When we were looking for a house to buy several years ago, one of the criteria was that there be no HOA. I knew that I wanted to get rid of the lawn and replace it with trees, shrubs, a vegetable garden and have pretty much the rest of it be a wild garden. I wanted to experiment with my garden and to try out things I’d read about or my own ideas. I didn’t want to be constrained by the rules of a HOA.

The house we bought was in Northern Virginia. It came with just under 2.25 acres of land which included a small patch of forest overrun by invasives and a few standard ornamentals such as forsythia and rhododendrons planted much too close to the foundation of the house. The rest of it was grass. My goal is to get rid of that grass — all of it. I tell people I’m working on the 10 year plan to eliminate the grass. I think it will take longer than that, but 10 years sounds better than “the rest of my natural life.”