My mom hates our front yard meadow
I just need to vent to people who understand. We moved several years ago to a rural town on the edge of wilderness in northern MN. The house has "woods" on both sides and across the street since those areas weren't cleared when those homes were built. Our yard is "woods" too except for the front because it was cleared for a septic system that has since been removed. The soil is poor, compacted, and rocky. In summer it's very dry since it's south facing. It was filled with dandelions, trefoil, and non-native grass that isn't really the usual lawn grass, like timothy and whatever, that doesn't look good when mown and is basically bare dirt in the heat of summer. It looked horrendous so I stopped mowing and started planting a few native flowers to see what would survive. It's starting to look like a meadow. I still mow a narrow strip along the street and driveway. The meadow looks less out of place surrounded by "woods" than the dead looking weed infested "lawn" did and I get compliments. (Lots of people here are environmentally conscious and love nature.) I'm just grateful that it's green, has flowers, requires no chemicals or watering, and very little maintenance.
My mom moved here with us because she was ready to move out of her house since it was getting to be too much work for her. He previous house had very nice garden beds that she liked taking care of, but it started getting too much for her and I was starting to have to help her weed and care for the yard. She's very old school about yards and thinks the only "nice" yard is one that has a traditional lawn and flower beds. That standard is basically impossible in our yard without replacing all the soil and doing all the work and chemicals to maintain that, which I won't do. My mother has only grudgingly accepted it (since she has no choice) but we still argue about it occasionally. She would rather have it be the dead looking weed infested lawn, as long as it's short, than the green flowering meadow.
I'm getting my way, but am seen as a "controlling bitch" about it, which is hard. I can't fathom that she thinks the brown dirt patches look better and are "easier" to maintain, like mowing is easier than just letting it grow. (The retaining wall has natives and the sidewalk on top is lined with flower pots with annuals. You can see what the mowed part looks like.)