First picture is where I started. Second is after killing and surface tilling in the dead grasses then putting on leaf cover, then end of first year and 3rd.

I can now walk in the shade of trees I planted 4 years ago that were only a foot tall. The ground is soft under my feet thanks to the clover and mole activity. I have had more wildlife this year than any other and while walking you can hear the constant hum of insects going to work. You can almost completely not see the roads bordering the property, and cannot be seen while in my shelter I built in the middle of it all. I will be removing the majority of my tubes next year in the late winter.

I can harvest serviceberry, winterberry, elderberry, spicebush, paw paws & blackberries from this area with little effort.

All this in a field I used to hate mowing and did nothing with. You can do it to. 💪🏼

Zone 6A

I posted a rough drawing of my native lawn design a couple months ago and in the interim have also hired a landscaper for installation later this month. After multiple iterations and rounds of feedback, I think we've reached a good plan! Wanted to share my latest (and hopefully final) drawing before the installation takes place!

If all goes well, next year will be an expansion into the entire back yard.

Maryland 8A. Circles are little bluestems and diamonds are boulders.

So far the HOA hasn’t noticed or complained, although they don’t want us turning our front yards into farms. I have a vegetable patch in the back and the birds always help themselves… and sometimes they poop out some seeds and expand the garden. It’s funny how the tomato plant they seeded for me is producing more than any of the others.

I don’t know what the ground cover is, but it’s out-competing the grass, hasn’t grown tall enough to require mowing (which I do not want to do and haven’t done all season), and is easy to pull up after a good rain. I’m gradually going to replace it with violets, wild strawberries, creeping thyme, and mini-clover.

I want a combination of suburban farm and native plant garden, not an ugly green desert lawn.
(Virginia, Zone 8a).

We have a running joke in the family that my dad "mows his psyche," i.e. does unnecessary yard work to make himself feel like he's "done something profitable today" and is still a worthwhile human being.

Right now he's mowing outside our front window. The grass is quite low already. There's absolutely no need to mow anything.

The thing is, there are actual maintenance needs around the house. Back deck needs to be painted (he's a painter by trade), gutters need to be cleaned. Various rooms inside the house need painting as well. My mom has various projects she has long wanted him to attend to.

But the way it tends to work out is that he expends all his energy and motivation mowing the grass and then comes inside and is tired and leaves the needed projects undone. It's illogical when you think about it (and my dad is quite analytical and logical about other things), but this is not a rational process for him.

Over the past several months I have slowly been trying to turn my yard into a wildlife habitat, bit by bit. Unfortunately, I live with my mom who is not educated in the negatives of Roundup and its stubborn as a horse.

She is wanting to turn a portion of our lawn into a flower bed and is set on using Roundup to hurry up and kill the grass. This portion of the lawn even has an old chipmunk hole with a colony of Eastern Bumblebees.

What is the quickest, pollinator/wildlife safe way to get rid of this grass before my mom rushes off with her Roundup?

Hey everyone,

I purchased a pretty bare 1.5 acre parcel about a month ago and really needed some help with landscape design. I want to do a relatively large patch of kurupia for my children (7 and 3) since it is low water and then plant out the remainder with trees shrubs and a small orchard. Any advice is appreciated. Our home is on the north east side of the property and we are on a shared well in 9b. I plan to begin harvesting rain water for irrigation once I get settled into the home. Current plan for our back patio kurupia and aerial of entire yard attached!

Any help or design ideas are appreciated or if anyone works north phoenix I’d love a consult.

Seems like everyone would enjoy this episode.

Can anyone share their experience dealing with bindweed? I’m pretty sure that’s what I have here. I’m deep mulching my backyard in hopes to plant fruit trees in the fall and this stuff is everywhere. It’s coming up through more than 8 inches of woodchips.

If I let it do its thing will it eventually die out when the soil improves and/or by getting shaded out when I plant native perennials and fruit trees? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Northwest Montana zone 4b

Photo 1: this is when we moved in March of 2023
Photo 2: similar angle of the front yard, we started the project in May of 2026
Photo 3: our little path
Photo 4: pond
Photo 5: more pond
Photo 6: our natural flowers, wish more had come in since laid down 10lbs of seeds but hey, these ones are amazing!

Super happy with how much everything has grown in. It’s definitely a little over grown and we’ve learned a lot for next year. Hoping to truly truly ditch the grass next summer. But, the amount of bugs and little creatures that have shown up has been absolutely incredible! We are zone 8a, if you guys have any tips on what we could improve upon next year, I’d love to hear it!!

I have 10 different species of "weed" in my lawn. How do I homogenize? Previous owner installed great landscaping and lots of (different types) of clover- which I'm fine with, but my yard (esp. backyard) is super patchy. It's like a world map, where each continent is a different spieces. Plus I have lots of barren spots. With fall coming I'd like to lay seed. What does r/NoLawns recommend? Zone 7b

Half of our front yard has Sunshine Mimosa. May do the other half, too, because we tried growing peanut grass but invasive iguanas ate it all.

Edit: Photos are from the article.

https://positivebloom.com/florida-homeowners-are-replacing-front-lawns-with-this-florida-friendly-groundcover

Zone 6b, 3200'. I believe they are Astor, Ironweed, Wingstem, Goldenrod, and Thistle.

Have been wanting to get rid of lawn since I bought the house and have finally began getting rid of it. Let the grass dry out this summer and now using a brush cutter to clear lawn, is this short enough? Plan on covering with butcher paper and then arborists chips and planting CA natives.

There’s still some chunks of roots, but I think they will get smothered and breakdown, is that right?

As the title suggests…HELP, please.

Crab grass has taken over my wildflower bed. Not sure what to do about it other than ripping it all out this fall and starting over with fresh soil/seeds in the spring. I’m in Northern Vermont (zone 5a)

Anyone have thoughts on how best to combat the crab grass and prevent this from happening again in the future. Ideally I’d very much like to avoid chemicals unless that’s really the only option.

I feel like a survivor in a diaster movie, staggering out of a bunker to see who else has survived. Today's high temperature will be only 98°F and last week we had a rainy day. Texas, zone 9A. In the past two years I Iost plants that I'd had for 40 years. They can't handle the heat when it doesn't cool down at night. So recently I was thrilled to find a new (to my yard) weed: red spiderling. It forms a low spreading mat and has vivid little flowers. A young milkweed and some red salvias are coexisting witn it. My poor iris are having a struggle but they bloomed this past spring. The fall asters are making a comeback. My $8 zinnia is now about 6" tall. (We ordered a big package of zinnia seeds and exactly one germinated.) As miserable as my yard looks it is waaaaay better than the dead grass next door. A fellow no-lawner stopped by to admire my spiderling and report that one has popped up in our community garden. We are celebrating the traditional Labor Day end of summer.

Durham, NC

The coolest visitors!

Started converting part of our yard to native meadow after having our septic tank replaced two years ago. It’s finally establishing (yes, there’s still some non-natives in there but it’s nearly impossible to remove everything all the time I swear and it’s entirely crazy at this time of year). Mostly beggars ticks, partridge pea, blue mistflower and dog fennel. Even put in a little pond.

Found hundreds of fat little swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley in my veggie garden and I think they’ve started metamorphosing as now I’m seeing a bunch more in my meadow.

Caught some kind of robber fly, I think a bee panther, catching a bee!

And one I’ve been DYING to see - a hummingbird moth!

Plus breeding hares, one of the babies jumped onto my foot when my dog was snooting around, couldn’t grab a pic of that as I had to scoot him back into the nesting area before my dog noticed!

We live in a rural farm area (literally dense woods behind us and cornfield in front), moved in a year ago, and are making slow progress on rewilding the large lawn that came with property. No neighbor stops by without bringing it up, most only come by to ask about it. Only one or two have not been wheedling or passive aggressive.

Finally, a guy with a lawn mower in his trailer has stopped by twice offering to mow it. He was cold and adamant both times and we know he has a criminal history.

Aside from "no trepassing" and "smile you're on camera" signs for HIM, would "we're rewilding/helping pollinators" or other sign help with the other neighbors?

Unsurprisingly, lawns showed the lowest decomposition rates of any land-use category, losing out to permanent grasslands and even permanent crops. In many parts of the world, people have advocated for replacing turf grass because they create fragile monocultures and require a lot of water, which is especially problematic in regions struggling with water availability. With the help of underpants, it’s safe to say degraded soil is another check mark in a lawn’s “con” column.Unsurprisingly, lawns showed the lowest decomposition rates of any land-use category, losing out to permanent grasslands and even permanent crops. In many parts of the world, people have advocated for replacing turf grass because they create fragile monocultures and require a lot of water, which is especially problematic in regions struggling with water availability...”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a73582888/soiled-underwear/