I’ve been breaking my back over something closer to the bottom image for about 10 years. It’s not less work. It’s real easy to just drown a yard in water, crossbow, and fertilizer and mow once a week. I don’t want to do that, so that’s why I put the effort in.
I think it’s dependent on where you live to be honest. Lawns aren’t native in my area, and are easily overtaken by other non-native plants. If you xeriscape or create a native garden it can be easier, or at least the same amount of work to maintain after it gets established.
Where I’m at, lawns quickly get overtaken with numerous types of (non-native) weeds and blackberries - it’s a constant fight to maintain a lawn. Sprinkler systems are also not common here, so you typically have to manually water an entire lawn by hand as opposed to specific plants with drip lines.
I do no work at all to my property, other than a small area around the house that we walk. I have a family of deer that spends most of their day relaxing in my yard.
You have what looks like a mature, stabilized woods. You’re lucky. My yard was just disturbed bare clay and weed seeds when I got to it. I left it alone for a few months and ended up with wall to wall invasive weeds, 8 feet tall. I didn’t have a few hundred years to let it stabilize itself.
I’ve been breaking my back over something closer to the bottom image for about 10 years. It’s not less work. It’s real easy to just drown a yard in water, crossbow, and fertilizer and mow once a week. I don’t want to do that, so that’s why I put the effort in.
I think it’s dependent on where you live to be honest. Lawns aren’t native in my area, and are easily overtaken by other non-native plants. If you xeriscape or create a native garden it can be easier, or at least the same amount of work to maintain after it gets established.
Where I’m at, lawns quickly get overtaken with numerous types of (non-native) weeds and blackberries - it’s a constant fight to maintain a lawn. Sprinkler systems are also not common here, so you typically have to manually water an entire lawn by hand as opposed to specific plants with drip lines.
I do no work at all to my property, other than a small area around the house that we walk. I have a family of deer that spends most of their day relaxing in my yard.
You have what looks like a mature, stabilized woods. You’re lucky. My yard was just disturbed bare clay and weed seeds when I got to it. I left it alone for a few months and ended up with wall to wall invasive weeds, 8 feet tall. I didn’t have a few hundred years to let it stabilize itself.
I planted some rosemary, thyme and sage. Seems pretty low effort to me and they make food.
Agree. If you let nature take care of your yard, it definitely won’t look like the bottom pic.
Is…is the crossbow for the snakes?
It’s a selective herbicide