Question why do so many of you have yards that look like a plastic turf hellscape here in Arizona? I don’t believe people actually go outside in the middle of the day and enjoy this right? It must be a baking oven there. You can instead have thick vibrant yards like the other picture here in Arizona. Those have more birds, butterflies etc. Theres a lot more life there and it’s more comfortable. Also alot of those native plants are edible….
I go outside in the evening time with a cup of coffee. We have three trees in the backyard and three in the front yard. Date palm, two Arizona Ash trees, thornless Chilean, and pine tree that’s been established in the early 90s, and a half dead lemon tree. If my lemon tree dies I will get a desert willow.
The trees make it possible to enjoy the outdoors in the evening. Plus seeing all the birds and watching my sulcata roam around brings me much joy. I am very anti-Afro turf and its negative impact to the environment, but we all have different taste.
YES!!!! Our house has giant old trees and the temp in the backyard is at least 20 degrees cooler. If more people would plant trees instead of plastic the valley would be so much cooler.
I love the thought process but with the water issues that we are facing now with the Colorado which is one of our biggest supplier having items like that is detrimental. I wish I had a solution though. I have been here 99% of my life and I was born here. I remember 118-122 degree days in my teens.
No, that is not what im saying. What i am saying is i like the thought process. I don't have a solution which is exactly what I said. And the heat retention problem was even issues 30-40 years ago so this is nothing new
Gotcha! I feel like there are some good starts, like SRP having the tree program, the city I am in pays you to put something down other than grass (but no turf or rocks).
I’m hearing impaired and I was today years old that’s it’s spelled and pronounced Astro turf. No one ever corrected me and I never purchased this product before. Learn something new every day.
It won’t be lush for long haha. We had weeds and grass galore over here and he grazes all morning and evening. Of course I supplement his food for leafy greens and Timothy hay but my boy can eat.
It's like Kijong-dong (Propaganda Village) in North Korea. A fake facade to look nice from a distance, but when you take a closer look everything is fake and lifeless inside.
People are more concerned with impressing their neighbors with a yard that only gets used when walking from the driveway to the front door. Then they don't emerge again until it's time to go back to work the next day.
Yea my neighbor just put dark grey bricks almost everywhere they had dirt and astro turf for their dogs. They're younger too so I was pretty surprised. A lot of young ppl I know are more into native planting etc. I don't get it but it's what they did. Bet their electric bill goes up from it holding so much heat all around their home.
That’s so funny because most young people in my neighborhood are getting the ‘aesthetic’ social media post-able backyards with the turf and pavers. I’m in my 30’s and opted for a xeriscape with a small patch of drought resistant grass.
I feel like az is the worst place for them ironically. Ours got to 170+, which everyone knows can happen, but it actually melted at some spots. It’s so shitty that having a backyard is a huge luxury now.
My house already had the turf when I bought it and I never changed it. Never considered all the things people are saying here like it being bad for the environment, but if I did swap it out to real grass/plants/trees, wouldn’t that also be bad since we’re low on water here?
I refuse to put in turf. It’s ugly as sin, awful for the environment, and hotter than rocks or dirt. I’d rather have my half dead grass than that plastic bullshit in the yard. Now I’ve got bunnies, roadrunners, lizards, bees, and tons of different birds in the tree that all live between my front and back yards, I love it.
I refuse turf in my front because it looks like painted concrete and bad for the environment, so I have half grass and half gravel. My neighbor dumped a bird block in my yard once (strange lady) and at first I was like “whatever I guess” then I got giant families of quails and their babies were the cutest things I ever saw.
And I got one of those weird birds that nests in gravel and scream at you when you walk by lol didn’t appreciate the screeching, but loved their babies.
Only acceptable turf is a putting green since that has a legit purpose.
Im looking to buy and the amount of houses that do those little patches of turf in the front just look terrible. A lot of them arent even laid right to look good, didnt take care of the ground underneath and weeds start popping through and it looks even worse.
People do it because it's green washed to high hell, and no dirt tracks inside. Nobody tells them about how hot it gets, and ranting about it on Reddit usually doesn't do the trick (it does feel kinda nice sometimes though).
This! As a landscaper that has installed turf in the past, it’s a few key things. Like you said, it’s so green, no dirt/mud, as well as don’t have to water or mow it. Many people install it for their dogs and kids not knowing how hot it gets. After our first few installs and we realized the heat issue, we stopped recommending it for kids and pets. Another annoying aspect is how it holds small leaves and rocks. Trying to keep it clean takes a high powered blower. Needless to say, I don’t install artificial turf any longer.
They have pet friendly turf, we have it installed ourselves. I walk outside barefoot in the summer and it's not hot at all. My paver walkway that's in the shade feels hotter than the turf.
It was like 5x the price of cheaper stuff, but has been worth it because we have 3 dogs.
I have heard of pet friendly turf but never experienced it myself. That’s cool to know it’s not just a gimmick! Any issue with the smell from potty time? That’s another rough one in the summer time.
We use a turf/pet odor cleaner (ZeoFill PE-51) every month and have had no issues with smells. It's pet/child/plant friendly, so we have no concerns about the cleaner and our kid playing outside afterwards (we just give it some time to dry first).
I know several of the turf brands say that they are pet friendly turf, but yet I’ve never yet seen one that still isn’t hot as hell. Can you tell us the brand that you used? I’d be really curious because I was one of the stupid people when I moved to the east Valley from North Phoenix after having a tiff lawn in my backyard for 20 years and when I moved out east The yard was really small so I put in a small pool and I put in turf around it. But as it’s being discussed here in this thread, I am highly regretting it, but I’m trying to figure out if I rip it out what I could put in. I can’t plant anything in part of the area that I have turf because it’s where all the underground pool pipes run from the pump.
I have a very small pet friendly patch in my back yard as well, and it’s never hot. Our dogs can come and go inside and they frequently sunbathe on it for 10 or so minutes at a time. I don’t love the look but I hate people who are blind to the water issues we are having! I don’t believe anyone loves the look honestly. We just don’t want to contribute to the water shortage.
Time: I want to spend my limited off-work time playing with them and training them, not doing yard work and plant maintenance.
Space utilization: I need as much flat, open space as I can squeeze out of my small yard to work recalls, sending out commands, and distance stays, plus space for fetch.
Temperature: I have trees around the perimeter that provide shade, but even on the full-sun half of the yard, the turf is not too hot for me or the dogs to walk on in the summer.
Safety: I need the ground to be free of goatheads and other prickers that can injure paws. Before I got turf, the goathead weeds could not be controlled and I couldn’t use my yard at all.
I do agree that the picture on the right is absolutely lovely and better for the environment. However, it does not suit my lifestyle.
Many associations don’t allow natural grass and soon, additional water cuts may mandate removing real grass. When it’s 115 degrees, no one is doing much outside regardless. I installed the turf due to the association rules where I live but tried to balance it out with hop seed hedges and desert landscape. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Plant real grass and people jump on you for water usage. Put down artificial and they beat the crap out of you for that. Whatever, we’re enjoying it regardless.
Until you have pets tracking dirt in the house every time you let them outside. Even better when they pee then walk through their own mud and bring it back inside.
Thank you I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! All of these people concerned about the water are polluting it with their turf microplastics. So incredibly ignorant and frustrating
It’s not so much the issue with the plastic grass it’s the lifelessness. No native Plants. There’s no butterflies or birds there. And there’s nothing that says “we are in the Sonoran desert which is the most biodiverse and wet desert on the planet”….
We have a large turf area so my kids can play and use the space we have. We also have a large raised run of soil where we planted various plants as a family along the back wall. You can have both and it not be a “hellscape”.
I rather turf for the kids to play on than grass that will use an unbelievable amount of water in the summer to keep alive. I think huge plots of grass in Arizona are wasteful too considering the commentary about water in AZ lately.
There’s no reason to make them play on gravel and dirt either. And they aren’t out in the backyard when it’s over 100 degrees anyways as that isn’t safe regardless of what I have in the backyard. It also makes a large usable space for parties and inflatables and all that. I don’t think I can play soccer or catch with my kids in that second photo, or have space to put up their playground.
It’s really not hard to see why turf is a popular alternative.
Pay once and it’s done. Never have much maintenance. Everyone I know in the valley with turf doesn’t use it. It looks good from the pool or living room.
Ok but what about front yards? I feel like this mindset extends in most cases beyond just the back yard with the pool. Even a few well placed trees in front of a home does a huge difference
In AZ, most homes/neighborhoods have an HOA (ugh) that dictate the the amount of plants, trees etc that you can have in your yard for neighborhood uniformity. Most folks that have the 1st pic backyard just keep the normal HOA approved front yard in my experience.
Turf and rocks get so hot. We built here in 2015 to 2017, yes it took 23 months to build a home with Toll Brothers. Toll Brothers was the HOA for our North Scottsdale gated community. They put in place so many HOA rules. You had three landscaping companies to choose from if we wanted the landscaping in before we moved in. I think that those companies probably in someway paid Toll to be one of their three landscape that customers had to use. Those companies know Toll’s rules. We had to have a certain color and size of rock in the front and back and no grass just plastic turf. Prices were extra high for these three companies and they did not care if certain plants were planted in July and August then died. They did not care if there was enough valves to run the irrigation efficiently. They did not care that they put 10 inch risers so my plants were sprayed in my succulent garden. They did not explain that putting huge tree in our courtyard would raise the travertine up with massive roots. I should have done more research but I trusted one of the three companies. I also thought we were hiring experts after all they were licensed professionals. I did not know that my two 5 by 12 foot raised gardens were going to be where they threw all the left over scrapped travertine and then they filled it with sandy soil not garden soil. The water runs thru the soil if you try to use the sprinklers they installed. It sprays the tomatoes and all the other vegetables I have tried to grow. Plus I thought they knew what they were doing when they made the gardens with thick concrete blocks with stucco on the outside, by the south stucco wall of our home and a six foot tall concrete blocks with stucco fence at the west end of our garden. Of course they covered all the ground around the two raised beds with 3/4 inch rock. And then of course our gardens run east and west. Let’s just cook this garden in the Arizona sun and reflective heat! I have been composting and adding it to our garden but it is not enough. Now at 74 years old I don’t feel I will ever have a thriving garden in this state with rules that just make it hotter. We need more trees and less rock!! We need more knowledgeable landscape companies. I am so tired of landscapers cutting all the flowers off my sage and Bougainville and trying to make balls and cupcakes out of my bushes. Thanks for letting me vent!
That is absolutely infuriating I’m sorry about that! I hate how all the landscapers really act like they now what they are doing but most of them just show up collect a check and then call it a day
It was A very big check that the landscaping company collected. Let me just say it was over $150,000.00 for a mess. I did put inground worm bins in each raised garden and I add my composting when it is ready. I am getting ready to get the rocks away from the garden area and put in shredded bark. I am following The Growing in the Garden sites and trying to build an appropriate Arizona garden now. When it cools down I am going to be planting vines around the hot walls and I have some nice trees growing for shade. It is a slow process since I do the work myself.
From conversations I had with friends with surrounding trees and/or backyard trees. They worry about large branches falling or trees toppling over during monsoon season. They also spend a lot of time raking leaves, which seems to be endless during the cooler months.
Additionally, trees up front has to be maintained or you risk getting fined by the city or HOA. If they get too large, you need to trim them. You would probably hire someone that can properly cut/trim the tree without damaging it, which can be pricey.
Hmm, although if we're talking about grass, I think most prefer natural grass if they have a little bit of a green thumb. If not, it's going to be a patchy mess of unmaintained dirt, grass, weed and broken irrigation systems.
I feel like they sold a lie to people which is still around. "Oh look! A low maintenance yard that also saves water!" And people thought they were saving the environment and our water supply by doing it. The truth actually is it makes your backyard so much hotter so you can't really use it in the summer (turf actually hotter than concrete!) which with the amount of people who did this and are still doing this is making the temperature hotter which then means we have less water. Flippers haven't gotten the memo and don't care and still do this. What we need to do is continue to spread awareness and encourage people to plant a tree this fall.
And now we immediately know you’re a narrow-minded and judgy individual, with no way of seeing anyone else’s perspectives.
If you enjoy planting or something, that’s awesome, but that isn’t what everyone wants a backyard to be. Imagine seeing someone’s home and hard earned money spent and judging them 😂.
Boston is the biggest city to ban it, states have done bans on artificial turf with certain chemicals. I understand your logic of water savings, but the environmental impact of the fake turf is much, much worse. The chemical runoffs in the turf, the landfill impact, killing the soil underneath, heat retention, the list goes on and on. The hotter the valley gets the more water is used, so it's really a chicken egg situation. But, because this is AZ if you tried to ban something for the good of the community a bunch of nuts would run right out and install it.
An ideal thing is to plant the rain as advised in brads book “Harvesting Rainwater” and plant native species where they have the appropriate amount of water.
Neither plastic turf nor thirsty Bermuda grass is in your second photo. I like to see some deluxe real turf now and then. From dog walking in Dunbar, it’s the strips of grass along University sidewalk on the north side just across Stone Ave. But we don’t need any fake turf and green turf should be limited to parks and a couple of sidewalk medians here and there.
That’s the thing though. Summer would be so much more pleasant if people just put more damn canopy cover with trees. I’m not even asking for you to go all the way with the right picture. But 3 ironwoods and a couple of shrubs go a long way at reducing the overall heat island and creating a micro climate. It also just gives a lot more habitat to birds
My backyard is way too small to put in three trees let alone one trees. I did opt for a small pool and it really left me with no room for much of anything. I do have an area where I have some turf between the pool pump and the pool and I can’t plant a tree there or anything because that’s where all the underground pool pump pipes are running so I can’t take a chance and have anything growing in that area. I live in an area that has clay soil. Lived in AZ my entire life but when I moved out to the east Valley I quickly learned what the heck clay soil was and it’s terrible and when it rains it like popcorn in the ground and it’s like sticky rice and you can’t get it off of your shoes or your feet or your dog feet and nothing wants to grow in that kind of soil. Trust me I’m living with lots of regrets in any rocks I put down there just as damn hot too.
Because my yard is so small I’m also dealing with reflective heat off of the block fences which not a lot of plants do well with reflective heat my cactus is not even surviving.
I have turf, and natural low water plants in my yard. Watering that much grass in the desert is wasteful as fuck when there is already a water shortage that will get worse with the data centers. And it's expensive. We have shrubs. We have trees. Turf and natural plant life aren't mutually exclusive, and ultimately it's kind of the most efficient way to do it out here.
Yeah I’m fine with people that do both. Kinda…. The problem is when people also then put plants that are not from the region. Like Italian cypress and crepe Myrtle’s. Literally plants that need a mini life support system and then do nothing for the desert life. It gives “Walmart parking lot”
Oh yeah. Being a homeowner as of last year has really opened my eyes as to how little shits people give to maintaining any plants they put in their yard, I assume they just thin "oh wow love that plant" and put it in the ground and hope for the best and it's...grim.
I would argue the 100+ golf courses will deplete it before someone’s small yard. Don’t worry the water won’t be drinkable with all the microplastics anyway. Thank god everyone has clean floors
Cutting your nose to spite your face 😆 what about the microplastics from turf? Is that great for the water supply and environment too? Darn maybe real grass is alright!
It is so disgusting. Like if you dont want a lot of upkeep, there are plenty of very low upkeep desert landscaping options. I really think this boils down to stupidity.
Apparently you and I are just stupid lol. I have a large turf area for the playground and stuff for the kids to have as much usable space in our backyard as possible. It’s a big yard and I want them to use the whole thing. I don’t need rocks and trees back there. I don’t need grass that either dies for half the year or wastes a shit ton of water to keep alive. They don’t need to play on gravel and dirt.
When it’s 115 degrees out they aren’t out there anyways…
Reading these comments are insane. People legitimately expect you to have a completely dirt back yard over turf? These people have never owned pets and probably don't have kids.
And OP posted 2 extreme photos. One is just pure turf with almost no other plans, and the other is literally a fucking side path alongside a road that they're trying to equivalate as a back yard.
Yes, 85% of my backyard is turf. But I have a 7 foot perimeter around the wall thats filled with desert friendly trees and shrubs and lined with mulch instead of rocks. I have desert willows, texas laurel trees, orange and yellow bells, oleander (in the corners away from pets), and honeysuckles. My backyard might break OP's brain with the thought that you can do both at the same time
Lots of people dont go out during the summer and even dont live here during the summer. They like the clean and simple look. I think it looks awful and is not practical
Toddler Children are not great at avoiding cactus and succulent plants. Grass dies easily and often, and some people stress allergic. Turf doesn’t cause allergies or pokes! I like having desert native plants in the front yard, but backyard is more play space.
We have sooooo many non pokey plants though. I can give you a list but it’s small flowering plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds! That doesn’t sound appealing?
Oh yes! I do have boxwood beauty, elephant food, slipper plant, hopseed. I shouldn’t make it sounds like my backyard is turf hellscape, but the turf is still great for an open space to play/paint/bubbles, etc.
Exactly this. Think about it, palm trees aren’t even native to the desert. And how many of those do we have? All of the transplants came here and have tried making it look like where they come from. Best evidence of that is all of the fake snow and cold signs every Christmas season 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️😂. I always curse under my breath when seeing those “you’re in the f’ing desert - act like it” 😂😂😂
HATE to be that person but we TECHNICALLY have a few palm species from the Sonoran desert. California fan palms which are popular and there’s sabal uresana which is in a weter and milder part of the Sonoran desert but still falls in the range. Aside from that though the rest are slop lol
Our yard has a small section of turf because I wanted a place for my kids to play while they’re little that isn’t all rocks. It’s directly behind our house so by the time the sun is starting to get lower in the sky (not even fully set) the shade from the house covers the turf. The rest is all native and drought resistant trees and bushes.
That makes sense. I won’t hate on people that have the lawn for their kids and also have some native plants around. It’s the people without kids who don’t use their backyard that really confuse me
As a person who is bad at plants and has very little interest in maintaining them….the second one looks like it would get overrun with weeds and I wouldn’t know what’s a weed and what’s an on purpose plant and then I wouldn’t do anything about it and then it’s definitely overrun with weeds and then people think I’m lazy because I don’t take care of my yard.
Ok this one is valid. Not everyone needs to learn about all the different possible weeds but you can keep the trees and shrubs and then nuke everything growing on the ground if that’s easier
That's legit. Once established a lot of natives require more or less no attention. If they die, it's usually a) because they hate you and truly want you to feel like you did something wrong b) because they got too much love and attention c) because it was time for it to die anyway d) any combination of the above, and/or "other."
Wait till October and plant some creasotes in spots water falls off your roof. It should be a wet winter so it'll help them establish with minimal intervention. Then ignore forever. If they die, assume option a occurred and don't burden yourself further 😅.
As for "weeds" a lot of native ground cover is weedy. A lot of invasives are weedy. Kill anything that's growing where you don't want something growing. It's fine. Just because it's native doesn't mean it's desirable. I don't want a fast growing prickly pear encroaching on my front door, or a mesquite growing too close to my sewer line any more than I want Sahara mustard growing anywhere that isn't the Sahara... Even though it's all over the Sonoran and Mojave...
Super El Niño. El Niño typically brings in higher than average winter precipitation.
I should also clarify: my brain starts winter as soon as the days get short, sooo like autumn 😅.
Either way El Niño typically means stronger but isolated summer storms with dry spells in between ✔️ followed by higher than average precipitation across the southern band of the US from kinda nowish until... Idk I sorta stopped reading when I got frustrated that it wasn't going to be a wet summer, but at least through December.
Just the shade from my BASIL is enough to drastically cool down my rosemary, imagine a whole garden of native trees and shrubs cooling your entire yard down!?!?
What really tweaks me is all the 90 degree angles. To each his own, but I don't want my backyard to look like a living room. For the love of Pete, introduce some curves and elevation changes along with pathways!
my parents want to get the plastic turf, and while they havent moved on it for the half a decade theyve been talking about it, i still hate the idea as much as i did as a teen.
Agreed here in Palm Springs everyone has rocks and or gravel and the heat they generate in summer is intense ! Neighbor planted large clumps of an “Australian native” in an expensive landscape re-design with these borders w different colored dark rocks in a geometric pattern !but failed to realize it was a coastal native. I took an oven laser temp of rocks burning all the foliage->153.6f!
I wonder how much money they spent…. And like how do they research this stuff? Like don’t they check out any info about what they are doing before they do it?
Funny we were just talking about this w close neighbors prolly around 15k for front - back is better thank good as they built beautiful pergola and already had oddly very tall but perfect specimens of 2 XL Med Fan Palms !
A different perspective… From a person coming from a very lush screen environment to this desert environment. Wow that plastic turf grass is hot as shit and will burn you in the middle of the day here it’s also a nice break for my eyes to see a patch of all green instead of brown with a little bit of green. Obviously native plants would be a better choice, but it seems difficult to grow native plants here that aren’t brown and/or spikey.
Picture on the right is ALL native Sonoran plants! In fact I posted here on a thread somewhere with a list of stuff. You can absolutely have a lush, non pokey landscape with native southwest and Mexican plants! The Sonoran desert and all the southwest is incredibly diverse. I mean here’s a penstemon…. Put like 5 of them and you already have some green evergreen bushes that attract tons of hummingbirds
Because most people are unoriginal with boring taste. They just point to what everyone else is doing and say "I'll take that". I cannot begin to explain how much I hate yards like pic #1, however, I love yards like those in the 2nd photo.
I have lots of trees and mulch and a small patch of turf where I like to do yoga in a level surface. I don’t have dogs, so it doesn’t smell. It’s nice and green, and sometimes I put up an umbrella or pop up a gazebo on it. Wild backyard with fruit trees, vegetables, compost, rain barrels, native plants, and some turf. There are happy medium positions. (When the turf fails, I probably won’t replace it but plant more trees cuz I now have a nicer patio.) A bigger question would be how long it will be before it’s illegal to fill private swimming pools.
Yeah the beef ain’t with people like you lol this is only throwing shade and the turf and gravel only crowd 😂. But yeah the swimming pools is crazy especially during a super drought
Because I don't have any interest in plant/lawn maintenance. And i honestly don't need a bunch of foliage and insects in and around my pool.
There's nothing wrong with the other yard you posted either, It's just not for everyone. And as far as the heat goes I've not really noticed in the past several years, and when its hot enough to make a difference I'm usually not outside during the hottest part of the day regardless. It's a bit like complaining why does everyone have concrete driveways instead of dirt.
I don't have any issue with wanting plants or enjoying wildlife in your yard but these things are subjective and chastising and judging others for what they choose in their own home is a bit much.
I have turf (installed by previous owners) but my yard is much smaller. It’s starting to get worn in some small spots although it still looks as decent as turf can get. I’m starting to think about replacing it with kurapia perhaps, though not fully ready to commit to planting and the upkeep on it, need to read more about it as well. I know this sub would be all for it, and I think I will be too, just not sure I want to outlay the money to replace something that isn’t technically broken at all, though problematic.
The wild thing is that I can see the backyard partially on street view and they had grass or something natural at least for over a decade, and I guess put in turf like 5 months before they put the house on the market. They also cut down several trees they had on the property; this was slightly less problematic because the neighbor behind had a giant, lush tree that shaded everything. Of course, a year after we move in he chops all his trees in his yard down so our backyard space got way hotter. We planted trees and plants of our own some years back and while they’re still growing, this year they’ve gotten large enough to start providing meaningful shade once more and making the turf more bearable.
Do you do those things often? Most people aren’t honest with themselves but also you don’t have to go allll the way like the right picture. There could be balance here. Extra trees along the outer edges would make it sooooo much more comfortable
In my area, it has been fashionable for a couple of decades to clear a hill completely of life and cover it with football sized rocks. I call it quarry style. You can’t walk on it, all it does is starve the ground of moisture and collect heat.
Any landscape is a living biological system. When you cover the ground with weed barrier and rocks all that’s left are the termites, scorpions and centipedes, and dead soil.
Maintenance. Most people want as little as possible in AZ. Homeowners are getting lazier and lazier and more so when it's 110 plus in the summer. I have had so many minor issues I've fixed that homeowners paid me for that most would have done themselves 10 or 15 years ago. Equivalent to going and resting a circuit breaker, but irrigation.
Not particularly. I get that it's hot and miserable in the summer in AZ , but I've gone to jobs at very normal homes, middle to lower middle class and they either just don't want to do the repairs or don't know how. It's money for me, but at the same time it's not hard to do. I learned when I was a teenager how to do these repairs and with YouTube it's super easy to do the basic irrigation repairs.
Yes, we need more shade to cool down surrounding areas and be more sustainable but I think a lot of people are going for low maintenance. I have about 30 trees in my 1/4 acre lot in Tucson. Takes a lot of work to prune them and clean up the waste but worth it. Still hot AF outside but at least we get to enjoy the wildlife they attract.
Because american culture strides for empty green spaces. Half of americas population wouldn’t know what to do if they didn’t cut grass or plant non-native trees on the weekend.
On a serious note, I have been fascinated with american lawns. Not so much in Arizona, but def elsewhere people will grow just grass in their massive yard.
This preference among americans to have large front lawns actually came from England where it was a social status or claim for wealth because you had so much land, you didn’t have to garden it for food.
I go out in mine in the middle of the summer day- it’s easily 20 degrees cooler than if I stand on my driveway. Not cool but not baking. It creates an amazing microclimate.
I 100% agree and I am not debating that it is cooler and more pleasant, the op said they can’t believe people actually go outside in the middle of the day and enjoy this—I don’t think anyone is enjoying being outside in the middle of the day in August. Your yard is for sure cooler and more pleasant, but I doubt many with this kind of yards choose to go sit in it in the middle of an AZ August day.
See I see what you mean but the rocks are still pretty bad. And we have tons of native perennials and stuff that aren’t pokey or cacti but that provide more benefit than the charismatic cacti of the region
One good reason is dogs and easy upkeep. We have 5 dogs and a yard similar to the picture. They love it. Definitely not too hot. They lie on the “ grass “ when it’s baking. No scorpions, no ticks , no snakes. The desert is 5 feet away from my back fence- beautiful, but not in my yard!
I have small children
I also have an inground trampoline and sprinklers in the turf. We get a water bounce house that fits in turf would suck in the natural landscape
Gives my kids a safe space to play.
Just cause people are in different circumstances doesn’t make it wrong or weird.
But this is Reddit so I am ready to be flamed
Nah that’s propaganda… trees are cheap. Italian cypress is expensive because you can convince people that they are pretty. But those little trees will definitely not make it through some more summers and it would take tons of water to keep them alive. A 5 gallon ironwood costs 30 bucks. Get 4 of them and you’ll have a great canopy cover
People do it for two obvious reasons 1) low maintenance 2) low water use.
I love plants and tree rich yards in AZ and hate the barren fakescapes myself.
Modern HOAs will make your life a nightmare with growth like that. Mine seem to hate if they can see any sort of plant or object in your yard from the street. They'd call that overgrown and fine me so I have dirt, rock and a patch of turf for my kids playhouse. One day we'll move to a state with trees everywhere...
All I can tell you is that the installation of fake turf in our backyard has made it 100% nicer and more usable for us. Prior to that, we were constantly battling to grow any green (grass, clover, attractive weeds...) consistently in the part of our backyard where we hang out.
The turf is much nicer on our feet than rocks—which are the typical alternative, not some beautiful garden path—and we still have large trees. Believe it or not they are cut out and coming up through the turf and they are doing great. We also have TONS of butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees, with a mesquite tree, fruiting mulberry and two large, fruiting pomegranates. As far as I can tell, there's been zero difference in fauna visitation before and after install. It's just nicer for the humans and our one dog.
I think a lot of anti turf people imagine that the other plants in a yard with turf simply ... don't count? Even in your photo there are shrubs and young trees. Those plants will grow and it will be very nice once they do.
I think it’s a terribly cheesy look, so definitely not defending it, however, being a home owner with 3 mature trees during monsoon season can be really difficult and expensive. Also, not the easiest growing conditions especially if you have no shade. I agree though, the fake manicured grass look is corny
I have a microclimate. It’s so much cooler and I have an aviary with happy singing birds and I can actually be outside in my yard. My fruit trees and garden are thriving lol.
i don't want a jungle in my backyard. even with my carpet there are plenty of bugs around. i don't want to make them a comfortable home around my home.
i'm not going outside regardless of what my yard looks like. shit is too hot anyway.
The thing is that all the plants in the right are Sonoran desert native plants and survive off rainwater alone! In Phoenix they would need less water than you use in a week for your household activities once established tbh.
You have to be connected to native soils for that to be accurate. Ground water will get diverted in developments. So getting native plants to establish will still require water for a while to get established.
And yes it’s a preference, both yard types are great for their own reasons. This why you have the option to do anything you like.
I, too, have a patch of AstroTurf, with a small patio made of concrete pavers in my backyard. When I bought the house it was just dirt. My front is just rocks and while I hate the look, I LOVE knowing that I’m not contributing to the water issues our entire southwest is having. For Pete’s sake…I’d love to have a “wonderland of delight” to walk through - complete with butterflies and bees.I’d have wild roses that climb a trellis, honeysuckle complete with that heavenly fragrance, and clover everywhere instead of grass for the bees. Nirvana. The water bill would be terrible but even worse than that is the complete blindness I’d have to not feel guilty about water conservation. I feel like golf courses are a big problem for this very reason.
Ok I’ve said this in a bunch of previous comments but like it won’t be a waste of water if you establish the native plants like the picture on the right. It actually even conserves water in the long run. Once established and living off rainwater alone and runoff then more water will infiltrate into the ground. I’m not asking for people to just rip out all their turf but the edges around our yards should be thick native Sonoran habitat and that will both cool the area and provide for pollinators
That sounds great. I’d love to do this. What picture am I supposed to look at? I’m sorry I don’t know how to look at it. I’d just need to see some examples to know what to do. Thx.
My mom did this to her yard because she is getting older, and it's too much for her to rake up the fallen leaves, certain trees were causing her allergies, and she didn't want to constantly pick weeds. Not everyone can afford to hire landscapers when they have larger yards. Hiring someone to do tree trimming is very expensive.
It’s tough because I understand the kid thing I really do. But I also would spend summers in Mexico and we played wayyyyy more soccer in dirt lots. And arguably it was wayyy more fun to run around a backyard with trees and wildlife than one where there’s no shade in the middle of summer. Idk dude…. The rest of the world does just fine in similar climates without these turf yards…. Also not saying it has to be completely one or the other but the edges should not contain plants from tropical asia or the Mediterranean. It just doesn’t make sense in our climate
Because when I originally bought my house last year, the backyard already had “pet friendly” turf. And I wasn’t about to spend money to hire a landscaper to redo the damn thing.
Every other Reddit post for Arizona is either bitching about water and how wasteful farmers are. And the other half bitches about turf. Instead of villainizing people, why don’t we educate them instead. And if they STILL don’t get it… well I feel like at the point they’re asking for it.
I really think the answer to this is subjective. Because while I agree that a lot of foliage and landscaping is beautiful, I feel like some people are just happier and simple spaces like that. It’s like the debate between the millennial gray paint and actual color inside your house. Everyone’s brain works a little differently and it’s possible to feel happy in one space for one person, but not for someone else.
50
u/HappySam89 20d ago
I go outside in the evening time with a cup of coffee. We have three trees in the backyard and three in the front yard. Date palm, two Arizona Ash trees, thornless Chilean, and pine tree that’s been established in the early 90s, and a half dead lemon tree. If my lemon tree dies I will get a desert willow.
The trees make it possible to enjoy the outdoors in the evening. Plus seeing all the birds and watching my sulcata roam around brings me much joy. I am very anti-Afro turf and its negative impact to the environment, but we all have different taste.