We rent, and our landlord could really care less about keeping up the place. When we moved in a few months ago the lawn was 90% weed and the backyard was just hard-packed dirt. Since I don’t want to be “that house” on the block (you know, the one that starts to bring down the quality of the neighborhood?), I decided to do my best with as little money as possible (since we have plans to stay for only 2 years). I want to make it as xeric (drought resistant) as possible, put in some trees (my favorite saying is “a good man is a man who plants a tree even though he knows he won’t be around to enjoy the shade”—or something along those lines).

The picture I uploaded is a “before” picture taken in early spring. We just completely tilled and seeded it, so I will post some “after” pictures in a few days.

To Consider:

1. There are no trees—if you can believe that!

The lawn faces west and receives about 8 hours of painfully hot intense sun during the day. This turns our house into a sauna (no A/C). My first order of business is to plant some trees this fall. Of course I can’t afford full grown ones, so I got myself a membership to the National Arbor Day foundation and voila’, I will shortly be receiving 10 (small) trees for the cost of $25.

2. Lots of shrubs. I’m planning to put in a bunch of xeric shrubs along the side of the house extending a few feet into the lawn. That took away about 1/4 of the lawn and will allow me to lower watering costs for turf. I also want to plant some lilac bushes along the driveway (again, faces west, turns our cars into saunas as well). Got some russian sages, coneflowers and lilac from Lowe’s for $4 each, and got 10 lilacs from National Arbor Day Foundation for $25.

3. I also want to turn the shrub area into a butterfly attraction, so I will be planting milkweed and other such plants in the Spring.

In August I rototilled the lawn under (was that the most painful weekend ever) and started fresh with a local grass company that had some nice looking drought resistant blue-grass. I really wanted to try fescue, but ended up with the bluegrass after discussing growth rate, traffic and sun exposure.

It’s starting to grow in nicely, although we have been attacked by some crazy succulent-looking weed that I cannot get rid of with the small amount of weeding control I have time for every night. UGH! Does everyone hate weeding as much as I do?

More updates and pictures this weekend