Gardening & Landscaping
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
front yard needs serious help
So I am helping a friend of mine design and plan his front yard. It is just dirt and weeds. So what are low maintenance plants that we could use?? He wants no grass!! If anyone could help me with ideas I would appreciate it!
Thank you 
Re: front yard needs serious help
To give better recommendations, it would be helpful for to know what region/zone you live in and how much sun (full/partial/shade/etc) the area you are planting gets.
Low-maintenance plants in SoCal would probably include New Zealand flax, euphorbia, citrus trees, Chinese pistache trees, any kind of thyme, Australian or New Zealand tree ferns, there's an aloe that's very common around here with red/orange/yellow poker-type flowers that's just gorgeous and requires no care, sedums, dianella tasmanica, ceanothus (I highly recommend this plant; it covers a lot of ground, requires no summer water, is native to CA, and blooms beautifully), common calla lilies (white and 'green goddess'), hardenbergia (lovely climber).
I grabbed a cutting from the aloe plant I described above that a neighbor had tossed out as garbage, and I just tossed it on the ground in my back yard. The thing rooted and is growing just fine. Talk about low-maintenance!
ETA: Just noticed the post below re: agapanthus. I always notice that SoCal is blanketed with those things when I visit. Not my favorite, since they are so common down there (and here), but they bloom well with no care.
I'm very glad to hear that a SoCal-er doesn't want grass! Seeing green lawns down there makes my blood boil, knowing how much precious water SoCal takes from the NorCal delta.
If you're looking for other ideas or want to check out other plants you find in nurseries, check out or buy a copy of Sunset's Western Garden. It's my most-used reference book since I began gardening in CA. Most of my suggestions I have experience with in NorCal, but I'm sure there are lots of other choices I'm not thinking of because they don't do well here.