Oklahoma’s Early Heat Has People Ditching Grass, Here’s the Catch

Normally, I look forward to this time of year. The grass starts to wake up, the weeds start to sneak in, fertilizer starts doing its thing... It’s work, yeah, but it’s good work.

All the same, as we've hit the triple-digits incredibly early this year… It's not a nice surprise.

I really enjoy lawn work, but only in this early portion of the season when it's not a million degrees. By the depths of summer, my weed-free yard goes dormant and I don't have to mow anyway. Maybe once a month or so in July, August, and September. That's the perk of early weed termination.

Now that we're already hitting the summer suck, I've been looking around at alternative lawnscapes. Clover is popular but invasive, and you still have to mow it. Zeroscaping/xeriscaping looks mighty appealing... A whole lawn full of rocks, you can manage with weed spray, but it could cost us more in the long run.

It's way less mowing, less watering, and more akin to “set it and forget it.” While that sounds good on paper, it doesn't really work for Oklahoma.

Problem, the heat.

A healthy lawn, when it’s watered right, actually helps cool the air around your house. It’s not magic, it’s just moisture doing what moisture does. Grass releases water, that water evaporates, and the air temp around your home drops a bit.

Swap that out for rock, and you’ve basically built a heat trap.

Rock soaks up the sun all day long, then slowly gives it back overnight. It doesn’t cool off. It just sits there holding heat like it’s got a grudge. So now your house is surrounded by something that’s working against your AC instead of helping it.

That’s where people start noticing the tradeoff. Water bill goes down, sure. But the electric bill creeps up. AC runs longer, works harder, and suddenly that “low maintenance yard” that's saving you time is now costing you money.

The options.

Instead of surrounding the house with rock, some choose to do the same thing with mulch. And while that's a super-good-looking plan, it attracts another problem. Bugs.

Mulch is basically an open invitation for all sorts of bugs. It holds in moisture, provides organic matter bugs like to eat, and there's just not enough spray to keep everything in check... or so they say.

Option two is plant life. Trees help more than people realize. Shade alone makes a difference, but even beyond that, they help cool the space around your house. Same with plants. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Native grasses and stuff. Just having something alive out there goes a long way. And if they're drought-tolerant, you're not having to water them either.

And yeah, you can still use rock. Just don’t go overboard with it, and definitely don’t stack it right up against your house or spread it across big open areas that get hammered by the sun all day. Instead, sprinkle it in a little bit and break it up with plants and shade so it’s not just sitting there cooking.

It all comes down to balance. A little grass, a little mulch, some plants, maybe even some rock. Best of luck getting that yard in shape this year.