No Lawns

We managed to score a bunch of slate and small boulders for free on Nextdoor. Most of the slate even matches what we already have around our garden so it’s working out perfectly. We are going to begin slowly extending the gardens out into the lawn, ripping out the sod as we go.

We had already begun planting micro clover last year, though it doesn’t seem very micro and is actually pretty large. But that is ok, it has filled in the back yard well and seems to be out-competing the ground ivy that has been plaguing us for a while. With this find though I think we will be able to get rid of all the lawn, maybe except for a small section so our kid can use the slip and slide.

Pretty excited and can’t wait to not have to mow anymore!

From the street my house looks abandoned but luckily I'm not keeping up with the Joneses

I am planning on killing my lawn and filling the area with raised beds with gravel in between the beds. I will be using the sheet mulching strategy to kill the grass. I've used this strategy successfully to prep for my existing beds. My question is this: should I put a layer of anti weed tarp before installing the gravel, or should the sheet mulching do enough to prevent weeds?

My hometown's newspaper just published an opinion piece about the disastrous effects, ecologically and financially, that lawn care causes. Not totally surprising but it's important to note that this is a retirement community in the bible belt!

Y'all, it's working! Keep spreading the word!

Obviously these plans aren't inclusive of the entire US but from what I understand they are working on adding even more garden plans to their list.

This can be beneficial if you live in any of these towns and would like to have a list or a plan for natives in your own yard and your don't know where to begin.

Just sharing this link since everyone always loves American meadows so much. The only issue I take with them is they sell seed packs that are "native to your area" and some are not.

One of our Reddit mods has said he's had great luck with Pheasant Forever as a US based option who focuses on natives for habitat restoration.

I've never used them personally but I wanted to drop it as a link since I had never heard of them before.

I've basically been letting the grass in my back yard grow all spring. Cut some paths through so my small dogs could easily navigate and small patch for my senior dog.

Then I saw the foxtails I thought I had killed were back. I started cutting the grass so I could get better access to the foxtails and my allergies went crazy. Instant runny nose, eyes burning, etc.

This has really dampened my enthusiasm. (/rant

TLDR; killing off native species as well as their food supply and habitats.

I am currently a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. I have also authored the New York Times best seller Nature’s Best Hope and I have authored and co-authored additional books such as Bringing Nature Hope, The Living Landscape, and The Nature of Oaks. In addition, I have authored over 100 research publications in my field.

I have also founded Home Grown National Park which is a grass roots whos mission is: "To regenerate biodiversity and ecosystem function because every human being on this planet needs diverse highly productive ecosystems to survive."

Here is the link to our website with the copy and paste of the AMA and here is the link to the original Reddit AMA.

Thanks for setting up the community! Came across this lovely spot near Broadway (UK). Not quite a lawn but I think it counts

Hey all, updated the sidebar description with some links :) I tried to copy the reddit wiki as best I could to a free website so if there's any issues (or continuing the protests) with reddit we still have the information.

Edit: Updated sub icon both here and reddit

It's always a work in progress but this is after 3 years. I want to extend the meadow all the way to the pond.

Hello, I am definitely no gardener, and I am a total noob to all of this. So I want to begin small. I live in Lexington, KY within the sub-region Inner Bluegrass, inside the Greater Bluegrass Area, in the Interior Plateau, of the Southeastern USA Plains, within the broader Eastern Temperate Forest eco region, in North America (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6b).

I would like to increase my lawn's benefit for pollinators. I have already planted a native oak, several native blueberries, sweet joe pye, and some goldenrod.

I have a patch that I estimate to be about 500 sq feet that I'd like to do something with. It gets both sun and shade at different times of day. I made the mistake of not cardboard sheet mulching or solarizing before sowing wildflower seeds in that strip, and now that area is overrun with narrowleaf plantain, ​geranium dissectum, veronica arvensis, and all manner of things that Picture This has trouble identifying consistently.

My question for your collective wisdom is this:

Are any of the following plants a bad idea for me to introduce into this space? Are any so aggressive that I would regret it? (Each grouping below is a different "bundle" they offer.)

Lanceleaf Coreopsis Orange Butterfly Milkweed Smooth Blue Aster Grayleaf Goldenrod

Purple Coneflower Rough Blazing Star Purple Lovegrass Downy Wood Mint

Golden Alexander Jacob's Ladder Blue Wood Aster

Narrow Leaved Sunflower
Spotted Beebalm Frostweed Blue Mistflower

Cardinal Flower Great Blue Lobelia Foxglove Beard Tongue Black Eyed Susan

The above are just options from various bundles sold at gardenforwildlife dot com.

I was also looking at a seed mix from a different seller that contained the following:

Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Bluestem Agrostis perennans - Autumn Bentgrass Chamaecrista fasciculata - Partridge Pea Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflower Gaillardia pulchella - Indian Blanket Astragalus canadensis - Canadian Milk Vetch Coreopsis lanceolata - Lanceleaf Coreopsis Rudbeckia hirta - Black-eyed Susan Coreopsis tinctoria - Plains Coreopsis Liatris spicata - Dense Blazingstar Dalea purpurea - Purple Prairie Clover Asclepias incarnata - Swamp Milkweed Asclepias speciosa - Showy Milkweed Eryngium yuccifolium -Rattlesnake Master Zizia aurea- Golden Alexanders Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Milkweed Monarda fistulosa - Wild Bergamot Tradescantia ohiensis - Ohio Spiderwort Gaillardia aristata - Blanket Flower Achillea millefolium L. var. occident - Western Yarrow Monarda citrodora - Lemon Mint Aster laevis - Smooth Aster Penstemon digitalis - Foxglove Beardtongue Penstemon tubaeflorus - White Wand Beardtongue Pycnanthemum virginianum - Virginia Mountain Mint Lobelia siphilitica - Great Lobelia Solidago nemoralis - Dwarf Goldenrod

​Is there any reason to steer clear of that seed pack?

And finally, in your opinion, should I skip the above plant bundles or seed packs and choose different landmarks to plant, and if so, what?

Hi nolawn. I just wanted to show my tiny little home project that is to allow the wild flowers to come and then one by one learn what it is. It's a a narrow strip of dirt i have on my tarrace at my appertment but I wouldn't be without it. I fenced my tarrace to keep my dog in but more importantly to keep the gartner out, since he remove "weeds" that are not allowed to grow. He straight up remove floweres from all my neighbours strips of dirt last year and I hate him so much for it. I strictly told him to let my garden be and that I'll manage it myself. This year it comming with full power and filled with wild flowers and the bees are buzzing here. It's the pretties strip in the neighborhood imo.

Some sage I planted and tte bees love it.

This below is just so sad. It's from last year. Stupid gartner... Those floweres were so pretty.

When it comes to replacing a lawn with native plants there are a few ways to prepare the site. The two main ones are de-sodding and sheet mulching. In this post I will be discussing the former.

First, here is a link to an album with photos and captions. https://imgur.com/a/0Fh2Ned

De-sodding is simply, lifting the top layer of sod off of the soil.

You might ask why this method and not others. It all comes down to personal preference. I have prepared sites either with de-sodding or sheet mulching. I have found that plants took off much faster with the de-sodding method but you may also have more weeds to contend with.

Some of you may ask, what about tilling? Tilling is almost always not recommended. When you till, you bring up many unwanted seeds out of the seed bank. It is also disrupts the soil.

Now let's get started...

Step 1: Mow your desired planting site as low as possible

Step 2: Get de-sodding! You can use a shovel, a manual device or a powered one designed for this purpose. A shovel will be very labor-intensive and not very practical for a large area. Your local hardware store may have a powered de-sodder to rent.

Step 3: Remove the sod that has now been separated from the soil. You can use shovels, try to roll it, or any other method. We used our utility tractor to scrape it off.

Step 4: Spread top soil around your new site. A nice thin, even layer will do

And that's it! If you are planting by seed you can spread it by hand or machine and gently rake it in. Seeds don't want to be buried deep, just on the surface level.

I hope this helps and please ask me any questions!

Hello, I am exploring Lemmy due to Reddit's changes, and I wanted to become more involved with Solarpunk. I volunteered to help moderate this community which will hopefully make me lurk less and contribute more. Hope everyone is doing well!

Well why would I want a boring grass mono culture yard?

This is basically how no lawns started. Over on Reddit just over 5 years ago I started no lawns after having a fun conversation with u/suuperdad about changing the boring grass lawn into some thing more native and better for the environment. On a whim I created a subreddit for it and we started with a hand full of people and now we're pretty good sized!

With the reddit blackout on, we realized this community needed to be bigger than Reddit. We already started a discord and we have an Instagram (although I'm terrible at updating it) we wanted to reach even more spaces.

I found slrpnk on accident but, it seemed to really fit with our theme and here we are!

We're anti monoculture, pro natives plants and we love a non traditional yard.

Just as the title asks, what's your dream yard if money and time weren't a concern? Would you have a pond, a prairie, a forest, a food forest or something else?

Cross post from Reddit (yes it's in blackout on the day of posting) by u/FineStein

This will become the official NoLawns Lemmy. I just have not uploaded the banner and such due to work. I'll be redirecting the Lemmy reddit link in the wiki to here.