Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: A&A Steppig Stones, boulders, cash, class, cobble, Google, grass, green, landscape, lawn, mulch, native, Newcastle, petrified, plants, rock, wild
I decided I wanted to put a nice stone border around the edges of the project to keep the rock mulch from spilling over. I hadn’t seen anything I liked for a border at Sierra, but using the power of Google I found another local rock seller, A&A Stepping Stones in Newcastle.
Rose and I drove up to look around after I got off work yesterday, because Rose loves rocks and dirt. My other kids did not want another van ride sharing seats with boulders. They had a dazzling selection of rocks, and I found a species that comes in long, narrow rectangular pieces, absolutely perfect for a border. Rose and I loaded about 150 linear feet of it onto a pallet to be carried to my minivan. The stone is called “Petrified Seashore”, which is ironic because I was petrified when it wieghed in at 530 pounds and the clerk rang it up at $228. Plus $38 for about ten or so ordinary 40-pound decorative boulders that we also chose. Rose again got to ride awkwardly in between the 900 pounds of rocks in the minivan, not counting several pounds she had secretly stuffed into her pockets as souveneirs.
This relates to the neighbors because today after work I finished laying the rock to make the border between my half of the driveway strip and my neighbor’s grassy half. As soon as I finished, my neighbor came out and said that he did want in on the plan after all, if it is not too late to do the whole driveway strip. His wife is into gardening, thinks my native plant habitat is a really great idea, and wants to help.
I am so excited to have the neighbors on board. Despite having to take out the border I just layed and add to the rock order, I think it will look much better to not have the strip split up. And I have the comfort of company in the insanity. Also, they have three kids who want to help, and free child labor is always welcome where moving rock is concerned.
Flagstone, Petrified Seashore, and boulders staged on grassless yard
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: budget, California, cash, Cash for Grass, college, conservation, drought, environment, freshman, grass, green, hippies, Roseville, subsidy
Remember in college when that freshman bought a bag of “grass” for $25 from some guy, and it turned out it really was grass, like right from the lawn outside the dorm? Well, the City of Roseville, California is that college freshman, and I am the guy. Yes, I am selling my lawn to the City of Roseville, and they are buying.
Specifically, Roseville is trying to get people to remove their lawns in order to conserve water. It is an example of a government incentive pushing people to behave in a socially responsible way, at the local level. Must be a couple of hippies in our city government. The program is called, truly, “Cash for Grass”. The summary is that they will pay $1/square foot (not quite as good as $25 for a Zip-loc baggie) for you to rip out your lawn and replace it with drought-tolerant low-water landscaping.
I already hate my lawn. I hate taking care of my lawn. I hate paying someone to take care of my lawn after I got sick of taking care of it last year. I hate cat poop on my lawn. I hate that it looks just like everyone else’s, except more weeds and crabgrass. I have always wanted to rip it out, and now I can get paid to do it.
I created this blog to chronicle the adventure of attempting to get government funding for something I wanted to do anyway, but was not worth the effort and cost until they prodded me with a subsidy. Unfortunately, the city funding will almost certainly not cover the full cost, so I’ll still be doing this on a tight budget. Still, between lawn-guy savings and the reimbursement, the project should pay for itself pretty quickly.
There will certainly be other challenges as well, as I will defintely no longer have a house that looks like everyone else’s from the street. We’ll see what the neighbors think…
