Smerconish on Lawns Segmet

Hello Folks,

I watched with interest this morning on CNN's broadcast "Smerconish". He had a story about a Maryland couple who took their turf grass lawn and changed it to a natural state of mostly native plants. I don't remember who initiated the lawsuit, the couple or the HOA but the couple won and Maryland HOA's can no longer require turf grass lawns.

I can see both sides of the argument. The couple showed pictures of the lawn during the growing season, and it looked nice. However, they did not show pictures of the lawn during the dormant season. The complaining neighbor argued that the native lawn is attracting critters that most of us homeowners would not be excited to have in our vicinity. The segment suggested that bats, snakes, rodents, bugs are attracted to this environment. On the other hand, turf grass requires a lot of watering and chemicals to maintain it. But the natural lawn would also require some maintenance. You wouldn't be able to just let it go and grow. Especially if it encroached on your neighbor's property which wouldn't necessarily be just the next-door neighbor's. Seeds can travel in the wind and become invasive plants.

The segment also brought in the topic that home values are affected by the appearance of the native lawn. The couple argued that a next-door neighbor recently sold her home for more than asking price dispelling that argument.

I tend to be a conformist, so for now my lawn will be watered and chemically treated. That is the norm in Nebraska in my new neighborhood. I do not know what Nebraska laws say about HOA's regulating it but there is nothing in my covenants that require a turf grass lawn. I do like the look of the turfgrass. It conforms to the rest of the neighborhood and looks nice. I am not opposed to a native lawn either.

Sorry Wendy, I missed your previous post about the topic. I read with interest the posts since I watched the segment this morning. I should have tagged onto yours.

I missed the part where the HOA spent $100,000 on attorney fees. But the couple did mention that they had spent $60,000.

Like I said, I don't care one way or another. We just moved into our house when the growing season was about over. We plan to cut back on the watering and chemicals. The lawn was watered a lot before we moved in to give the sod a good start. I reviewed our covenants, and it does say no flower or vegetable gardens in the front yard. But you can plant what you want in the rear yard. That seems a good compromise.

It depends on how the house sits on the lot and the direction of the sun from the viewpoint of the front yard to the back yard. We were well aware of the position of the sun on our new property when we bought it. We previously lived in a home where the back yard faced the south that had a large deck that faced the south. That deck got so hot in the summertime, we had trouble finding plants that could tolerate the heat. Not to mention how uncomfortable the deck was in the heat of the summer. We purposefully chose our property because of our experience where the back yard and deck face the south.

We have been gardening for years and have experience knowing what plants are appropriate for our new landscape. Do we always get it right? Of course not. There are other factors to consider when growing flowers and vegetables. We do not mind the restriction the covenants placed on our property about no gardens in the front but allowed in the back. I had forgotten about the flower and vegetable garden restriction until this post came up. I am still of the opinion that it is a good compromise. For the most part, the front yards in my HOA will have a uniform appearance but in the back yards, the owners are free to have gardens as they wish.

well the maryland law specifically made to make common looking front yards rules illegal.
wake up, the money you spend on getting a common look is polluting the environment and making you sick.
the whole fallacy that protecting the environment is too expensive is a fallacy. especially when one totals up the cost of major climate change induced disasters.

yeah all houses are selling in less than 30 days too, but Im gonna say it's the ecnomy not your rules. but we also lack an echo chamber where I live so that might have something to do with it as well.