a practical approach

In the last few months two homeowners in our immediate vicinity within the Four Seasons community have taken out their front lawns and replaced them with drought resistant landscaping and a terraced patio. There aren’t a lot of houses here that have this feature, but some do, and it’s interesting that homeowners are replacing their lawns with this feature. I’m sure that the primary intent here is to reduce water usage, but there may be a useful side effect.

So what’s this useful side effect? Let me explain a bit about how many of the houses here in Four Seasons are configured. The lots are narrow, but comparatively deep. Because of this, the air conditioner units are on the back patio. So if Terry and I want to sit on the patio in the evening we have to turn off the air conditioner. That means the house heats up while we are outside and when we go back inside the air conditioner has to play catch-up. Sitting on a patio in the front yard eliminates that problem.

Of course we’re not going to do that anytime soon. We put in artificial turf shortly after we moved here, and we’re not going to change that. Still, it is nice idea.