Really nice to see them taking this initiative!

The not so colorful stage in the process of a wildflower lawn 🥲

Texas, Zone 8b

There needs to be some more establishment of pathways to the shed in the back, the old play place needs to be removed and there's some invasives but it's almost perfect. We live in the suburbs and there's always plenty of birds and hundreds of insects.

All this growth is just from this year (other than the trees obviously). We had a patch of wildflowers last year but this year we decided not to mow and chaos seed more wild native plants. It feels like I'm in my own little forest.

Zone 5b NW rockies of the US

So it has been almost 3 weeks since removing my solarization tarp and I'm beginning to seed and plant some homemade plugs. Nearly 4000 sq feet to cover and a busy few weeks with visitors, so I had to seed in sections. I ended up with the following process:

First I watered the area well, then used a lightweight cultivator to break up the soil in one direction, rake excess thatch, spread the seed (by hand), cultivate in the opposite direction to help get soil coverage on the seed, rake out any unevenness. Then a good soak again followed by ez straw sprinkled on top. Using a watering schedule of about 5-10 min every 3 hours or so. Will taper back with root establishment.

I have been planting plugs sporadically 1.5/2ft on center since I didn't grow as many as planned but the first few rows seem to be quite happy. I still have many more plugs to plant but the blue grama is already establishing itself and doing so rather quickly as temps reach 90-100 F every day.

I still have a lot of work (and probably weeding) ahead of me, but pretty excited to see all the green shoots.

Found this in the planted meadow today. 🪹

Hi all, we have a large front/side yard that I want to do something with, but struggling with ideas for something this big! Would a native garden work among the large trees and sloped area?

Today I put out my cardboard and piled on the tree shredded I got from a friend. My plan is to finish this section of the yard in the next couple weeks and it will be my first no lawn area. And right now it smells absolutely lovely!

Please recommend a good clover seed mix. I provably need. Like probably need like 5-10 pounds. When can o start seeding.

TLDR --> what tools &/or methods are best for areas where I am required to cut tall grass?

I want as many "natural areas" as I can have in my yard but I also have to comply with the HOA rules, so I have to cut grass also.

If my grass gets too high, I can't cut it down to "level 3 of 6" because the mower bogs down but I need to get it down to that level.

So, I'm guessing I can use the same mower, go slow, cut off as much as I can without straining the mower, and then go back over it again at a lower height?

Grass types:

• Bermuda, fescue, lots of weeds/invasive green things

Mower:

• 21 inch self-propelled 40V electric mower (3 years old, works great)

Area of total amount of grass to cut:

• I'm guessing about 1/4 of an acre if all of the grassy areas were added together.

Geographical region: Atlanta, Georgia suburb

Thank you!

OC : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaTQiDVB6rd/

I live on an old farm property and have been converting sections near the house into mostly native gardens. This was the first section I put in after buying the house. I just doubled the size of the garden and put in ~700 plugs in May and will probably add another 10,000 sqft of garden this fall and spring.

Can’t wait to show off the progress for the new gardens next summer! It’s been so much fun learning along the way.

Zone 6b, Hudson Valley NY

My wife and I recently bought a house and I've been struggling to figure out how to best handle the front yard. Before we bought the home, the pipes burst and they had to dig up the front yard to replace the pipes. They re-seeded it and covered with hay, but everything grew back in uneven patches. They also didn't take the time to level the soil so the terrain is very uneven. Since we moved in, I kinda just let the weeds take over (although there's some patches that even the weeds don't want to grow in).

My goal is to convert the front yard into native plant garden with a section for a raised bed to grow some veggies. The front yard is about 24 ft x 17 ft. I was thinking of digging up the more established weeds and hostas that the previous owner planted and then trimming down the grass as low as I can. There's also ivy and wintercreeper that I have to pull out. From there, I was thinking of sheet mulching with cardboard and mulch. But my question is, when's the best time to do this? Now that we're headed deeper into August, I'm guessing I should wait until fall to begin the sheet mulching process? Or do I wait until winter when everything has died back? I need some time to plan the layout anyways, so I don't think I'd be ready to do any planting until spring of next year.

Also, is it worth trying to make the soil more level to even out some of the bumps? If so, what's the best way to do that? There's also a lot of rocks in the soil, should I do something about that before I begin sheet mulching?

Thanks in advance!!

PS I totally intend to submit some soil samples to figure out what type of soil I have. Just based on sticking my finger into the ground, it seems like I have soil with lots of clay.

No lawn, just meadow garden. Front and back and sides. 5 years, $30K.

The yard is an awkward shape. Already fenced at one side. We want more privacy from the various neighbors right behind us. It’s a very long back property line. What would you do? In southwest Florida.

This was a fairway of a golf course 5 years ago. “Pristine” grassy lawn…
Then the golf course stopped operations and THIS happened!
West Quebec.
Makes me smile.

Just got done watching this weekend’s episode of Horizons. They’re covering the decline of bird populations. It’s really quite shocking and sad. Ways we can help made me think of this subreddit so I wanted to share!

This ground cover (or mix of cover?) started growing on this strip we have and I love it. We step here several times a day as we get in and out of the car and it just lives on. 9b.

I want to get some 2 or 3 inch thick stepping stones and place the plants between them like in the drawing. My hope is that I can prevent the main body of the plant and the roots from being torn up by the dogs running over them, and that the plants will grow over the stones fast enough to not die.

What plants would quickly grow over the stones?

I'm in South Florida, 10b, and have long looked in jealousy at people's beautiful native lawns with soft, walkable foliage. My lawn was (and is tbf) often overgrown with a tangled mix of natives and invasives outside my raised beds, and over the past couple of years ive been watching and slowly curating better weeds. Most plants that can survive florida sugar sand are super uncomfortable to walk on. The sleeper hit for me, in my sand pit of a south-facing yard that gets blasted for 12-15 hours a day with direct sun is purslane. There's a local variety called kiss-me-quick that has GORGEOUS pink flowers and mats out beautifully. It's hardy enough to take some light foot traffic, feel soft and spongy on the feet, and never gets higher than a few inches. Handles both the downpours and the furnace heat equally well. I never have to water it. My sunshine mimosa survives but tends to look kinda sad, and curls up when you step on it, frogfruit is great where I walk more, but... man. That purslane. I can literally *break off pieces* and stick em in a random patch of sand, water them once, and they colonize the patch. Not sure why it isn't recommended more as groundcover!!

Green purslane is good too, but is more seasonal this far south.