> If we let our lawns die, we'll see more property damage due to soil erosion.

Replace them with native plants.

Xeriscaping a lawn in an attractive way is significantly more expensive than laying sod or grading+seeding. Simply letting native weeds grow takes years and you're left with massive erosion problems in the meantime. In many locales, regulatory agencies will crack down severely if your yard is producing erosion run-off because it clogs sewer lines and clouds streams. A lawn of native weeds also looks pretty bad.

Xeriscaping is a fine option and when done right, it looks gorgeous...but doing it right is beyond the means of the average homeowner.

Laying sod, grading and seeding only became cheap due to volume demand and peer pressure; it could swing the other way, once momentum was gained. Lawn care could become more fulfilling in taking care of different plants. One man's weed is another man's salad. It's all in what you have become accustomed to in your life.

Personally, I have never maintained a lawn. Unlike my neighbors, I didn't cut down almost all of the native trees, so I have native landscaping, and it looks 100X better than flat, mowed lawn. It has wildflowers, and 'weeds' that flower and add to the beauty. I simply rake leaves in the fall, and keep my walkway clear to the house with stone from my property.

The way manicured lawns and homogeneous homes depicted in Tim Burton's 'Edward Scissorhands' film was spot on to me except in real life most condo communities would not allow the differently colored houses, or at least limit the palette. I grew up in Brooklyn, but found this out when I tried to change my carburetor in my mother-in-laws driveway, and I was told you cannot work on your car in your own driveway. No thanks to that life!

replace most of the lawn with gravel.

It's actually way cheaper to simply pave a yard on a new construction house with gravel than to sod it and install an irrigation system, which is essentially required in the kinds of deserts I'm talking about.

I know if I were buying a new house today, one of which had several hundreds of dollars per month in required water costs to keep the lawn alive, and one of which did not, I'm going with the latter one every time. Especially because you know the lawn is going to die on the former anyway at some point in the future when more severe water restrictions come into play and watering your lawn is (rightfully) prohibited.

We've done all three to our yard in Oakland, and its great. We xeriscaped most of our yard, with plants fed by drip irrigation. We put in a small patch of grass (about 300 square feet) with a sod called "native no-mow" that is literally that: it gets long and we don't mow it. We do have to weed it occasionally. The rest is covered in gravel.

The project wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that outrageously expensive, either, especially not compared to the cost of housing. We have to irrigate some, but nothing like what a lawn would need. And we have a nice outdoor space to hang out and entertain in, way nicer than concrete.

Or weeds. I've noticed parts of my lawn that got infested by chinch bugs died off but were replaced by weeds. The weeds were a combination of dandelions, clover, and other east coast weeds. I mow over the weed patches and they look just like cut grass. I wouldn't mind a whole weed lawn if the HOA and my partner didn't care as well.

Neighbours will complain and city will fine you. So better let the fucking lawn die. /sarc

A lot of cities in the US that are experiencing severe drought have prohibited watering lawns. So they won't fine you for letting them die, just the opposite -- they'll fine you if they catch you watering your lawn to keep it green.

City will fine you if you let wild plants grow instead of grass. So you will be fined either way - you have no option but let the lawn die.

What city will fine you for not growing grass?

We got fined for grass being too tall (Toronto). I assume if we don't have grass at all it will be the same thing.

Large swaths of Orange County.

"If we let our lawns die, we'll see more property damage due to soil erosion."

I've heard this before, and I've tried to imagine how that would work. The lawns I see in just about every city, most of them are surrounded by streets and usually sidewalks and sometimes curbs, too.

I try imagine what'd happen if the grass all just died and soil erosion started to kick in. Where's the soil going that's now going to erode? Is it liquefying in heavy rains and flowing up and away over the roads?

I just can't picture how lawns are doing all that much to prevent soil erosion, but would love a more detailed explanation.

Flash floods during monsoon season could definitely play their part in that, but I imagine wind has a lot to do with it too. Without grass to keep everything in place and help hold the moisture in, the wind picks up the dry soil pretty easily. Dust in heavy wind is kind of like a low-powered sand blaster, so property damage is a legitimate concern there too.