Memba' These????

[McGyver]

You'd have to dig up stuff from the early 1800s for me to not either recognize it or not be sort of familiar enough with similar stuff to figure it out.
When I was a kid, my step-grandfather used to collect and barter old junk items... Not quite antiques, because they were useless to anyone who didn't need a cog from a steam powered drill press or old side car brackets... He would come across the weirdest finds and knew who to take them to who would want them...
You'd be surprised at the stuff you could still find laying on the curb in 70s NYC.
One of the things I regret not hanging onto are some of the small ornate gas lamp parts and fittings and the ornate steam fittings and handles.
There wasn't big money to be made at that sort of stuff... Beer money at best, but he had a fun time BSing and bargaining with his junkie buddies (what he called them, they weren't addicts).
I used to enjoy looking at all the stuff in the various shops he'd go to... That was probably where I picked up a lot of knowledge about obscure mechanisms...
When I got older, NYC still had a few shop like those in the China town area around Canal street... Surplus shops, used machinery, scavenged parts... It was a mad scientist and frustrated inventor's paradise.
By the late 90s, early 00s all of them were gone... Replaced by generic mall shops and phone stores.
Bleh...
The saddest was the closing of Pearl Paint... Not a junk shop, but an iconic art supply store.

 

[eclark1894]

I am not into lawns and I have a similar concerns to yours so the end result was I dug up out lawn many moons ago in both back and front gardens. Luckily we do not have children so no need for a play area. Instead of lawn our garden is planted with various plants that are easy to maintain but encourage bees and butterflies while a pond helps support other wildlife. Not only do I not have the chore of cutting the lawn it is great to see the wildlife that comes into the garden. With the use of heathers and plants with different flowering seasons there is colour in the garden for most months in the year and the selection also means there is a lot of green all year around.

I never bothered with a garden at my house. My whole back yard is a "garden". Or forest. When I was a child, "wildlife" was mostly just snakes, birds and squirrels, and a few rabbits. Few dogs and some cats. It's still mostly that, although, with all the urban build up over the last 50 years or so, animals have had fewer places to go. As a result, they've had to move into areas they weren't before. I've seen deer in my back yard a few times over the past few years. They're astonishing to watch. And doing it from my kitchen window, they don't even know I'm there.

 

[Hornet3d]

I never bothered with a garden at my house. My whole back yard is a "garden". Or forest. When I was a child, "wildlife" was mostly just snakes, birds and squirrels, and a few rabbits. Few dogs and some cats. It's still mostly that, although, with all the urban build up over the last 50 years or so, animals have had fewer places to go. As a result, they've had to move into areas they weren't before. I've seen deer in my back yard a few times over the past few years. They're astonishing to watch. And doing it from my kitchen window, they don't even know I'm there.

We get the very occasional deer, which is surprising in such a built up area, foxes are common as are squirrels.

 

[Terre]

Here in the Phoenix area, Bermuda is the summer grass of choice- it laughs at the heat. Many people overseed it with Winter Ryegrass ( literally plant the rye seed on top of a scalped Bermuda lawn ) to have a lush green lawn all winter.

I personally would rather see lawns out here only where people are actually playing sports on them, or dog parks and such. The amount of fertilizer, pesticide and water dumped on the average homeowners lawn is sickening. Meanwhile our native birds, bees, bats, butterflies and insects are suffering. And a native garden, planned well- is not only beautiful, but healthy and smells wonderful... But the HOA' s around here love non native grass, and Roundup. Many will not even allow beautiful and well maintained natives like brittlebush, creosote and globe mallows to be planted. I used to be a manager for a garden shop- but due to the above- it was just too depressing-

@ Terre, Have your friend call your local Agricultural Extension office. They will be able to go over what grasses do well in your area and usually have tons of info on exactly how and when to plant and water.

A quick look online is where I got that info on Kentucky Blue. It gets too cold here for anyone to consider planting something for winter other than the farmers who plant winter wheat. Summers are not quite as hot as Phoenix and winters are much colder. This last winter was unusual. It didn't get down to 0F once when normally it gets down that far or slightly lower a few times. As for summers, yes, we do need Bermuda. Temps in excess of 100F are common, just not quite as far above it as where you are. I've only seen three attempts at native/mostly native plant yards. One was someone with the local University who thought that because the grasses were all native they didn't need to be cut under the city regs. He was wrong. The other two were/are (both people died but the new owners only changed things in one case) Bermuda with native shrubs and such scattered artistically around.

 

[JOdel]

Diachondra (sp?). Most of the country calls it a weed. SoCal calls it a lawn. House i grew up in had a diachondra lawn. It volunteered, and Ma and Dad just kept it. Made a nice rich green ground cover, but tended to get patchy. Went a bit yellow in the winter, but never died off. Made up of little round leaves rather than grass blades. Rarely gets so high that it doesn't look like a lawn. But I remember Dad cutting it with a mower periodically all the same.

 

[robert952]

I live in North Carolina. In this instance, Bermuda is a type of grass people plant in their yards.

Also, it is a lower growing grass that spreads where it want's to grow. Doesn't look 'shaggy' like fescue (another popular grass in N. Carolina that does well in shaded areas) and other taller growing grasses. Bermuda has another trait, it does brown out in dry conditions... but a good rain and it comes back green quickly. I don't think I have watered my lawn in 15 years.

Bermuda does a decent job of choking out unwanted grass and weeds. Great part is you can use your favorite weed killer on anything else green during Bermuda's dormancy with out hurting it. Because of voles or moles, (burrowing mammal that has spread weeds through out my yard, I have had a lot of weeds showing up. (They outlawed the poison I used to use on those critters.) So, I spent the winter killing weeds. Got behind and having more of a battle last couple of years.

 

[Terre]

You got the spelling right, JOdel. Pretty little thing from what I just saw but not at all suited for here. Apparently it's best in coastal conditions.