husband decided that this was the year to rip it out and move on to something new. I had been looking at various front yard makeovers in Sunset where the common theme was to do away with the lawn. I liked what I saw. So did my husband. The thought of no longer wasting water on an insatiable green sponge was very appealing. Finally, I was going to get my stone pathway lined with cute solar lights. Yay!

As with many home improvement projects, some of the details had to be made up as we went along. Like what to do with the sod once it was ripped up. (We don't have a truck.) We called one of those haul away companies and were quoted an estimate of $750. Um, no. We finally got the brilliant idea to just do it ourselves and rent a truck from Home Depot for $70 per day. We made three trips to the landfill where there is a sod dumping area. The per load charge ranged from $15-$24. The total cost for renting the truck and sod dumping fees was $127, and our neighbor paid for the last load because we offered to haul away his old carpet. How cool was that? So, we "saved" over $600.

Do I miss the lawn? No. No I don't. Admittedly, a rock-filled landscape is not always my favorite. But rock combined with planter boxes is a nice touch. This morning, I woke up to one of the daylilies, Purple Galaxy, in bloom. No, I don't miss the lawn.