One homeowner found themself in a battle with their HOA over 1000 square feet of lawn in the community.
"Our stinky, poopy HOA board wants to pay $25,000 to replace 1000 square feet of lawn with rocks to get rid of maintenance fees and water costs," the Redditor said in a post in the r/NoLawns community. "None of us want this, so we asked if we can explore alternatives."
On the surface, getting rid of a lawn is actually a positive step. Grass needs an unreasonable amount of water and maintenance, making it expensive to care for, and it does nothing for the environment or pollinators.
🗣️ Should HOAs be able to force homeowners to change their yards?
🔘 Absolutely not 💯
🔘 Yes — it's part of the deal 🤝
🔘 Only in extreme circumstances 🏚️
🔘 We should ban HOAs 🚫
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
However, simply replacing the grass with rocks has its own problems. It could create an unpleasant heat island over such a large area.
"The area has a southern exposure and receives about six hours of direct sun in the summer. Very light traffic — maybe a few kids and dogs walking over it each day. But it does receive some traffic," the original poster said of the area in question before listing several alternatives to a rock garden.
They proposed several solutions with those factors in mind: mixing clover into the grass so it won't need as much water; tearing up the grass to replace it with Buffalo grass that is also much hardier than turf grass; or completely xeriscaping the area with drought-tolerant native plants.
Each of those plans has the benefit of saving water while keeping the area cooler than rocks would. Both native xeriscaping and clover could be good for pollinators, too. Even reserving part of the space for plants would provide some of these benefits.
Commenters approved of these plans and agreed that rock would be the wrong way to go.
"Never understood why rocks are perceived as being maintenance-free," said one user. "It's not long before dirt, leaves, and other organic matter blow in, decay, and weeds start to grow."
"I'm voting for full local native landscape!" said another user. "It'll require way less water and less maintenance in the long run, and be by far and away the most ecologically beneficial."
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