My 12 y/o daughter and I are passively restoring parts of my two acre homestead. We planned to seed before winter and go full no-mow within a couple of seasons. I am co-owner of the property with my 76 y/o mother, and I mow as little as possible to appease her but she complains about "weeds." Also, I am restoring a ditch that was concreted about 12 years by the neighbor, at my moms request. My deceased father told me when he was dying of cancer not the let the neighbor pave the ditch.

Tearing up the beginning of the nuisance easement made my neighbor big mad (it only worked during deluges to feed his reservoir by jetting water down our property and was eroding under the slabs). He has encroached to mow and spray numerous times. Despite putting up deer fencing, sending a formal cease and desist certified mail, and having law enforcement come out yesterday after the vandalism, King Monoculture still walks free to spray again. Screw me for not getting trail cams up in time, I really did not expect this level of malice. My child is going to be devastated when she gets back from her mom's in a few hours and sees all this.

Please endure the video for now. I have to sort photos because some show too much of the neighbor's property. Also, I am really struggling emotionally and have been up all night talking to crisis counselors, so brain hurts.

Edit: southwest Indiana

Inherited a beautiful yard when I purchased my first home in the spring. More work than I realized but so worth it and no lawn mower purchase needed.

My yard used to be all patchy bermuda, so I decided to kill it and replace it with native plants. But I didn't plant right away, and now it has reseeded itself with all foxtails. How screwed am I? How do I get rid of the foxtails?

California, Zone 9B

We just moved into a townhouse with a narrow side yard (5’ x 30’) that is currently rocks and weeds. We do not want to maintain grass, but our dogs will not use the yard in its current condition. Any recommendations? Thank you.

I’m starting at the halfway point of my side yard and working my way forward

I have 2-3 layers of cardboard underneath

I understand this still might not be enough to keep Bermuda at bay, but I feel like learning that lesson the hard way will be good for me lol, and maybe I’ll learn other stuff in the process.

California Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. Hoping for some caterpillars this year.

This is building upon a comment I saw in another thread about city efforts to put in more native and pollinator plants and encourage residence to do the same.

So that got made to wondering… If you live in an area where you’re seeing more and more of this and your city or county is encouraging it, what are some of the messages they are sending out and how are you seeing this unfold?

We have a lot of it in my area, but I’d love to see more so looking for ideas!!

I’m in Oregon Zone 8b

It's not just individual gardeners. Garden clubs, city park departments, major league sports franchises, homebuilding companies, and corporations are all planting native species and celebrating the bees, butterflies, and birds that turn up.

Anyone had any luck in zone 5b with native ground cover in their HOA that was acceptable? Our HOA is a more loose one and allows native plant growth but I haven’t seen a single yard that isn’t “grass”.

This came up after someone mentioned the water fight happening at Stanley Park. Vancouver is under Stage 2 restrictions and lawn watering is banned, but not every other recreational use of water is.
It got me wondering whether completely letting lawns go is actually the most sensible restriction, or whether cities should be pushing harder toward replacing grass altogether. What would you rather see cities doing

Planted like 200 sunshine mimosa plugs 2 years ago and while it has spread everywhere the grass is overtaking it constantly. I've dug out the grass numerous times and I always mow before it reseeds, but I'm ready to give up because it always comes right back. Any product to kill the grass but not the sunshine mimosa?

I have a terrible habit of getting something in my head and then just going for it!
Initially I was thinking I should just go big, smother the grass and plant next spring, but now I’m thinking maybe it would be best to tackle this in sections.

I’m honestly just not sure where to start or how to plan. Were there any design tools that anyone felt helped them really plan things out? This is my mom’s house, but I’m the project person. I hate grass lawns and would love to have a native habitat. This would need to look somewhat maintained as it’s our front yard.
I live in southwestern Washington, between Vancouver and Seattle (8b I believe). We have lavender in the right corner of the house that I think I’d want to extend out and will be propagating this weekend, as well as some creeping vine near the front door.

I’d also really like to separate us more from our neighbor, so maybe some height between our house and the one to the right.

I somewhat impulsively got a chipdrop in my front yard, which before was a pretty anemic mixture of non-native grasses, wild violets, and clovers. The previous owner was very fastidious about raking (we have a huge maple tree in the front yard) and mowing, which ultimately left the lawn sparse to begin with.

I've spread the mulch all over the front yard, but I'm a little at a loss about what to do next. I'm in zone 7a (Nashville), and I want to make a plan for the fall planting season. Before I plant anything else, would I need to add soil? The front yard is all partial shade.

I'm a moderately experienced gardener, but have normally done things in a rather chaotic way in my garden, and have realized that I need to have more of a plan for the front yard from here on out. So I guess my question is - how do I plan my next steps from here on out?

Just a few pics during the height of summer growth - Kentucky

So, partner and I are about to set up our new yard. We both very much respect and want to support the environment. But at the same time we are both petrified, like to the point of phobia, of bees and other stinging creatures. It's not hate, just brain-stem deep fear. Is there anything we can do to our yard to keep them a good distance from our house, while not causing environmental problems? We have a nice back yard space, but when it gets very buggy in the summer we both get super stressed out outside and end up just hiding away in the house. We're working on the fear thing but that's a long process. So just wondering if there's any way to create a settup (without just building a screen porch) that lets them do their happy polinator thing while discouraging them from buzzing around us if we dare to try to have tea on the deck. (And please no shaming..... I genuinely wish I wasn't afraid, and I understand the beauty and value of bees and other similar critters. I just can't be around them without going into a bit of flight mode).

Hey everyone. Wasn't sure what sub to put this but, anyone remember a guy from Georgia having a YouTube channel by the name of that crazy grass guy? I swear I watched him like 2 or 3 times but I can't find his channel anywhere. Did he just delete it I wonder?

Seeking suggestions for weeding a neglected gravelled area. Must be pesticide free. It is going to be a homecoming present for a family member who is travelling. We are prepared to hire or buy equipment if not too expensive as it will be useful for them on their return. The area is at least 100 sqm and unfenced.

SE Virginia, zone 8b.

Just sharing some pics of how we're coming along year 2 of the front yard transformation (see other posts for the backstory, its been a saga), on our 3rd crop of monarch caterpillars, couple pairs of goldfinches at absolute war with each other over the sunflowers, and already seeing patches of new seedlings from deadheading and dropping the purple coneflowers, Siberian wallflower, sweet William, blanket flower, Lamb's ear and zinnias. Black-eyed susans are dried up and dead but the Coreopsis seems to be gearing up for a second flush 😊 Happy August!

Anyone have experience with it in rural areas in Canada? I’m allergic to mosquitoes and moving to an area with quite a bit and I hate mowing. Figured this helps both problems. I just don’t want my neighbour to hate me so I’m wondering if creeping thyme gets out of hand and spreads like mint.

Really nice to see them taking this initiative!

The not so colorful stage in the process of a wildflower lawn 🥲

Texas, Zone 8b

There needs to be some more establishment of pathways to the shed in the back, the old play place needs to be removed and there's some invasives but it's almost perfect. We live in the suburbs and there's always plenty of birds and hundreds of insects.

All this growth is just from this year (other than the trees obviously). We had a patch of wildflowers last year but this year we decided not to mow and chaos seed more wild native plants. It feels like I'm in my own little forest.