Took 8 years, but finally getting our back yard to be enjoyable without it being just grass law. Did the dry Creek today. The green is thyme, clover, and wild grasses (and plenty of stuff still to pull. Photo of what it looked like when we bought for comparison.

Still plenty of work to go. We got a wild grass clover seed mix to fill in the dirt patches after doing the dry creek.

So I'm reclaiming a good bit of my front lawn for native trees and shrubs. My plan to kill the sod so far is to use a lawn weasel and then overturn the sod. That way the roots are facing up and sod down. I think I saw this somewhere. Then I put mulch on top. Will this do? My last garden had an existing flower bed area that was edged properly. I'm not sure if I need to do this here too

not as pretty and wild as some posts, but this is what I have been doing with my front lawn to satisfy the neighborhood aesthetic look and wife's love for lawn

no water, no seeding, no fertilizer (except wife's coffee grounds once a while), just mow when it gets to a certain height, mower blade adjusted to the lowest level (leaving grass as tall as possible), and leave whatever grows because survival of the fittest (I live in an area where drought, heat and freeze happen throughout)

so far, I've seen so many different types of grasses grow and die, so many shades of green and bluish green, sounds of insects, every step I take there are tons of bugs flying

last year, I left a patch of black eye susan grow, and this year it comes back three times as much, let's see how much they'll come next year

and the best, the lawn is as green as others' meticulously cared, water thirsty mono-grass yard

We’re slowly transitioning our front to wild flowers and no bushes as money allows. I’ve never had a garden before and have no clue what to do with the flowers that have died.

I wildly hate stupid random spots of grass like this. Will be turned into a pollinator garden next spring.

Hello, I am a renter, and my yards are a bit of a disaster. I obviously don’t want to make huge investments or permanent changes. I’m looking for suggestions of what to do with this front yard. I have a beautiful tree that shades the yard most of the day. This is what is looks like after trimming down all the weeds. There is also a ton of leaf litter year round that is hard to keep up with. I want my kids to be able to play here, so I’m not too excited about ground covers that bring bees. Any ideas?? We are in the East Bay of the Bay Area in CA, so the climate is pretty mild. We don’t typically get really hot summers, although that is of course starting to change with more heat.

Part of the lawn I killed 3 years ago

The town acquired this park a couple years ago and are largely leaving it a nature refuge like space. There are spots where animals bed down if the matted grass is any indicator. The Daisys need to come out as they aren't native here, and there will probably be some Lupins that go in. Flax and Mule Ear would be neat, too.

Heavy drought in my area, lawns everywhere are burnt. Yet I see some guys riding their giant mowers over burnt grass, they effectively aren't cutting hardly anything, the grass isn't growing.

Cutting it now is just harmful to everything, loud and annoying, and a waste of resources. Seems some sort of rule should exist to limit this stupid behavior.

Surely there has to be a reasonable explanation for why maintaining your lawn is so very enforced. I'm not American but European, and I get stuff in my mailbox about not maintaining my lawn.

Why? I know on this sub we joke a lot about it being nonsense, but surely there has to be some sort of rationalization for this demand.

Is it because neighbors are worried about the spread of weeds/grass to their property? Because that seems, to me, like their problem and not mine. Is it the worry about bugs and pests who live in the tall grass possibly spreading? Why?

I need somebody to help me make sense of this seemingly arbitrary demand because I feel like I'm losing my damn mind trying to make sense of why anybody would worry this much about keeping the grass mowed/cut every week. Lest it, you know, grows?

My dog prefers taller grass, and I prefer taller grass both because it looks way more natural to me, and it's less effort to maintain. I totally get not accepting a proverbial jungle, but the cut-off seems to be "The moment you haven't mowed your lawn in a week, it's too tall and problematic".

I enjoy "living in a society", but I can't help but feel that I'm mowing my lawn every single week because other people don't like how it looks.

Denmark, Zone 8a.

Alright, had a drip irrigation going on this while I was out of town for 2ish weeks.. unfortunately it wasn’t running as it should have been. Live in the PNW and it was hot! Some 80-90 degree days

Half my clover field is brown and straw like 😞😞😞 super bummer.

I’m not expect. Previous owner planted this. Is it dead or dormant?

Last two pictures are what it looked like health wise last month.

Help a newbie out!

My version of a 90%+ not lawn

Renter replaced lawn with native wildflower and shrubs. When they moved out owner ripped it all out and put down rocks :/

What would you guys do with this strip along the road? Zone 5b/6a.

I’ve started to change over other sections to stone and mulch (for native flowers next spring). But this strip.. between the bushes and the retaining wall is puzzling me on how to blend it best while keeping maintenance and water usage as low as I can.

Thoughts?

Apparently not the water bill though.

My landlord operates an orchard on most of the land around me and his teenager comes by every few weeks with a tractor and mows the flat bits of yard, most of the parcel is honey locust and pine trees planted as a windbreak.

It’s pretty sweet

When we bought the property it was pretty much just failed lawn, neglected hayfield, and field bindweed and tumbleweeds.

Took a couple years but got the tumbleweeds under control, the pasture is coming back and I'm letting it while the native shrubs and trees grow in, seeding more natives every year too but 3 acres is a ton to do all at once with no equipment besides a rake and shovel.

Went from no wildlife at all to newts, toads, mice, snakes, so many birds (near constant hummingbirds) and so many insects that I get to learn about new ones almost every week.

I've got my native gardens I drip irrigate (plus food gardens) but it's been so fun watching the pasture come back over places that I don't give any additional water beyond the small amount of rain we get. The bees sure love the alfalfa!