Susan: from me too!

It must be exciting thinking and planning for your southern move in a couple of years! As to the low maintenance landscape ... I hear you there! The older I get (and I'm currently 65), the more I dislike having to mow the lawn @ 9 months of the year; not to mention the fertilizer and water required to keep it looking decent. I'd love to completely eradicate all sod in my yard and have a landscape of Florida native plants ... but unfortunately my husband likes a lawn. Maybe when he retires in a couple more years I will let him do all the mowing in the heat and humidity of summer, which might make him lean more towards a landscape of native flora.

There's a plan Lin. I bet he caves before the first summer is through.

LOL, I doubt it and I can't really complain because my hubby is a very hard worker. He always helps with the yard work every week. Our backyard slopes down to a waterway and even though it's not real steep, I'm not comfortable mowing all the way down the slope so he mows that part. Before the old riding mower gave out I almost tipped over on the sloped area so it makes me real nervous. Now we have a walk behind mower but I still only mow part of the backyard and he does the part down slope and the small area behind the deck by the water. I've never used the string-trimmer/weed-eater thingy; he takes care of that cause he's afraid I'll cut my foot off. I can't get the edger started anymore so he does that too. We left the electric blower at the old house for the tenants to use and I can never get the gasoline one to start ... so that ends up being his job too. I do have a very handy husband; he teaches in the aviation field but he's very handy with home repairs and even vacuums the house for me sometimes.

You are lucky.....

Wow Lin! Sounds like you hit the jackpot in the hubby dept.

I have to say mine is a great worker too. He vacuums, sets the table & clears it, helps cook & will do all other manner of chores including dusting & mowing.

I was sort of stealthy about getting rid of all our lawn. Just kept expanding the perennial and groundcover areas a chunk or two at a time until there was no grass left . . . except the strip next to the road outside the fence. That is strictly speaking County property but we are supposed to maintain. It's "mow what grows" weeds/grasses so no water, fert, insecticide, fungicide, or any other maintenance is required. My neighbor mows that part for me with his rider mower, and in exchange I give him free well water for his garden. It's a win-win.

As a County-trained volunteer Master Gardener, I'm firmly on the side of encouraging residents to eliminate as much lawn as possible. It's high-maintenance, expensive groundcover and the worst possible thing to grow, given that everything you have to do to grow nice grass here is SO bad for the environment. Not to mention expensive and work intensive.

It was truly a painful experience when we had two cold winters in a row, to see people's lawns die completely from the cold weather, and then they immediately went out and bought truckloads of sod to replace it. Thousands of dollars worth of sod when the same money spent on perennials, shrubs, ground cover and mulch would have produced a much more resilient, chemical free, lower water use, low maintenance yard.

My DH is very project-oriented so as long as I ask him to help with a specific 'project' he's great. Solve a problem? Done deal. Build something? Loves to. Chores, "meh, hire someone to help you, willya?"

I've nibbled my grass down to nothing over the past 8 years.

with Elaine about the whole subject of grass.

Gosh, when we re-did our yard down south to not a single blade of grass & the whole place was xeri ~~~~ it was amazing! Not only did we have so much more time to do things we wanted to do, but we got rid of the mower, edger & so forth. No gas to buy to run the mower, no air OR noise pollution from those things, no more poison, no more fertilizing & we had a lot more room as well b/c we didn't have to store all those items.

If I could change over this 6 acres; I would do it in a heartbeat! But it's getting no fertilizer, poison (except for Amdro for the fire ants), we aren't watering it (the grass/weeds), no weedeating it & we mow as seldom as possible. Sometimes dh just mows select pathways for us to walk rather than the whole place.

Same here. No grass left anywhere. All mulch and beds. I don't miss the grass at my house. I have plenty of beds and plants to look at and play in and they are far more interesting than grass. LOL

You give me lots to consider. I saw a house I liked the floor plan but when I looked at it on google earth surrounding the home was a beautiful subdivision but right across the street was a white picket rickety fence and as I looked closer I thought is it? could it be? so I zoomed in and it was a goat, lol. Now I know why. Maybe one of the over 55 communities, or HOA that includes mowing would be a great asset. In our current Midwest location there are lawn services that mow very inexpensive. Is that offered in Florida or is it $$$$ due to the long season?

Mowing services (or 'Mow, Blow and Go' as they are referred to here ) are very reasonably priced.

Remember the Google Earth picture could be several years out of date....

Yep, here in Florida they just mow, blow and go. We do our own but we have a neighbor whose yard is smaller than ours and she pays $65 per month to a lawn service that just mows, blows and goes ... no hedge trimming, fertilizing, weed control.

The deed-restricted communities are ok if you want those services, but they also will restrict many things like what you are allowed to plant, Susan.

Since that would have cramped my style way too much, our first requirement when we looked for a house was "non-deed restricted". Those HOA's Boards are full of well-meaning volunteers who are often frustrated politicians. They love to make rules and then strut around making sure people abide by them.

There are usually County ordinances about things like farm animals (except chickens, which are widely accepted in many residential areas now). Counties (at least ours does) also will enforce mowing and general maintenance rules.

HOA fees can be very steep, too. My brother owns a 2br. condo down the street from me, and his monthly HOA fee is around $250/month. That does include building maintenance and insurance as well as the garden and pool maintenance.

I think FL is like anywhere else.................you have to look & find a GOOD person. I've lucked out with a neighbor kid (18) who loves doing yard work & a retired Army guy who does it "to get out of the house & have something to do". Of course, I do 98% of it myself. Mowing/Gardening is my Zen time!!!! Of course, here it is not quite as Zen Aug-Sep!!!! That is the melt time of year for me & most of my plants!!!

with Jean. I have a guy, loves to work in my garden and when he works, he's just great. Sadly, he is a bit of a drinker, so not entirely dependable.

At least he is able to work in the heat when, as Jean said, most gardeners just melt. It's our running joke here that in summer the plants speed up and the gardeners slow down. Then when the weather cools off, the gardeners speed up and the plants slow down so it balances out. August and Sept here are "jungle time" and my garden just gets completely out of hand. No worries, it's getting so you can walk the pathways without a machete now.

I think a condo would be perfect for us but I'm finding most HOA's start at around $400 a month. If I found the right condo with an HOA of $250 I would give that serious consideration. Time to check out Sarasota on Trulia.

Susan: Sarasota is a great place! We used to vacation there every summer; the gulf beaches are wonderful!

Good luck on your search Susan. Don't know much about the west coast, however, nor HOA fees -- WOW, they seem pretty steep, though.

We have a very nice townhouse in Palm Bay (east coast of FL) and the HOA fees are only $ 193. It's for sale too