Slow-growing ground cover will require some patience

You've got to be kidding! My landscaper planted dymondia -- front and back -- last August and by June it was totally filled in, clumped in places and had to thinned.

It survived the cold very well and the only problem I found with it is that it doesn't transplant very well.

And yes, you can step on it without squishing it to death, but I wouldn't do it too often.

I have bad news for everyone who buys into native landscaping, most of the year it looks like cr ap.

You may engraciate yourself with all the tree huggers by replacing your lawn with native plants, and you will save water, but don't expect your neighbors to say good going for making the neighborhood look like he ck by having a front yard that looks terrible most of they year.

Most people who buy into it are infatuated with the idea of saving money and they don't realize that the only time most native plants look good is when they bloom and there are none that your kids can play on like they play on a lawn.

Of course you can do what some of my neighbors have done and just cement their front and back yards, that saves water even more.

As for me, I've run out of room to cut back, so I'm just letting what I have die. It makes me sick, I was not watering it at all until school let out and then I was going to plant new grass, but with the new rules I can't. So... my yard is just plain ol dead. I even bought the seed a few months before the new watering rules came out.

My neighbors hate me, but at least I can afford the water bill.