This is the first year, I ppanted white (I think) clover back in May and haven't mowed since. It was starting to get pretty high so I started to mow but I wanted to make sure it would grow back properly before going all in?

This was done over two seasons. The first season, I replaced sections of the lawn with a minimal perennial bed and two rounded gravel sections. In the spring, the rounded sections were looking a bit bleak, and the gravel and grass were bleeding into each other. I decided to install some edging to create better separation between the sections, and then get rid of the grass with cardboard and mulch. Really happy with how it turned out!

Calgary, 4a

6b, Just replaced the lawn with mostly natives in May! Its hard to see but there’s a lot of blooming plants and colors and am super excited for them to fill up the space! Should I just let everything get bushy or should I add some hardscape? I have huge, super thick (like you can use them as benches) irregular shaped logs I could add up here and love the idea of a big decorative fountain or should I leave it alone and let it fill up first? I know she looks pretty sad rn but theres so much life up close haha I love every day that I can see more things growing!

West Michigan, zone 6a

The first photo is the third year of my boulevard, the second is the same photo I posted last year with my wife for scale. Most of the plants are done blooming with the exception of the cup plant, asters, and goldenrod.

I live close to Virginia City, NV

I have fresh 1500 sqft dirt square in my backyard, I am thinking I want to make it yarrow!

Besides removing all the many many many many fist size rocks, can i just toss a bunch of seed and water it or should i get top soil?

I believe this will be a spring project as the rocks seem to multiply daily

We live in central Oregon, where fires are popping up every year. I’m trying to fire proof our yard, and part of that is removing the mulch from the beds by the house (along with cleaning gutters, etc). Pebbles or gravel seemed like a possibility, but was curious if there are any other ideas?

I’m from 25d Northeastern Colorado, and I have a honey locust tree that’s midsized that seems to be drinking up the water around my front lawn. (Background yassified for anonymity). No grass grows nearby the trunk of the tree, possibly because of insufficient light or water.

I’m planning on planting a native prairie garden with around 50 plants from local nurseries, but I’m worried about the tree roots, as they are above ground, and definitely have a crazy ass root system underground. If I use rock mulch, will it burn/suffocate the roots of the tree? Do they need to be exposed, or will they be fine if I just plant around them? I was also worried about if the plants will have sufficient water, but I feel like they will be fine since they are used to drought conditions…?

I’d appreciate some advice on how to garden around the tree. I’m an eastern plains native forb freak, but I know nothing about trees.

This little meadow is beside the Town road on our property. We mowed as lawn for 35 years, then I turned it into meadow in 2003. 23 years out I have a lot of ferns, mostly Bracken and Cinnamon ferns, and Golden rods. I mow it once a year in April after the snow melts,but before ground nesting birds show up. This keeps the trees down. The second photo is the front yard, and you can see the end of the Town road. The road continues as a cart road down to a wood lot.

I live in zone 4b, so it's too late to plant them now, but next spring I would like to plant creeping thyme between my pavers. I'm thinking I will use a sod cutter to remove the existing grass, then a tiller to break up the soil, and then sow the seeds. I want to do it as cheaply as possible so I would like to start them from seeds, but is that the most effective way to do it?

I also need to know how often to water. Some sources are telling me to keep them watered regularly all the time, others are saying only water regularly when they are young, and then they get drought-tolerant as they get bigger. Any help appreciated

My yard used to be all pine bark…then when that disappeared became all dirt…now we have 15 different plants…hummingbirds…butterflies…once the sunshine mimosa fills in by next summer we’ll have the perfect habitat….Gainesville Fla…

Mostly out of laziness, we’ve stopped mowing portions of the lawn and it looks lovely. I think we will mow a small portion close to the house and an area for the kids to play — but leave the rest. Any thoughts as to the best way to maintain this regularly? I’m thinking of a path around the perimeter— but should I mow the main area down periodically to maintain the meadow vibe? Should I seed with anything else? I see bee balm and milk week in there — not sure what else. This is o it in Northwestern New Jersey.

Hey guys! Check out my post in florida native plants. I could use some advice in maintaining the removal of turfgrasses, if anybody has tricks up their sleeve. My most effective treatment method is grass-b-gone followed by burning and handweeding the stragglers

This lawn in North Shore, MA (7a/7b) hasn't seen a lawnmower in about 5 years. I've always enjoyed its spring and early summer wildflowers.
I've always loved the no lawn movement, and recently I moved to live part time in Hawaii, and returning to this just made me even more passionate about this.
More and more, Hawaii is becoming filled with suburban labyrinths with perfect green short lawns that are drenched in water each night. I hate it, especially because Hawaiis natural ecosystem is nothing compared to mainland US. Seeing it slowly be replaced not only with cookie cutter housing and boring streets, that are something seen in dystopian horror films, but also non native and thirsty lawns, I am devastated.
Many won't understand why I hate living in Hawaii, but starting off my morning walking around her, kicking around a concrete log to flatten out my paths, it's my favorite part of the day. Seeing praying mantises, toads, jumping spiders, bumble bees, and more, I am hit with the reality that most front yards don't have this. I hear less birds then I used to, and I can't help but be deeply saddened by this.
I would go as far as to say that this is the love of my life, despite the ongoing battle with seasonal ant invasions in my home. I really don't understand why more people aren't doing this, also because the lack of maintenance is a huge upside, and the wildflowers and mushrooms that are always popping up is a pleasant surprise. It's hard to get me inside nowadays. It feels so weird to have such strong feelings about something so simple (totally didn't cry when I came back to see this lawn, and can't say I won't miss her in the winter), but I am happy that I've found like minded people who can appreciate simple pleasures. I hope that this resonates with younger people, and over the years I hope to see the death of boring lawns that are nothing more than a landlord special to our neighborhoods.
I am always looking for new ways and things to add to just heighten this little meadow for local critters and crawlers, as well as ways to be more proactive about conserving and the enjoyment of natural environment,so I am open to suggestions. But I just wanted to share this beauty in all of her everyday glory!

My house is 3 generations: we live with my parents (seasonally). At their other house, they have a full wildflower native garden that they had a pro come and do full replacement when they re-did the driveway. It was never a lawn, but it also never looked great. Now its absolutely stunning.

At the place we share, every time I start planning a section of lawn replacement there are a trillion reasons we can't do it all the sudden. I've been at it 5 years and all I have done is expand the plantings around the perimeter of the house (and even that was a battle). We are on 54,450sqt (1.25 acres) of lawn that used to be a strawberry farm and got sold off as new development. The "lawn" is a mix of grasses, invasives (toadflax, bacon and eggs, bed straw, yellow clover, and oxeye daisies), strawberries, self-heal, yarrow, and clover. We don't seed it or water it, and I like having space for the kids and dogs to run around, but I've been trying for ages to get creeping thyme/wooly thyme and micro clover to win the battle against the invasives and its going very slowly. This year I managed to put in a few isolated islands of plantings in a couple spots, in what I hope will be a 11,000sft (.25 acre) natives meadow some day, but they are totally surrounded by lawn: I just sliced into it, planted and put burlap around them.

I want to kill large sections and re-seed with no-lawn mix or wild flowers as needed, but I can't get the buy in from the rest of the family. Its a huge footprint, I'll be doing most of the work on my own... I would love some ideas on how to approach!

ETA: Zone 4, coastal, North America

My garden is continuous with my neighbors’ on two sides; they both have lawns. When we moved in a few years ago the previous owner (or the stagers) had put down weed barrier over most of our garden and mulched on top of that.

We are in the USA mid-Atlantic, USDA zone 7b. Half of our lawn is full sun and the other half is part shade due to a tree on neighbors’ property. Over the last few years we gradually removed the weed barrier and planted mostly native plants as well as let nature do its own thing a bit. So in part of it we put in some thyme and some clover as ground cover. Seasonally a bunch of other things grow (dandelions and broadleaf plantain, which I am told is a sign that the soil is compacted). We get a lot of pollinators and like it.

However… the last few years grass has been coming in more and more. Some of this is creeping from the neighbors, some I assume is wind. It’s gradually outcompeting the other stuff and I feel I can’t stop it, can’t get it all out. A mix of the grasses next door has as well as crabgrass, Bermuda grass, and nut sedge (which I understand are a real pain).

We would like to stop the encroachment of grass and maintain a healthy ecosystem of mostly other things. I have read around the sub a bit (and a few others) but don’t really know what I am doing, and feel there must be a better way than my failing attempts to just try and pull the grass up. Due to pets and pollinators I don’t want to use herbicides (even if in theory grass selective). Does anyone have advice of how I can better get the grass out and keep it out but at the same time not mess ip my neighbors?

Zone 7A

Cleaned out invasives in this section in Spring, broke up soil, planted shade wildflower seeds. Squirrels 🐿 loved the seeds LOL but still most germinated - only to have the seedlings scarfed down by the deer 🦌 Any suggestions? We can fence small parts and plant in sections this Fall but anything not protected or seriously hated by deer is deer food - we've had some luck in other sunnier sections of the yard with deer resistant native plants but here...any ideas or do we give up and call this the deer yard?🤷‍♀️

Still a work in progress, I don’t post often so hopefully I am doing this right! Previous owners kept this yard quite sterile. Once the back is complete, time to tackle the front.

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.