Weeds are very easily pulled without damaging anything in a rock garden. Also it doesn’t require fertilizer or water (except for a very small amount for those small bushes).
Is the native landscape a rock garden? If you live in the Mojave: Go nuts, but that black rock is going to bake your house and drive up your carbon dioxide usage. Plants breathe just like animals do and that increases humidity locally, and in dry climates that can be a significant cooling effect. Essentially cheap evaporative cooling.
I feel like this can still be a native lawn depending on which biome it’s in. Seems more desert like than a prairie/forest type “native lawn” you might traditionally think of.
But yeah native can look different depending on location so I might be ok with this
Could be worse
This does not require mass weed killer, pesticides, and water though?
Weed and grass killer, yes, otherwise you have patches growing up.
Weeds are very easily pulled without damaging anything in a rock garden. Also it doesn’t require fertilizer or water (except for a very small amount for those small bushes).
You can pull weeds by hand.
If it’s in the desert no.
Honestly, that may be better. At least it doesn’t use water and it would be fine in a very dry environment out western US.
Native plants would still be even better though.
I mean, do we know it’s not native? Not everyone is in the US.
When I say that, I mean having a full garden of native plants rather than the couple of bushes that are there.
I live in the desert (Utah). My yard will look like this soon. It’s too expensive to water our lawn so we’re going with a xeriscape.
Looks like it would make a decent buffer in case of wildfire too
Looks like an example of xeriscaping, or gardening with a minimal need for irrigation. Not the best I’ve seen, but at least it’s water-conserving.
Is the native landscape a rock garden? If you live in the Mojave: Go nuts, but that black rock is going to bake your house and drive up your carbon dioxide usage. Plants breathe just like animals do and that increases humidity locally, and in dry climates that can be a significant cooling effect. Essentially cheap evaporative cooling.
I feel like this can still be a native lawn depending on which biome it’s in. Seems more desert like than a prairie/forest type “native lawn” you might traditionally think of.
But yeah native can look different depending on location so I might be ok with this