I saw that. Very interesting. People really need to open their minds and start worrying about the Florida aquifer instead of green grass. We actually have people on our lake who pump water from it even during the drought.

I think pine needles with plants/scrubs etc. are just lovely.

Amen to that gal!

Good for that lady in the article. Lawns are overrated and often wasteful. Around here, whatever grows, grows, and we never would waste water on an expanse of lawn. I even water my ornamentals mostly with grey water from my bathtub.

I moved from Orange Park, FL to The Woodlands, TX almost 2 yrs. ago (I still lurk here because we'll be moving back to FL when we retire :-) The Woodlands was one of the original "master planned" communities in the country. It was started in 1970 and projected build-out is another 10 yrs. And here, in The Woodlands, we can't have more than 60% of our front yard be grass!!!!!!! There are many yards xeriscaped with NO GRASS!!!! (I'm working on that, but DH is fighting me getting rid of the 30x20 ft. patch of STUPID St. Aug. in the front yard.) We have NO grass in the side or back yards ---- too much shade from the trees, YIPEE!!) When I was in Orange Park, I tore out close to 1/5 acre (about 9000 sf.) of St. Aug. over 9 yrs. & put in mulched beds and awesome plants. I DO NOT understand the "grass" mentality, when it's not native and it sucks up precious water and is high maintenance and needs chemicals to feed it and get rid of the bugs. If you want "grass" go live in Kentucky. OK, off my soapbox now.

Sounds like the Woodlands was very progressive, lucky you! My goal is a yard that is pretty much mulched and walk-wayed so I don't have to do much but hack plants back in the fall and wait for spring.

Another bad thing about grass is all the chemicals and fertilizer required to keep it looking nice. That stuff goes into the aquifer and lakes too.

People are going to have to learn to accept that grass is merely a ground-cover not something to be worshiped.

Suzanne

Suzanne - It occurs to me that 'people' don't have to be convinced, at least not us on GW, nor at the state or county level or we wouldn't have all these folks agreeing with us.

The problem is with 'control freaks'. The last part of the article I posted summed it all up when the spokesperson for the HOA talked about having to 'decide' what kind of edgings and plantings to have because they 'couldn't have it Helter-Skelter'. Why not??

What do you call nature if not 'Helter-Skelter'? Tree limbs not growing uniformly, moss hanging down wherever it wants to and ball moss clinging haphazardly. Not to mention vines and whatever ground cover can grow. Of course, they've probably never taken the time to observe nature, too busy writing rules.

I live in an HOA community and can understand the principles behind it-we're protecting ourselves from the "bad" homeowner in theory.
The problem is that things change-people have different ideas today about grass, native plants, etc. The developer is the one who put the rules on paper 15 years ago--copied from someone else.
I just spent a weeks vacation in Fla state parks and no my HOA doesn't want nature in our yards, it is too messy.
The fact is that we the owners "own" the HOA and we can change the rules.
It is great to see more articles like the one cited. As water becomes more expensive it will be politically incorrect to have a huge grass lawn to feed.

In my landscape design classes many years ago the instructor divided people into only two groups - those who want to control Mother Nature with their expectation that nature can be made to be 'orderly' and those who want to work with Mother Nature. Working with nature is actually more difficult IMO because it requires you to learn and think.

My experience has been that there are many people who don't seem to have enough to do with their time so their attention and energy gets directed to trying to run other people's lives.

Suzanne

Suzanne, you hit the nail on the head - at least in my subdivision. A few people with a little money and a lot of free time (retirees) want to run herd on the rest of us. And since we're one of the first families in the subdivision, one cannot say "Well you knew it was like this when you moved in". And as another poster noted, our developer presented C and Rs that we later found were illegal - such as no clotheslines (Florida law trumps HOA law, thank God). It's my understanding that they were taken from a subdivision up in New Jersey..who knows?
I say the less turf, the better - especially in this state.

naplesgardener said, "no my HOA doesn't want nature in our yards, it is too messy". No comment.
And also said, "As water becomes more expensive it will be politically incorrect to have a huge grass lawn to feed."
This I take exception to. PC has nothing to do with it. It was a quick-buck scheme when developers first foisted these lawns on Florida to attract buyers from out of state and pure evil to require their buyers to maintain their swindle through HOA covenants.

Hey, janengland, cut some slack, I'm retired and waaay too busy to mess with anybody else. :-)
ron

In my HOA it is not the retirees who run things as much as the out of town owners. The year-rounders have too much else going on.

I totally relate to what Kelpie said. "...those who want to control Mother Nature with their expectation that nature can be made to be 'orderly' and those who want to work with Mother Nature."

I'm going for a jungle. I want to have to brush plants out of the way to get though my jungle, I love that I have snakes, and for me, lawn is not a very interesting way to grow grass, which can be much prettier in billowy clumps of ornamental splendor.

My neighbor likes a shaved, no nonsense look. As long as it doesn't take any work, she's very happy.

Down the street is a gent who likes white picket fences and very clipped bushes.

Which is part of why I'd never live in a deed restricted community or place myself under a HOA. I love the diversity.

naplesgardener: "we're protecting ourselves from the "bad" homeowner in theory." ....and you offer Spanish needles for trade and you are looking for green shrimp plant to grow. Hmmmm...... better figure out what and who you define as bad, since about 99.9% of homeowners would consider those annoying weeds. I do happen to grow them both purposely as the butterflies do like them, but then I'm not worried about some HOA calling me "bad".

naplesgardener: "no my HOA doesn't want nature in our yards, it is too messy." I'm totally at a loss for words and really don't know why you don't just move to a condo in the middle of NY city. Many of your posts you promote eco-friendly, native plants etc., yet you want to live in some Nazi HOA, very hypocritical.

I'm afraid you are misinterpreting my words. I am not the HOA. I am an organic gardener who plants native plants. Yes I offer Spanish needles and other native seeds. I am saying that my HOA would not be in favor of eliminating grass, I am eliminating my grass a little at a time every month.
Please don't attack me for stating what I know is true in my neighborhood.
I chose to buy my house here for many reasons instead of in the country where HOA's have no jurisdiction.
I have Spanish needles growing amongst my other plants.
Today I had Peacock butterflies, Monarchs, Gulf Fritillaries, Goldrims, Long-tailed Skippers and a few others in my small garden.
Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you what most people think here. It's not what I think or practice.
If you disagree with our governments policies would you move to Canada? Same with me. I don't agree with the HOA but I want to live here and am active in making changes.

I haven't been keeping up with the forum the past couple weeks but I'm glad I logged on tonight. I'm not the Politeness Police, but I'm really surprised at some of the comments here. If I want rudeness and quick tempered responses I can find those anywhere, but I thought this Florida Forum was different. We're the good guys, remember? I was about to defend naplesgardener but see this gardener took care of it on their own. It seemed obvious to me that they were just telling you what their HOA thought. But even if naplesgardener were sharing their own opinion, when did this get to be the kind of place where we call one another 'hypocritical' or 'take exception to' comments made? We get to share opinions here and we can disagree with a better level of civility than that. I think some apologies are owed.