Some thoughts on the lawn:

For years we have heard how terrible lawns are. How the consume so much water, fertilizer, time and gas to maintain. How they are devoid of productive output and are simple a burden imposed by societal pressure to emulate some vision of European aristocratic pastoral setting. I essentially agreed with this position for a long time, but I have begun to question it as given. A large portion of my small inner suburban yard is taken up by annual vegetable garden, herbs, perennial veggies, fruit and nut trees and so on. But this summer removed some garden and replanted lawn to the area.

For one thing I now have a two year old, and he likes to run and I want him to have an open space to run, and throw and chase the dog and play on his ride on toys. The anti-lawns folks say that kids like to play in the jungle of the garden, and this is certainly true. My kid probably spends more time pushing through the paths and jungle of the garden then on the lawn section. However now we have space to spread a blanket and spend summer afternoons coloring outside and learn outdoor games that are just not suitable for the closed environment of the garden.

So you could say that the lawn produces a space for leisure and exercise. At least in our case this is not theoretical, but used daily even in fairly unpleasant weather, say for at least an hour or two. In my climate I only water very rarely during extended drought, or a couple of times during this summer.  As a bonus the kid gets to play in the sprinkler. The lawn is planted with a mix of grass and clover with various volunteer weeds. I have never fertilized, but it is thick and green.  I bag the clipping and add to the compost pile or use and fertilizer/mulch in the annual garden. The growth kicked off by using clipping as mulch is readily apparent. I consider the new lawn to be an important productive space in the landscape.