For decades the front yard was all lawn. When the house was built, the yard was a crowned shape and the material under the sod was not prepared well. Even if I aerated the grass, fertilized it, and watered it, by mid-summer the grass was thin and less-than-green. A number of years ago I took out the sloped west-facing areas and put in a rock garden of low-growing perennials and shrubs – kinnikinnik, prostate broom, soapwort, and Himalayan fleeceflower. A few more showy perennials were added. We were happy with the results.

In the last few years, we have had a heat dome, drought, and some winterkill. Watering restrictions added to the decision to remove all of the lawn. We first removed the sod where winter snows were piled up. This is heavy labour, digging out the sod, turning over the soil, shaking out the unusable sod, hauling that sod to a new compost area, cutting good sod and transporting it to the back yard. The good sod is being used to replace drought-killed areas in the back, but that means digging out new areas and continuing the cycle.
It is still ongoing, but nearing the end.

In this image, one area is cleared and some sod is still in place. Large paving stones are lying in a temporary pattern.

In this image, a few days later, all of the sod is removed, new soil was brought in and mixed with the existing subsoil materials. Rocks, roots, and sod materials were removed. A curved walkway was installed.

This image shows a later stage. Boulders are placed in a mindful (Feng shui?) pattern and new species are planted. Most of the plants on the left are low-growing. New ones on the right are medium height. The old borders on the far right are established plantings of taller plants – daylilies, iris, daisies, Russian sage, maltese cross, tall grasses, hollyhocks, and many more. This part of the perennial bed also has some shrubs against the fence.