Of course it does make a difference where you live - in Texas we had Bermuda Grass because its green in summer, here in the UK lawns are a different ball game altogether, a mixture of rye and fescue and much softer on the toes.
When we moved in there was lawn and no garden, now at the front we have garden and no lawn. At the back we have a largish area of lawn and a lot of flower and veg beds too. The lawn is great for games like croquet and boule and when newly mown sets off the flower beds too.
However we do not constantly water the grass, or weed and feed it either so its a bit more like a mown meadow than a Texas creation.

We went from this

to this in about a year in the front

We have grass right in front of our house that goes to the driveway and water garden. It can be hand mowed in about 5 minutes. It's the only place on the property that is "mostly" weed free and it's the kind you like to go barefoot in.

Everything else is woods, garden, or a mix of green "stuff"

Carol,.you jarred my memory,..,here we use victorian rye grass and chewings fescue , for an all year round greenery[ that is ,until you put hundreds of lilium pots on top of it]-

I have lawns, borders and raised beds. I do like the lawn for the grandchildren to play on. I have been slowly taking out more lawn since the yard is on the large side. I want to take more out and put in more raised beds. : )

I guess the back yard is officially lawn, since it's some kind of grass, but it's also officially the dog-yard, so it's more like "whatever grows and survives the three dogs." My 50x150 front yard was nothing but lawn when I moved in, other than the 10ft weed strip along the very edge by the street. I'm systematically transforming it (to the dismay of some neighbors). My ultimate goal is to keep SOME lawn (it's a nice thick zoysia), but have the grassy parts be 25% or less of the total yard. I've already sold my riding mower, so I'm definitely making progress.

I hope to eventually transform the weed-strip into a clover strip, and will have clover around the trees/shrubs, as well. And if clover springs up amongst the zoysia, you'll get no complaints from me.

Carol- that's quite the transformation!!

Our place is definately NOT house and garden beautiful...more like wild kingdom. There is grass where it wants to grow...other places no. And I love the wildflowers/weeds that grow in the grassy areas.

I like a green lawn and I don't think it has to be weed free to look good. I fertilize in the spring and I do not use a herbicide or pesticide on it. Dave you would like it, it has dandelions and sometimes they go to seed and I see the finches and sparrows eating the seed, it has lots of clover and I love the way it smells in bloom, plus the bees love it. Grass helps keep the yard cooler when it's hot, not so with rocks and shrubs.

I really like clover, too. Spread about a pound of seed in the back yard several years ago, recommended by the feed store as a dog-friendly, non-mow, ground cover. A week later we had the most rain in one hour on record. Since my yard slopes sideways...well...let's say the neighbor's got a few surprises.

That's funny, but I'm sure you didn't think so at the time.

That is some gulley washer. Whew....

I'm just glad to see you all getting rain!

Gentle would have been nicer

Margaret, it was funny.

Vic, that was in March of 2006. Too bad we couldn't have saved some of it for this year.

Thank-you Trish! We like to think of it as from bland to beautiful.

The back though still has enough lawn to make mowing a chore and I probably made it harder by planting fruit trees and creating island beds! We divided off a substantial area for vegetables.too so there is about 1/3rd veg, 1/3rd flower beds and 1/3rd lawn now.

Arizona is weird in so many ways.
There are so many HOAs with different rules and regulations. I have granite rock in the front yard. Three huge cacti (Saguaro, organ pipe and something else that's about 30 ft tall) I have Firesticks, Penstemon, lavender, pomegranate tree, shrimp plant, and more... but no grass. In the backyard I have mostly lawn with some trees, canna, my JM, shrubs etc.... and lots of flowers. We have Bermuda, too, Texas, and I overseed with Winter Rye. Am about due in a week or two to have it done (for the first time ever. I usually do it myself but will not again. Too much labor.) Lexie, and my dear departed Bert, love the grass. I wouldn't have a dog without grass.

My neighbor has the lawn Dave speaks of and it's so pretty. If she doesn't mow it for a time it gets little pink, yellow, white flowers from the "weeds". ... she doesn't need to overseed 'cause she waters the weeds and they stay green. Genius!

I'd be on Team No Lawn if I could get away with it, but hubby likes to fix riding mowers and needs plenty of lawn to try them out on. However, in my flower garden area I'm slowly taking out more and more grass for shrubs and flower beds filled with plants for bees and butterflies.

Dave our lawn is like you would prefer;grass, weeds, and clover. We don't feed it or weed it. To keep it looking nice and green in our drought months he mows with the mower deck set on the 2nd highest notch. Works great except in the areas where there's large rocks just under the surface and that will be fixed when I add more dirt on top of those areas.

Well...I guess I'm in the team lawn side... I could more easily not have it...[ and didn't have any to start with..]... but it's more work and expense.. and I'll always choose the more expensive and harder to attain choice.. like in the garden. ..
it would be so easy not to have any..just as it came .. or grow perennials.. or evergreens .. but I grow tropicals .. and exotics... and things way out of my zone...
Making the outside look like inside the house.. and inside the house look like the outside... has always been a joy for me.. and goal of mine.. for the last 40 years.. when I had my first inside lawn area... [ did you read the book... Stranger in a Strange Land... the 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who has come to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians.... he had a lawn inside his house... ] this thought is slowly being taken up as the new look by the architects.. of both the houses and landscape variety.. and trickling down into convention... but the bigger camp is the no work / no expenditure side ... in these fields as well
The lawn here returns many times the expense [ perhaps not factoring in effort and time or accessores ] ... as savings in the heating and A/C loads.. but it is maintained soley for the asthetcs..
The sod came from a company making Yankee Stadium look green... hince the white marble stepping stones... like bases of the stadium... it's a home run ... it's out of here...
the first 10 years or so the lawn was laid on a bed of sand.. for drainage.. but it eventaually the dirt infiltrated the sand and stopped the drainage.. and it stayed wetter longer than was helpful... this lawn sits on a plastic egg crate layer.. covered n a felt pad .. this allows water runoff to drain underneath it.. but catches water on the top of the egg crating.. watering the grass... inbetween rains..

That's on your roof, Gordon?
I just cannot imagine. It's so beautiful.

HA HA Yes Sharon.. it's the roof... it's all photo shopped .. then sent to a digital fabricator .. reproduced in real life... and returned to me to be installed.. as my imagination had it pictured.. not cheep or easy... and it looks almost real doesn't it..

Probably about half and half. If it were up to me, we'd have a lot less lawn.

I've seen some pictures that Sandi shared with me.
Unbelievable, Gordon, truly unbelievable.
You have an amazing place.