A Lot of Yard ...

... with basically nothing in it except the Starlink receiver (which may be going away*) and one tree (out of shot to the left near the camera).

It's the space to the west of the house (that's the shadow coming in from the left), as seen from the rear fence. The trees to the right are on a public right-of-way that will eventually be a street. The trees at the far end of the shot are along the fence that separates our fenced-in house "yard" from the remainder of the lot.

I just mowed it, and as you can see there's not much to it, not even a lot of grass in the sandy soil. As space, it's currently pretty useless to us. We don't have kids of an age to want to set up a volleyball or badminton court or whatever; our outbuildings are located to the east of the house. The septic tank is located down near the far end of this stretch and has to be accessible for maintenance, but that's about it. But there are quite a few critter holes and mounds, which (as you'll see) is fine by us.

We're trying to decide what to do with it.

I'm generally anti-"lawn" (as today's Garrison Center column explains), and Tamara is even more so, even though she's not the one who's out with a mower, trimmer, etc. at least eight months out of the year (and that's not the big issue for me -- I can use the exercise). She wants flowers for the butterflies and bees, habitat for the rabbits and gopher tortoises and gophers and deer, etc.

We're in the process of deciding how to turn it into something low-maintenance and animal-friendly, but not unattractive (even though nobody outside the household can, for the most part, see it anyway).

We may plant a hedge about 10 feet west of the house from front to rear, with openings for deer to get in and out if they happen to wander through our yard instead of just jumping the west fence (the latter is their usual, but not only, method of entry).

Whether we do that or not, I'll probably be doing some light digging to put in a tiny "pond" liner, after which we'll move a large, conveniently shaped rock to the uphill side of the little pond and install a little solar-powered pump that will send water from the pond to the top of the rock, from which it will fall back into the pond: Water for the critters, but not stagnant water for mosquitos.

Around the pond, probably another rock to set a salt block for the deer on, and maybe a stone bench to sit on.

Then we'll get to work trying to kill off the remaining grass and replace it with flowering plants, low ground cover plants, cacti, etc., except for a plot near the front or rear that I'll turn into a vegetable garden.

And, as a bonus, it will be probably a good third of an acre less to mow.

* I'm still very happy with Starlink (yes, that's an affiliate link, grab yourself a free month and get me one as well if you're looking for Internet service), but now that Cox is offering gigabyte fiber to our house at a reasonable price (with a five-year price guarantee), there's agitation from other family members to switch over. I'm resisting, but I expect to lose the argument.