We Xeroscaped ours years ago, had a code inspector that drove by ours house almost daily att was griping till it was done but we did it properly.
Was a neighborhood used to do that in the area and some still have stone, but they were grandfathered in and not allowed locally anymore. Most done these days for code need nylon mesh under mulch for drainage, at least here.
The mess prevents a lot of weeds etc from growing through and allows for drainage to the water table.
The guy hassled us for almost two weeks while we were doing it, but we were doing it right according to code and he couldn't say a word later.
The wife still gets complements over it when out playing around getting the occasional weed that pops up. It's actually pretty low mainenance, she just walks around and pulls a few weeds now and then, I wish we hac the backyard the same way but we haven't, at least not yet.
You have to rip the lawn out here and put the mesh over dirt before mulch herem then have a certain percentage of plants per sq ft.
*Edit* she wasn't here at the time, she said code here was 50% ground coverage.
The wife bought a truckload of mulch when we started it.
Of course she had them dump it in one big spot at the tie I came home and was cursing a bit.
Spent a lot of tie carting a wheelbarrow around that day heh.
I guess we aren't really in a drought out here atm, but even when it is sparse it works great now and no need for sprinklers.
We've had droughts and water restrictions in the past, part of the reason we went that way instead of mostly dead St Augustine most of the time.
Back when they were mostly babies
I found an old one.
The wife even had something she had planted awhile back that bloomed the other day, was pretty cool.
Fortnight Lilly, she was walking around and noticed it, first time we'd seen it bloom in 8 years.
Her pic.
I guess they are a bit rare and short lived, she had 5 popped for a bit.
I keep telling her to get hummingbird feeders, but she never has, have seen one or two around before.
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