You-all must have lawns.
We have ferns, pink lady slippers, queen pine, yew, blueberry, and other natural green ground cover. Underlying all that are large mats of interlocking pine needles (Nature's effort to improve water quality and fight erosion).
It's a totally-
unpaved,
no-maintenance, two-acre lot that supplies us with firewood, tinder, privacy, noise reduction, mink, weasels, chipmunks, birds (including Thrushes
) shade, trees reduce strong winds' effects, and limits the fallout of auto traffic dust from the unpaved
no-maintenance dead-ended roadway.
Daytimes, we use two window-unit A/Cs
maybe twice a summer. Heavy shade from trees allow those two little 6000-BTU window units to cool the entire house—at Noon!
Helping to keep night-time forest noises away—falling branches, deer, raccoon, but mostly Barred Owl calls—the two A/Cs contribute desirable "white noise" at night—when "idling" off the compressor.
One advantage to those stumps is that it keeps ATVs out.
It doesn't help that heavy boat traffic is eroding the shoreline, and the existing trees are doing a "slow-march" to the waterline.
Some of our neighbors have "grandfathered" sea walls, but they're to keep a green-grass lawn for Canada Geese to browse and breed.
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