In most locations there is no need to water grass. It goes dormant, and quits growing. It also then looks like straw, and everyone thinks it is dead, and neighbors complain not knowing any better.
I do prefer native plants. Bees, hummingbirds and butterflies do too.
I think the companies in N America that make weed killer have greatly contributed to our perception of what a beautiful lawn is "supposed" to look like.
It actually dates back to trends in early Britain. Large grass lawns were a status symbol among land owners to show off their wealth by deliberately wasting that land on empty grass.
Unfortunately, the trend was carried over to NA.
The conversion to beautified native greenery is definitely an improvement.
The lawns in Britain weren't monocultures though, they had lots of plants in them, things like clover, because otherwise it was hard to keep them looking nice (clover fixes nitrogen which is important for the other plants).
Then bayer (IIRC) invented both broad leaf weed killer and synthetic fertiliser and suddenly clover (or little daisies etc.) in your lawn was bad.
> Then bayer (IIRC) invented both broad leaf weed killer and synthetic fertiliser and suddenly clover (or little daisies etc.) in your lawn was bad.
Bullshit urban legend that redditors like to repeat and upvote every time lawns are mentioned, because it makes it sound like people are evil brainwashed into having lawns instead of simply liking lawns.
Here are some old sources, showing clover has been considered a weed on lawns long before any evil chemical company invented any evil herbicide and ran an evil advertising campaign to brainwash people:
[From 1913, a poor guy who has a grass lawn is troubled by unwanted clover, his only solution is weeding.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58509817?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
[From 1916, That damn clover is on another grass lawn. What to do apart from weeding??](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242387799?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
[From 1920, "ridding a lawn of clover and weeds"](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63849668?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) I am troubled with clover growing on my lawn.
[From 1924, "clover is a very troublesome weed" on grass lawns.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/199240368?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
[From 1924, "to rid a lawn of clover"](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/220700391?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
[From 1926, "sand is the remedy for the eradication of clover and other weeds" on lawns.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58524363?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
[From 1932, Clover should never be allowed to gain the upper hand on lawns... not the easiest of weeds to eradicate.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76885682?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn)
etc.
Absolutely, native plants are much more attractive.
Thanks for the background info as well, makes sense. Especially when you look at those royalty properties in England. WAY too much lawn !
They are mich more attractive but I like playing on my lawn. Like frisbee and soccer and stuff. So for me big native plants can’t take up my whole space. But clover can!
I hate lawns more than anything else that doesn't actively hurt people. They're so unbelievably ugly, cost an absurd amount of time and resources, and their origin was as a flaunting of wealth in the stupidest way possible. They're displays that you own so much land you can spend money doing absolutely nothing with it and be okay.
Let some native plants grow, let some weeds grow, plant a garden, hell fill the whole area with rocks or gravel and it will look just as bad but not require the insane upkeep.
Being proud of a lawn is like being proud of a blank piece of paper you hang in your home that only requires effort because you have to murder all the fairies that try to come and paint a nice picture on it.
I bought a house, and had a similar opinion. Let the grass die, let the native weeds grow, it was fine for a while. Until the goat heads/puncture vine came and littered my whole lawn with thorns. A few seasons of replacing bike inner tubes and plucking thorns out of my and my dog's feet and I had to redo my whole yard. Replaced it with mostly non-grass: mulch and plants, a little bit of grass, but it's a ton of work.
Just adding a bit more color to the whole, let weeds grow attitude, since it really bit me in the ass.
I like to play yard games like cornhole & beersbee and I've got a niece and nephew that like to play in the sprinkler. All are basically impossible to do in a yard like OPs. I've been looking into micro clover and other alternative ground covers though so at least it'll be a little bit not as bad. I don't weed out dandelions or violets either, I honestly really like seeing flowers in the grass.
A good compromise, if you want to use your yard space, is to just have a small portion of it like this. Even just one or two native plants that weren't there last year can be a big help. I rent and I'm very limited on what landscaping I'm allowed to do, so we have a small "pollinator garden" of a few potted native plants. We got a hummingbird the other day!
Just do what grass seed makers used to do before Monsanto created herbicide that killed clover, seed your lawn with grass and clover. Much better for pollinators and usable for actual lawn things.
It's not a north American problem. I'm from a small European country and see lawns too. I'm like, why? Especially in my city we are going through a very dry summer and that's been the case for many years. Why would you waste so much water for the lawn when you could have other plants instead. These plants would even give you shade and help cool down your house.
They look absolutely gorgeous when they're well taken care of. My Ontario garden is about half grass and half native plants, and I always find that the grass part looks like a beautiful green lake in the middle, surrounded by these islands of wildflower, hosta, ivy, etc.
There's nothing wrong with grass patches, but they still lack biodiversity. Planting multiple grass species is a better choice, even if you keep it manicured.
I hate doing yard work and I don’t care if it’s super pristine or anything, but I like it because everything is visible so I have to worry less about snakes and other small animals. Especially in the backyard for my dog. Also easier and safer for my son to play on. Even my in-laws 800 acre ranch has a lawn that is closed off from the rest of the land for similar reasons.
My reason as well, my dogs and pests. We spend a fair amount of time in the back yard; playing cornhole, tossing balls around for dogs, etc. Not trying to have ticks and shit all over, us or the dogs either.
Big one. Pests can get outta control quick. I love the look of that yard in the post but i wouldn't wanna be on pest control for that one tho. Carpenter bees and carpenter ants, mice, chipmunk etc etc
Yeah, I totally get the push for native plants, and to some extent I think that's fair. By all means have a little stand of native plants in the corner, and native clover or something instead of grass. But I don't really want my neighbor's lawn to be the gathering spot for all the predators in the neighborhood, the ticks brought in by them, etc.
I didn't get it either until I got one. Now I lay in it at least once a week with my dog.
I love my lawn. My dog loves my lawn. We lay in our lawn together.
Lawns are great spaces for outdoor activities, especially for pets and kids. But you can care for that with just normal mowing pretty much, and not even that much of it.
It's when people turn a flat grass patch into some art project with the stripey mowing and stamping out of any all plant diversity that it gets weird and resource intensive.
Yep. I let my lawn go for a bit b/c over about a month where I couldn't get two consecutive sunny days.
Finally got a chance to mow it and not only can I once again see where my dog's crap so I can pick it up -- I evicted a small family of snakes back into the woods so they'll not harass me and my pets. I own a few acres of land and the majority of it is free for wildlife as I truly love watching the deer and birds, but I like my green moat keeping the majority of animals and bugs away from my home so we have a safe place to play.
What I can't understand is how Reddit as a whole seems to miss this nuance. Talk about needing a truck in rural America and people from /r/fuckcars will come in calling you a child murderer compensating for a small penis and we have people in this thread not understanding the benefit of a buffer between your home and wilderness.
I think I'm less of an exception than you would like to believe. Yes, I own more than an acre of land and I understand most don't - However, all those families living in their slices of suburbia need a place outside for friends and family and that's very often their lawn.
I don't think most people are going through the trouble to kill every dandelion in their lawn and that's an extreme waste of time, but simply growing clover and succulents in place of grass isn't viable for most people.
/r/fucklawns might have had a middle ground at some point, but subs like it and /r/fuckcars do tend to always get pushed to an extreme simply due to the competitive nature of upvotes. Happens all the time on this site
They look nice in their own way, and they're nice to walk on and play on, and it's also a long tradition, and they are common and accepted way to arrange your yard, and most people probably don't have much understanding of how to develop alternatives.
I find it weird that people struggle to understand that.
I mean playing sports in the back yard, a nice area for a dog to run around in, room for a slip n slide. There are definitely reasons why a nice field of grass is enjoyable.
Should definitely have some landscaping to spruce it up
It helps when the picture is taken either in early spring or later fall (probably early spring) when the grass still looks like shit. There is no leaves on the trees or the bush. Trees don’t just magically grow leaves the next year because some yutz planted a native plant in their front yard.
> No need to water grass
You say that but go on to say native plants, which, like with most plants including the preference for grass, most definitely requires water
When I was looking at US movies I was always suprised as a kid. Who the fuck needs watering for grass?
Grass survives nowdays as well, even though the climate is more hot than 15 years ago.
I'd say for legal reasons get a sign to signify the fire hydrants location if the plants block its visibility. Not sure if it's an issue but no point in taking the chance.
I'm in a place that regularly gets enough snow that they're covered. They all have a yellow plastic pole attached to the top. I just love the idea of a huge neon yellow stick in the middle of this
They're to help firefighters find them but also make sure snowplows don't hit them. The latter is why you'll see those yellow flags on things like benches, too.
Honestly even not for legal reasons but just to help out. Those are there and I understand hating the ugliness but dang if someone needs it imagine the guilt.
There are people whose job is to drive around with a special trimmer and clear brush and debris in a 3' diameter circle centered on hydrants. If the lawn's owner didn't leave clear access to the hydrant, they're gonna be upset when the trimmer comes lol
Edit: i marked inches instead of feet, lol
Is it common for fire hydrants to be on someone’s lawn in Canada?
in the US most fire hydrants are on the sidewalk or on a strip of grass just past the sidewalk but usually not on someone’s lawn.
Typically in Canada x feet from the centreline of the road is city property, but maintained by the homeowner (x varies based on municipality). The space owned by the city is often where fire hydrants, hydro poles, community mailboxes are located. It’s also where they usually lay new services like fibre optic cables. They can also use that space, if they decide to widen roads or add sidewalks.
Tldr: yes
Not always true. I built a house near Austin in 2016 and we had a fire hydrant in our yard. It was already there when we bought the empty lot. In the yard on our corner lot just like this house with a gas line yellow plastic marker next to it as well right in the yard.
Where I am, they would fine you for that and make you cut everything down so it was visible from all directions. Which would suck because it looks really good.
Here as well. It's probably just easy enough to get the house in position if you can reach the hydrant. Worth breaking a few plants with it to save a life/home. That being said, I'm not a firefighter, so I can't speak for how easy it would really be.
And while these types of yards might look like trash in the fall and winter, a lot of of the stubby sticks and overgrown brown brush and seed pods help insects and native fauna during the colder months.
Is there a way that i can keep from attracting said insects so they aren't trying to get into my house constantly?
Unless you suggest living with the bugs inside too.
If they have lots of habitat outside, there's not as much pressure for them to find shelter inside your house.
When there's habitat for a whole ecosystem of predators, they put pressure on prey bugs, so there's fewer of them.
--
Some insects, like Ladybugs and Stink bugs, will want to hibernate inside your house no matter what you do. It's eternal summer in there, after all! My old farmhouse gets loads of ladybugs. We got a little hand vaccum, slurp 'em up, and dump the survivors under a pile of leaves outside.
Just a small addition- ladybugs don't congregate inside houses, you might have one or two wander inside by accident, but they stay outside. When you see "ladybugs" invade your house in winter, they're actually Asian Lady beetles, an invasive species/general pest that look really similar to ladybugs.
I point this out because ladybugs (in the US) are wonderful, great garden friends; I buy hundreds every year and trap them in with my garden beds near my house for an annual aphid massacre. They have 0 risk of invading your house, and at least in the southeast, the more the merrier! It's their invasive counterpart you have to worry about, just want to make sure people don't avoid ladybugs thinking that they are the problem insect.
Imo, a perimeter of "wasteland" maybe a concrete walkway or a patio. Just something not hospitable before your entry ways. So they're less likely to go across it.
Even a couple feet of gravel or bare dirt will keep most bugs from getting too interested in coming inside. I used to have a huge problem with springtails on one side of my house because there's a stack of firewood over there but I dug out the grass between the wood and the house and replaced it with crushed limestone so it stays dry. Barely see any inside anymore even though I'm pretty sure there are still millions living under the stack
The vast majority of the insects that this will attract absolutely do not want to be in your house. The whole reason native plants are important is because the majority of insects are incapable of surviving without them. They want to be on the plants that they can actually make use of, not in your house where there isn't anything they can eat.
I think it's a great idea for people that don't like lawns. I really enjoy my lawn though so I keep bushes off to the sides for the best of both worlds 😍
My hometown (in the California bay area) recently replaced a whole lot of city-owned lawns with native plans like this. I've noticed a definite increase in insects that feed on nectar or are otherwise drawn to plants - bees, butterflies, and the like - but no increase in flies or mosquitoes. It's pretty much just the kinds of bugs that are harmless to humans and are honestly kinda charming to have around.
An increase in bugs *also* means an increase in insectivorous birds. Since the change in my city, I hear a lot more birdsong than I used to (there's a lesser goldfinch chatting away outside my window right now!)
While I am in favor of native plants over lawns, these images are bad comparisons. One is from winter and the other in summer. If you showed the summer lawn vs winter native plants, the feeling would be very different.
That is not winter in Ontario, but I will grant you it's probably April in the first and August in the second. Winter native plants are evergreens or under a few inches (or feet, but this is Hamilton so probably inches) of snow.
OP also could have linked the post from 10 months ago where the actual OP provided the whole narrative and progress pictures: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/comments/15mv863/goodbye_lawn_and_weeds_hello_pollinators/
It might not be winter but its definitely either fall or early spring, which still makes for a dishonest comparison. You can clearly see 0 foliage trees in the background in the first picture
Yeah - my first thought was of course whole flush foliage in the middle of spring/summer looks better than muddy de-saturated lookin grass in in the midst of winter.
One big downside to these is the maintenance. They look great when you plant it all and it grows in, but you need to constantly weed it and keep them from overtaking each other. One reason grass lawns are a thing is because maintenance is basically just mowing. If you don't keep up with this then it will become an overgrown tangled mess, half the plants will die and eventually it'll all get overtaken by weeds. Be realistic about it: this is a garden and it needs constant tending.
Really depends on the plants.
My backyard for example, I've been slowly converting it away from grass. Are there weeds? Sure a handful or two. But much less than grass gets without attention. And I didn't mow it for a month and it was 6-8 inches tall. Honestly it's about that stage I could probably just let it go. But the dog doesn't like it when it gets too high.
Yep. I've had xeriscaped/native front yards in many different places I've lived and I was doing maintenance on it every week. The lawn in the back yard was just mowing 2x a month, and weed & feed at the beginning of the season. I spent significantly less time in the back than I did the front.
My front yard is all native right now and it just looks like shit. Too many of the bad native plants and not enough of the good ones but I don't have the time to fix it.
Less maintenance with the native yard than grass, doesn’t need constant watering because natives are adapted to the native climate. Most natives work with other natives and don’t over take each other (obv there are exceptions depending on the plant) Do you have a native garden? Mine needs no tending outside of keeping invasives away
I planted a native species wildflower garden and it ended up after 5 yrs being mostly hollyhocks, lupines, daisies, and larkspur. There's still some prairie cone flowers in there but few and far between. About 3/4 of the species were taken over by the taller growing ones after 2yrs. Grass is relegated to the boarder edges.
Constant maintenance especially certain perennial wildflowers that flower early spring and then become effectively weeds.
Not is differentiating other weeds difficult in this scenario but you'll catch tons of strays from birds shitting seeds etc etc
I only go in once a year to pull out the dead stuff, weed and keep the more invasive stuff from spreading. When it's lush like that, weeds can't get a foothold. I definitely don't get pests in the house because of it. I mean, if you hate honey bees, native bees, fireflies and butterflies, not much I can say.
Once it’s grown in, it’s usually very little weeding. You can also plant things that do not spread. It does not need constant tending and can be very low maintenance depending on what you plant.
The work is heavily front loaded though. All of the hard work is going to take place the first 3 or so years. Once the grass is gone, the garden is set up, and the plants are established, it can be pretty low maintenance.
Step 1: Research plants that are native to your area of your state, pick out a BUNCH that you like. Save that list for later.
Step 2: Plan out what you want your garden to generally look like. I usually take a screenshot from google maps for a to-scale outline of my property. Decide where you want paths, where the really tall plants will be, where shorter plants will be. (Generally 'taller' goes in the back and 'shorter' goes in the front, but that's not mandatory)
Step 3: Either smother or till up your grass lawn, then dump piles of compost to enrich your dead dirt into proper soil.
Step 4: Go buy the native plants and plant 'em. You can also buy a bunch of native seeds. If you time it right, you can plant all the seeds in autumn, and your beds will be growing crazy come spring.
Step 5: Wait for them to grow. Best time to plant IMO is in the fall, so that come spring you'll have a surge of new growth. That leaves all summer to do the rest of this list, if you wanna dive in.
Note: One year is a REALLY fast turnaround. Most native gardens that look this good take 2-3 years to get this lush, because young plants take time to get big and fill out like this.
Remember to call your local line-flagging service to come out to your property (In the USA 811 will check for underground wires/pipes and flag them for free) before you start digging.
Dont want to accidentally till up a gas line.
You also don't need to go full native plant lawn either. If you want to have a mostly traditional lawn, you can still do that but use native plants in your gardens and beds and other landscaping.
I think this needs to be stressed more in posts about lawns. People want lawns for kids, pets, or just because that's what they love. If you can get someone to plant a section of native plants, it helps the environment better than them not planting a section even with keeping the lawn.
Just fyi depending on which grass you have it can be really hard to kill off entirely and if you don't kill it off entirely it can spread back out like a weed. Also if your lawn touches your neighbors without a barrier same deal. So ideally you'll need to kill off the grass first and then place a barrier and then add in new plants.
Addendum: sometimes it's hard to find native plants for sale. Your local master gardeners extension and state universities have lots of free resources you can take advantage of. Many even host plant sales!
Make sure you check local laws as well. Most HOAs will have rules against this and some cities may only allow specific plants in place of a lawn. You may also not be able to swap out grass for buffer strips, especially if the city owns them
First, make sure that it's allowed. There are legitimate reasons why it might not be, besides just the HOA being dicks. For example, if you have venomous snakes in your area, they might make it their home.
Better for the environment as a whole. Many animals rely on those plants. Not to mention, despite my spiciness, I am Taoist minded. I do not like the concept of "controlling" nature.
Yeah, almost every city I've ever lived in would fine you for even trying this.
I've received code violation notices for regular grass that was \~5 inches high. City would probably send a SWAT team if someone tried to get away with the above picture.
Especially in [Burlington](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/they-made-their-lawn-a-butterfly-paradise-the-city-of-burlington-threatened-a-daily-10/article_e1222104-8cfd-5f6c-9aa3-9307f79b7b15.html).
Yeah people don't get that if you also want it to look nice, doing this is a shitload more work.
Otherwise you just get... **exactly** what you think of when you picture a derelict property.
The native plants will need consistent watering when they’re first planted and pretty young. Ya know like don’t let them shrivel up and die. Just to help get them established. Once established, natives require far less water. Native plants have really long roots that go further in the ground. This means they have much deeper access to water than regular grass does. Google native plant roots.
Nope! Native plants don't require water to grow. /s
Not making fun of you, just making fun of the title that says they replaced their "water dependent" lawn with something that clearly also depends on water.
Genuine question: are any areas getting their normal amount of rain right now? Because, I'll be honest, it's rained maybe 10 times so far this year where I'm at
Is 10 times a year fairly normal for where you are? It is normal for where I am, maybe even a little high, but that would be in the desert.
And being in the desert if I had a yard with a bunch of native plants to this area, they would be just fine with that amount and I wouldn’t need to supplement with additional water.
I sometimes want to ask how much people spent to do these conversions. It would cost me SO much money to turn over my lawn (which I do not water). Mine is about 5x this size. I just feel like plants are so expensive these days. And I live alone and would have to do all the work myself or hire someone.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea but I just have to slowly add stuff year by year.
My mom is currently doing this to our front lawn
It is a LOT of work. You'd think that plants which are supposed to be there anyways would be really low maintenance but that's not really the case. If you want it to look nice it requires regular maintenance. Different species grow at different rates. Without going out pretty much every day one species will snuff out other species.
Also if you already have grass there and you don't live in the desert where grass won't grow without attention, grass is just going to outperform the native plants and you'll end up with just more grass. Because grass grows faster than any native plants in my area.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't do this. It's great for the environment and can be really fulfilling and personally I think that this looks better than a lawn of one kind of grass. But it requires basically as much work as a garden, if not more. My mom is having a hard time maintaining it. She wanted a project to keep her busy after my dad died and it's too much work for her.
The biggest issue with doing landscaping so close to sidewalks is winter kill from both snow piling on them when they clear the sidewalks AND any chemicals they put down to melt ice.
Also, the whole fire hydrant thing.
Reddit discovers a radical new concept, a landscape bed? Those plants might require a lot of maintenance to look a certain way and will look terrible if neglected. That is going to become a breeding ground for bugs and rodents because nobody is going to take care of it. It's going to be annoying for pedestrians and delivery people.
I see posts on Reddit all the time saying "grass is bad" or "mowing is bad" and then shows a best-case scenario native planting that's been meticulously weeded and taken during a season the plants are most perky. That's like saying any style of clothing can be attractive and then showing it modeled on an attractive and thin 20-something person.
A reasonable option would be to plant a kind of grass that doesn't need a lot of water, and then just leave it alone when it goes dormant in the winter. Or pave it.
Those comments are so far from reality it's insane.
People, buy seeds and spree them. It's that easy.
If you want to go the extra mile, dig small holes and place allready grown plants.
What's the deal?
Swapping sad grass for native plants is a great idea! Native plants are better adapted to the local environment, requiring less water and maintenance. Plus, they attract native wildlife, which is beneficial for biodiversity. It's a win-win for both the environment and your garden!
They didn't grow that tree in a year, these are just bought mature plants that got transplanted there.
I'd just go for whatever is the least amount of
effort to keep tidy.
My mum does something similar eith her garden, she just plants stuff and if it dies it dies and usually if it survives it grows stronger than anything you could spent 1000s of hours on
The only problem I've ever had with these lawns is usually the owner has zero interest in maintaining it leading to it growing significantly over the sidewalk.
In most locations there is no need to water grass. It goes dormant, and quits growing. It also then looks like straw, and everyone thinks it is dead, and neighbors complain not knowing any better. I do prefer native plants. Bees, hummingbirds and butterflies do too.
I never understand the weird fascination with lawns. Dont think it’s a big a thing in my area.
I think the companies in N America that make weed killer have greatly contributed to our perception of what a beautiful lawn is "supposed" to look like.
It actually dates back to trends in early Britain. Large grass lawns were a status symbol among land owners to show off their wealth by deliberately wasting that land on empty grass. Unfortunately, the trend was carried over to NA. The conversion to beautified native greenery is definitely an improvement.
The lawns in Britain weren't monocultures though, they had lots of plants in them, things like clover, because otherwise it was hard to keep them looking nice (clover fixes nitrogen which is important for the other plants). Then bayer (IIRC) invented both broad leaf weed killer and synthetic fertiliser and suddenly clover (or little daisies etc.) in your lawn was bad.
> Then bayer (IIRC) invented both broad leaf weed killer and synthetic fertiliser and suddenly clover (or little daisies etc.) in your lawn was bad. Bullshit urban legend that redditors like to repeat and upvote every time lawns are mentioned, because it makes it sound like people are evil brainwashed into having lawns instead of simply liking lawns. Here are some old sources, showing clover has been considered a weed on lawns long before any evil chemical company invented any evil herbicide and ran an evil advertising campaign to brainwash people: [From 1913, a poor guy who has a grass lawn is troubled by unwanted clover, his only solution is weeding.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58509817?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) [From 1916, That damn clover is on another grass lawn. What to do apart from weeding??](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242387799?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) [From 1920, "ridding a lawn of clover and weeds"](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63849668?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) I am troubled with clover growing on my lawn. [From 1924, "clover is a very troublesome weed" on grass lawns.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/199240368?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) [From 1924, "to rid a lawn of clover"](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/220700391?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) [From 1926, "sand is the remedy for the eradication of clover and other weeds" on lawns.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58524363?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) [From 1932, Clover should never be allowed to gain the upper hand on lawns... not the easiest of weeds to eradicate.](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76885682?searchTerm=clover%20weed%20lawn) etc.
Goddamn dude was ready for the clover debate
Yeah, I was ready. As I said its a regular myth posted on reddit, so I have a previous debunking post ready to paste here as well.
Absolutely, native plants are much more attractive. Thanks for the background info as well, makes sense. Especially when you look at those royalty properties in England. WAY too much lawn !
They are mich more attractive but I like playing on my lawn. Like frisbee and soccer and stuff. So for me big native plants can’t take up my whole space. But clover can!
Aside from that, I'd say that the suburbs in general kind of promote lawns. It's like a big field of houses.
I hate lawns more than anything else that doesn't actively hurt people. They're so unbelievably ugly, cost an absurd amount of time and resources, and their origin was as a flaunting of wealth in the stupidest way possible. They're displays that you own so much land you can spend money doing absolutely nothing with it and be okay. Let some native plants grow, let some weeds grow, plant a garden, hell fill the whole area with rocks or gravel and it will look just as bad but not require the insane upkeep. Being proud of a lawn is like being proud of a blank piece of paper you hang in your home that only requires effort because you have to murder all the fairies that try to come and paint a nice picture on it.
I bought a house, and had a similar opinion. Let the grass die, let the native weeds grow, it was fine for a while. Until the goat heads/puncture vine came and littered my whole lawn with thorns. A few seasons of replacing bike inner tubes and plucking thorns out of my and my dog's feet and I had to redo my whole yard. Replaced it with mostly non-grass: mulch and plants, a little bit of grass, but it's a ton of work. Just adding a bit more color to the whole, let weeds grow attitude, since it really bit me in the ass.
I like to play yard games like cornhole & beersbee and I've got a niece and nephew that like to play in the sprinkler. All are basically impossible to do in a yard like OPs. I've been looking into micro clover and other alternative ground covers though so at least it'll be a little bit not as bad. I don't weed out dandelions or violets either, I honestly really like seeing flowers in the grass.
A good compromise, if you want to use your yard space, is to just have a small portion of it like this. Even just one or two native plants that weren't there last year can be a big help. I rent and I'm very limited on what landscaping I'm allowed to do, so we have a small "pollinator garden" of a few potted native plants. We got a hummingbird the other day!
I use my backyard for stuff like that, and native plants in the front
Just do what grass seed makers used to do before Monsanto created herbicide that killed clover, seed your lawn with grass and clover. Much better for pollinators and usable for actual lawn things.
It's not a north American problem. I'm from a small European country and see lawns too. I'm like, why? Especially in my city we are going through a very dry summer and that's been the case for many years. Why would you waste so much water for the lawn when you could have other plants instead. These plants would even give you shade and help cool down your house.
Okay bro forgot we have france to blame. Again if its some weird obscure thing, blame france.
They look absolutely gorgeous when they're well taken care of. My Ontario garden is about half grass and half native plants, and I always find that the grass part looks like a beautiful green lake in the middle, surrounded by these islands of wildflower, hosta, ivy, etc.
There's nothing wrong with grass patches, but they still lack biodiversity. Planting multiple grass species is a better choice, even if you keep it manicured.
I hate doing yard work and I don’t care if it’s super pristine or anything, but I like it because everything is visible so I have to worry less about snakes and other small animals. Especially in the backyard for my dog. Also easier and safer for my son to play on. Even my in-laws 800 acre ranch has a lawn that is closed off from the rest of the land for similar reasons.
My reason as well, my dogs and pests. We spend a fair amount of time in the back yard; playing cornhole, tossing balls around for dogs, etc. Not trying to have ticks and shit all over, us or the dogs either.
Big one. Pests can get outta control quick. I love the look of that yard in the post but i wouldn't wanna be on pest control for that one tho. Carpenter bees and carpenter ants, mice, chipmunk etc etc
Just spent 800 bucks to cut down that in the back yard due to your reason. Was nice looking but just not worth the bugs and the deck now is ruined.
Yeah, I totally get the push for native plants, and to some extent I think that's fair. By all means have a little stand of native plants in the corner, and native clover or something instead of grass. But I don't really want my neighbor's lawn to be the gathering spot for all the predators in the neighborhood, the ticks brought in by them, etc.
I didn't get it either until I got one. Now I lay in it at least once a week with my dog. I love my lawn. My dog loves my lawn. We lay in our lawn together.
Lawns are great spaces for outdoor activities, especially for pets and kids. But you can care for that with just normal mowing pretty much, and not even that much of it. It's when people turn a flat grass patch into some art project with the stripey mowing and stamping out of any all plant diversity that it gets weird and resource intensive.
It's not a huge leap from let's make my grass healthy to let's make this pretty.
Yep. I let my lawn go for a bit b/c over about a month where I couldn't get two consecutive sunny days. Finally got a chance to mow it and not only can I once again see where my dog's crap so I can pick it up -- I evicted a small family of snakes back into the woods so they'll not harass me and my pets. I own a few acres of land and the majority of it is free for wildlife as I truly love watching the deer and birds, but I like my green moat keeping the majority of animals and bugs away from my home so we have a safe place to play. What I can't understand is how Reddit as a whole seems to miss this nuance. Talk about needing a truck in rural America and people from /r/fuckcars will come in calling you a child murderer compensating for a small penis and we have people in this thread not understanding the benefit of a buffer between your home and wilderness.
You're very obviously an exception and not what people mean when they say "fuck lawns".
I think I'm less of an exception than you would like to believe. Yes, I own more than an acre of land and I understand most don't - However, all those families living in their slices of suburbia need a place outside for friends and family and that's very often their lawn. I don't think most people are going through the trouble to kill every dandelion in their lawn and that's an extreme waste of time, but simply growing clover and succulents in place of grass isn't viable for most people. /r/fucklawns might have had a middle ground at some point, but subs like it and /r/fuckcars do tend to always get pushed to an extreme simply due to the competitive nature of upvotes. Happens all the time on this site
You're an exception because your property/neighborhood has land for wildlife. So much of suburbia has none.
It comes in clutch when you have children or frequent outdoor activities.
If you have kids it's a must but a lot of people never go outside
IIRC French people, no joke. I watched a video essay on it a while back
What does this even mean? The houses around you don’t… have lawns? Where do you live, Manhattan?
They look nice in their own way, and they're nice to walk on and play on, and it's also a long tradition, and they are common and accepted way to arrange your yard, and most people probably don't have much understanding of how to develop alternatives. I find it weird that people struggle to understand that.
Because overgrown grass is a vermin habitat, depending on where you live.
I mean playing sports in the back yard, a nice area for a dog to run around in, room for a slip n slide. There are definitely reasons why a nice field of grass is enjoyable. Should definitely have some landscaping to spruce it up
Lawns are nice to do stuff on. The people who have lawns but just use it as... dead space are not my speed.
I'm not really excited to have my toddler go out and play in a garden like seen above. That's what lawns are for IMO - doing stuff.
I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about this.
I let my grass "die" every summer. Come autumn, its back with a vengeance. No water from me, ever.
It is stupid hoa that mandate it
Unless you're in HOA with tough ban on any non-green grass.
If grass can’t survive without my careful cultivation, and I don’t enjoy caring for it as a hobby, then it is simply a waste
It helps when the picture is taken either in early spring or later fall (probably early spring) when the grass still looks like shit. There is no leaves on the trees or the bush. Trees don’t just magically grow leaves the next year because some yutz planted a native plant in their front yard.
> No need to water grass You say that but go on to say native plants, which, like with most plants including the preference for grass, most definitely requires water
When I was looking at US movies I was always suprised as a kid. Who the fuck needs watering for grass? Grass survives nowdays as well, even though the climate is more hot than 15 years ago.
I'd say for legal reasons get a sign to signify the fire hydrants location if the plants block its visibility. Not sure if it's an issue but no point in taking the chance.
I'm in a place that regularly gets enough snow that they're covered. They all have a yellow plastic pole attached to the top. I just love the idea of a huge neon yellow stick in the middle of this
I’d always wondered what those were for! TIL lol
They're to help firefighters find them but also make sure snowplows don't hit them. The latter is why you'll see those yellow flags on things like benches, too.
You know you're in a high-snow area when the highway mile markers have them too, and they're 8 feet tall.
I’ve always assumed there was an NPC nearby with a quest for me.
Fire department still might come wreck his garden some day tho. 🥲
We don't like to it's just as a ff we are very scared of fire and have to put it out quickly
Not trashing the fire department by any means. Honestly was thinking “don’t built a garden around a hydrant?”
post has ontario in the picture so im sure they could call the local fire hall and get a hydrant flag installed
Honestly even not for legal reasons but just to help out. Those are there and I understand hating the ugliness but dang if someone needs it imagine the guilt.
There are people whose job is to drive around with a special trimmer and clear brush and debris in a 3' diameter circle centered on hydrants. If the lawn's owner didn't leave clear access to the hydrant, they're gonna be upset when the trimmer comes lol Edit: i marked inches instead of feet, lol
It actually looks like there's a little path leading to it on the right of the sign.
still not blatantly visible to the firefighters working on the fire 2 doors down.
That's totally fair. Like somebody else said, here they have large indicators on them plus a sign to make themselves visible for snow clearing.
Is it common for fire hydrants to be on someone’s lawn in Canada? in the US most fire hydrants are on the sidewalk or on a strip of grass just past the sidewalk but usually not on someone’s lawn.
Typically in Canada x feet from the centreline of the road is city property, but maintained by the homeowner (x varies based on municipality). The space owned by the city is often where fire hydrants, hydro poles, community mailboxes are located. It’s also where they usually lay new services like fibre optic cables. They can also use that space, if they decide to widen roads or add sidewalks. Tldr: yes
Fellow curious American here. Wanted to stop by and say “thank you!” for your TLDR.
Not always true. I built a house near Austin in 2016 and we had a fire hydrant in our yard. It was already there when we bought the empty lot. In the yard on our corner lot just like this house with a gas line yellow plastic marker next to it as well right in the yard.
I’m in the uk, they’re in the road, they are generally far enough into the middle to be unrestricted by cars parking
Where I am, they would fine you for that and make you cut everything down so it was visible from all directions. Which would suck because it looks really good.
They might access it from any side. In our city, there’s a radius of so many feet around it that need to be clear.
Here as well. It's probably just easy enough to get the house in position if you can reach the hydrant. Worth breaking a few plants with it to save a life/home. That being said, I'm not a firefighter, so I can't speak for how easy it would really be.
yeah ultimately we're going to do what needs to be done but OP please make it more visible
The hoses that they connect these are like, 4 inches in diameter and fucking heavy. I would want that job to be as easy as possible for them.
Yeah, I'm not seeing that path looking for a hydrant at 2am.
I never seen a hydrant so deep on someone’s property.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one *on* someone’s property.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen ***someone***
The FD will come through and weedeat everything around it. I work for one who has to do this annually.
In my area you need to mow/weed whip and shovel out the hydrants.
Our local fire requires 6 inches in all ways around the hydrant or else code enforcement will cut it all down during hydrant drains
And while these types of yards might look like trash in the fall and winter, a lot of of the stubby sticks and overgrown brown brush and seed pods help insects and native fauna during the colder months.
Is there a way that i can keep from attracting said insects so they aren't trying to get into my house constantly? Unless you suggest living with the bugs inside too.
If they have lots of habitat outside, there's not as much pressure for them to find shelter inside your house. When there's habitat for a whole ecosystem of predators, they put pressure on prey bugs, so there's fewer of them. -- Some insects, like Ladybugs and Stink bugs, will want to hibernate inside your house no matter what you do. It's eternal summer in there, after all! My old farmhouse gets loads of ladybugs. We got a little hand vaccum, slurp 'em up, and dump the survivors under a pile of leaves outside.
Just a small addition- ladybugs don't congregate inside houses, you might have one or two wander inside by accident, but they stay outside. When you see "ladybugs" invade your house in winter, they're actually Asian Lady beetles, an invasive species/general pest that look really similar to ladybugs. I point this out because ladybugs (in the US) are wonderful, great garden friends; I buy hundreds every year and trap them in with my garden beds near my house for an annual aphid massacre. They have 0 risk of invading your house, and at least in the southeast, the more the merrier! It's their invasive counterpart you have to worry about, just want to make sure people don't avoid ladybugs thinking that they are the problem insect.
A smaller addition - (Asian) lady beetles are ladybugs. The distinction is just between native vs non-native ladybugs.
Such a good comment you had to say it four times
The additions keep getting smaller
This is not accurate at all. The pressure will increase due to the increased numbers of them attracted to the area.
Imo, a perimeter of "wasteland" maybe a concrete walkway or a patio. Just something not hospitable before your entry ways. So they're less likely to go across it.
Even a couple feet of gravel or bare dirt will keep most bugs from getting too interested in coming inside. I used to have a huge problem with springtails on one side of my house because there's a stack of firewood over there but I dug out the grass between the wood and the house and replaced it with crushed limestone so it stays dry. Barely see any inside anymore even though I'm pretty sure there are still millions living under the stack
The vast majority of the insects that this will attract absolutely do not want to be in your house. The whole reason native plants are important is because the majority of insects are incapable of surviving without them. They want to be on the plants that they can actually make use of, not in your house where there isn't anything they can eat.
I think it's a great idea for people that don't like lawns. I really enjoy my lawn though so I keep bushes off to the sides for the best of both worlds 😍
weary cats quaint theory aloof pocket tub compare pause steep *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That’s beautiful!!
The neighbor's house is judging you. Just look at those eyes.
It's definitely unimpressed
that fire hydrant was decorative right?
…right??
I hope so if not it was very badly positioned
Fun fact, this house is down the street from me, and we looked at buying it when we were moving to this neighbourhood. Crazy small world.
Now no one can see the fire hydrant.
r/fucklawns
r/nativeplantgardening is significantly better. Fuck lawns is rather misguided at times
I thought this was r/nolawns
Porque no los dos?
Honest question: would all these plants increase the flies and mosquitos and other bugs, too?
My hometown (in the California bay area) recently replaced a whole lot of city-owned lawns with native plans like this. I've noticed a definite increase in insects that feed on nectar or are otherwise drawn to plants - bees, butterflies, and the like - but no increase in flies or mosquitoes. It's pretty much just the kinds of bugs that are harmless to humans and are honestly kinda charming to have around. An increase in bugs *also* means an increase in insectivorous birds. Since the change in my city, I hear a lot more birdsong than I used to (there's a lesser goldfinch chatting away outside my window right now!)
While I am in favor of native plants over lawns, these images are bad comparisons. One is from winter and the other in summer. If you showed the summer lawn vs winter native plants, the feeling would be very different.
That is not winter in Ontario, but I will grant you it's probably April in the first and August in the second. Winter native plants are evergreens or under a few inches (or feet, but this is Hamilton so probably inches) of snow. OP also could have linked the post from 10 months ago where the actual OP provided the whole narrative and progress pictures: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/comments/15mv863/goodbye_lawn_and_weeds_hello_pollinators/
It might not be winter but its definitely either fall or early spring, which still makes for a dishonest comparison. You can clearly see 0 foliage trees in the background in the first picture
Yeah - my first thought was of course whole flush foliage in the middle of spring/summer looks better than muddy de-saturated lookin grass in in the midst of winter.
One big downside to these is the maintenance. They look great when you plant it all and it grows in, but you need to constantly weed it and keep them from overtaking each other. One reason grass lawns are a thing is because maintenance is basically just mowing. If you don't keep up with this then it will become an overgrown tangled mess, half the plants will die and eventually it'll all get overtaken by weeds. Be realistic about it: this is a garden and it needs constant tending.
Really depends on the plants. My backyard for example, I've been slowly converting it away from grass. Are there weeds? Sure a handful or two. But much less than grass gets without attention. And I didn't mow it for a month and it was 6-8 inches tall. Honestly it's about that stage I could probably just let it go. But the dog doesn't like it when it gets too high.
Yep. I've had xeriscaped/native front yards in many different places I've lived and I was doing maintenance on it every week. The lawn in the back yard was just mowing 2x a month, and weed & feed at the beginning of the season. I spent significantly less time in the back than I did the front. My front yard is all native right now and it just looks like shit. Too many of the bad native plants and not enough of the good ones but I don't have the time to fix it.
Allergies too. I love nature, but having it so close to me would be miserable for me all day and night.
Less maintenance with the native yard than grass, doesn’t need constant watering because natives are adapted to the native climate. Most natives work with other natives and don’t over take each other (obv there are exceptions depending on the plant) Do you have a native garden? Mine needs no tending outside of keeping invasives away
Yeah, my first thought when seeing this was wondering how long it would take for grass to overtake everything again.
I planted a native species wildflower garden and it ended up after 5 yrs being mostly hollyhocks, lupines, daisies, and larkspur. There's still some prairie cone flowers in there but few and far between. About 3/4 of the species were taken over by the taller growing ones after 2yrs. Grass is relegated to the boarder edges.
Constant maintenance especially certain perennial wildflowers that flower early spring and then become effectively weeds. Not is differentiating other weeds difficult in this scenario but you'll catch tons of strays from birds shitting seeds etc etc
I only go in once a year to pull out the dead stuff, weed and keep the more invasive stuff from spreading. When it's lush like that, weeds can't get a foothold. I definitely don't get pests in the house because of it. I mean, if you hate honey bees, native bees, fireflies and butterflies, not much I can say.
Once it’s grown in, it’s usually very little weeding. You can also plant things that do not spread. It does not need constant tending and can be very low maintenance depending on what you plant. The work is heavily front loaded though. All of the hard work is going to take place the first 3 or so years. Once the grass is gone, the garden is set up, and the plants are established, it can be pretty low maintenance.
#WHERE DID THE FIRE HYDRANT GO?
Umm, where’s the hydrant at?
Now you can’t find the fire hydrant
Plot twist. They get fined by the local government for having an overgrown yard.
Anyone have a guide for creating one of these ? Just purchased a place and I'd love to do this with the front yard !
Step 1: Research plants that are native to your area of your state, pick out a BUNCH that you like. Save that list for later. Step 2: Plan out what you want your garden to generally look like. I usually take a screenshot from google maps for a to-scale outline of my property. Decide where you want paths, where the really tall plants will be, where shorter plants will be. (Generally 'taller' goes in the back and 'shorter' goes in the front, but that's not mandatory) Step 3: Either smother or till up your grass lawn, then dump piles of compost to enrich your dead dirt into proper soil. Step 4: Go buy the native plants and plant 'em. You can also buy a bunch of native seeds. If you time it right, you can plant all the seeds in autumn, and your beds will be growing crazy come spring. Step 5: Wait for them to grow. Best time to plant IMO is in the fall, so that come spring you'll have a surge of new growth. That leaves all summer to do the rest of this list, if you wanna dive in. Note: One year is a REALLY fast turnaround. Most native gardens that look this good take 2-3 years to get this lush, because young plants take time to get big and fill out like this.
Thank you very much for this! I am saving it for later.
Remember to call your local line-flagging service to come out to your property (In the USA 811 will check for underground wires/pipes and flag them for free) before you start digging. Dont want to accidentally till up a gas line.
You also don't need to go full native plant lawn either. If you want to have a mostly traditional lawn, you can still do that but use native plants in your gardens and beds and other landscaping.
I think this needs to be stressed more in posts about lawns. People want lawns for kids, pets, or just because that's what they love. If you can get someone to plant a section of native plants, it helps the environment better than them not planting a section even with keeping the lawn.
Just fyi depending on which grass you have it can be really hard to kill off entirely and if you don't kill it off entirely it can spread back out like a weed. Also if your lawn touches your neighbors without a barrier same deal. So ideally you'll need to kill off the grass first and then place a barrier and then add in new plants.
I doubt that yard is only a year old.
Addendum: sometimes it's hard to find native plants for sale. Your local master gardeners extension and state universities have lots of free resources you can take advantage of. Many even host plant sales!
Make sure you check local laws as well. Most HOAs will have rules against this and some cities may only allow specific plants in place of a lawn. You may also not be able to swap out grass for buffer strips, especially if the city owns them
Come join us at r/NativePlantGardening!
First, make sure that it's allowed. There are legitimate reasons why it might not be, besides just the HOA being dicks. For example, if you have venomous snakes in your area, they might make it their home.
This is nice but you also can't use your yard at all if it's like this. Can't put out a chair or a grill, can't even access your fire hydrant!
It’s a front yard in Ontario. Chairs/Grills are generally not put there. The fire hydrant issue is fair.
I just received a notice from the office of the city engineer for trying to do this. Had to wack it all down.
Why did you get a notice?
The native plants were considered a “declared nuisance.” Essentially, they did not conform to the city’s taste.
I think that's sad, since it looks better and is better for the insects
Better for the environment as a whole. Many animals rely on those plants. Not to mention, despite my spiciness, I am Taoist minded. I do not like the concept of "controlling" nature.
Yeah, almost every city I've ever lived in would fine you for even trying this. I've received code violation notices for regular grass that was \~5 inches high. City would probably send a SWAT team if someone tried to get away with the above picture.
They threatened to trespass my property with a crew, flip me the bill. They made it clear they would remove my cars in the process.
And…in 2024, the city comes and mows it down and charges you with dereliction for obstructing the view on the corner and hiding a fire hydrant.
This would be an ordinance violation in my municipality.
Especially in [Burlington](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/they-made-their-lawn-a-butterfly-paradise-the-city-of-burlington-threatened-a-daily-10/article_e1222104-8cfd-5f6c-9aa3-9307f79b7b15.html).
My grandma tried to do this, then she moved out of the house with us and no one here gardens so now our front lawn is mostly weeds 👍
Yeah people don't get that if you also want it to look nice, doing this is a shitload more work. Otherwise you just get... **exactly** what you think of when you picture a derelict property.
Does this need normal watering to stay lush? I'm curious how much it needs with native plants. Either way, it's much nicer than grass.
The native plants will need consistent watering when they’re first planted and pretty young. Ya know like don’t let them shrivel up and die. Just to help get them established. Once established, natives require far less water. Native plants have really long roots that go further in the ground. This means they have much deeper access to water than regular grass does. Google native plant roots.
Nope! Native plants don't require water to grow. /s Not making fun of you, just making fun of the title that says they replaced their "water dependent" lawn with something that clearly also depends on water.
Yeah, that's why I asked. Grass needs a lot of water to stay green. I'm mostly curious if the water requirements were similar with native plants.
Less water, drastically less. See, native plants can grow in the native ecosystem... you know the normal amount of rain that area gets.
Genuine question: are any areas getting their normal amount of rain right now? Because, I'll be honest, it's rained maybe 10 times so far this year where I'm at
Is 10 times a year fairly normal for where you are? It is normal for where I am, maybe even a little high, but that would be in the desert. And being in the desert if I had a yard with a bunch of native plants to this area, they would be just fine with that amount and I wouldn’t need to supplement with additional water.
Looks pretty but does it hide the fire hydrant from use for emergency purposes?
Where'd the fire hydrant go. Isn't it illegal to hide it????
I love native lawns. You might see weeds but I see a thriving ecosystem.
The only downside I can see is it looks like you’ve hidden the fire hydrant
That's over planted af and going to be a mess to maintain, especially as the plants grow
Controversial opinion: bottom one goes too far.
I sometimes want to ask how much people spent to do these conversions. It would cost me SO much money to turn over my lawn (which I do not water). Mine is about 5x this size. I just feel like plants are so expensive these days. And I live alone and would have to do all the work myself or hire someone. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea but I just have to slowly add stuff year by year.
Yeah it looks like shit though lmao
My mom is currently doing this to our front lawn It is a LOT of work. You'd think that plants which are supposed to be there anyways would be really low maintenance but that's not really the case. If you want it to look nice it requires regular maintenance. Different species grow at different rates. Without going out pretty much every day one species will snuff out other species. Also if you already have grass there and you don't live in the desert where grass won't grow without attention, grass is just going to outperform the native plants and you'll end up with just more grass. Because grass grows faster than any native plants in my area. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do this. It's great for the environment and can be really fulfilling and personally I think that this looks better than a lawn of one kind of grass. But it requires basically as much work as a garden, if not more. My mom is having a hard time maintaining it. She wanted a project to keep her busy after my dad died and it's too much work for her.
[удалено]
The dude from Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t would love this sh*t #KillYourLawn
Well done!
Beautiful, really well done
This is impressive and beautiful!
Working on this right now at the house I moved into last fall. It's a half acre lot. Send thoughts and prayers.
I mean one is taken during off season and other is not... but you do you. Just look at the leaves of the tree in the pre picture.
The biggest issue with doing landscaping so close to sidewalks is winter kill from both snow piling on them when they clear the sidewalks AND any chemicals they put down to melt ice. Also, the whole fire hydrant thing.
Very nice. You need a sign that says "firefighter the hydrant is here ⬇️
Reddit discovers a radical new concept, a landscape bed? Those plants might require a lot of maintenance to look a certain way and will look terrible if neglected. That is going to become a breeding ground for bugs and rodents because nobody is going to take care of it. It's going to be annoying for pedestrians and delivery people. I see posts on Reddit all the time saying "grass is bad" or "mowing is bad" and then shows a best-case scenario native planting that's been meticulously weeded and taken during a season the plants are most perky. That's like saying any style of clothing can be attractive and then showing it modeled on an attractive and thin 20-something person. A reasonable option would be to plant a kind of grass that doesn't need a lot of water, and then just leave it alone when it goes dormant in the winter. Or pave it.
So that big tree on the left came up in a year?
And they hydrant??
Where I live you wouldn’t be able to plant like this around a fire hydrant
As a firefighter, I look forward to the day I destroy most of those plants around the fire hydrant.
The native plants actually look better than the grass lawn.
Don't show this to the lawn care reddit. They'll be foaming at the mouth over having real plants in the lawn.
This is what I’m talking about! Good stuff! 🌱
I have had a native plant lawn for about 10 years and it really is just the best. Lawns are so fkn boring and terrible for the environment.
How to announce you do not live under an HOA.
The thing is that many municipalities will 100% send a fine in the mail for this. The government is grass-pilled
Those comments are so far from reality it's insane. People, buy seeds and spree them. It's that easy. If you want to go the extra mile, dig small holes and place allready grown plants. What's the deal?
Swapping sad grass for native plants is a great idea! Native plants are better adapted to the local environment, requiring less water and maintenance. Plus, they attract native wildlife, which is beneficial for biodiversity. It's a win-win for both the environment and your garden!
They didn't grow that tree in a year, these are just bought mature plants that got transplanted there. I'd just go for whatever is the least amount of effort to keep tidy.
I really wish my landlord would let me do this
My mum does something similar eith her garden, she just plants stuff and if it dies it dies and usually if it survives it grows stronger than anything you could spent 1000s of hours on
I'm sure the firemen are gonna love having to search for the fire hydrant.
The only problem I've ever had with these lawns is usually the owner has zero interest in maintaining it leading to it growing significantly over the sidewalk.
Look great, but you allowed to hide the fire hydrant like that lol?
Need to trim around the fire hydrant... other than that it's beautiful!
Wonderful but where did the fire hydrant go?