click photo to enlarge

click photo to enlarge

This is not something terribly exciting about where I live, but I am having severe camera issues at the moment and could not go take new pictures and did not have archives I wanted to use. And I realized that I was 31-years-old before I ever saw lawns that had no grass but were all rocks. (That was in Las Vegas.) So I thought it might be appropriate to show you my “lawn” which looks pretty much like most of the other lawns on the street. IF lawns in this area have grass, it is a few square yards–smaller than a putting green on a golf course. (It takes 10 minutes for us to mow our back yard grass with an electric, 20″ mower.)

We get approximately 8 inches of rain annually. That means if anything is going to grow, it has to be watered. It also means that if we are not careful with the water, we will eventually run out of it. Thus the rocks for lawns. I actually like it because it forces some creative landscaping. Where I used to live the landscaping technique was to throw out some grass seed, plant 3 or 4 bushes and be done with it.  It is expensive, but we have lots of beautiful plants in our yard, both front and back. (Better viewed in the summer for the “beautiful” factor.)

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Most of the plants can survive quite a long time without water. (I know this because the front is not automatically watered, and I forget to water it most of the time.)

One might think the rocks mean less maintenance than grass… no mowing, no fertilizing, etc. Maybe that is a little true, but weeds still grow in them. In the summer it is a constant battle to keep the tumbleweed sprouts from looking like grass. Also in the fall when the plants lose their foliage, it is a bit tricky to get the leaves out of the rocks. The easiest way is with a leaf vacuum so that rocks are not vacuumed, too, but there is no extremely easy method.

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For my regular readers: The “severe camera issues” are that my OTHER lens is broken. You might remember than the 18-55 mm was broken and I was trying to decide how to replace it. Well, last week the 55-200 mm lens got bumped (EVER SO SLIGHTLY) and started not zooming. It only works at 200 mm, which isn’t the best place for taking most photos. This is the third lens mishap in about 8 months, and being without ANY lens, the decision was made for me to get an 18-200 mm. It should arrive today. It was not my first choice, but it was the most economical way to replace two lenses at one time. I bought a Sigma which is supposed to be sturdier than the brand name ones I have been using. We hope! I want DIFFERENT lenses, not to spend all my money replacing the same ones!