No Lawns
- Request for advice on how to get started
I'm in the Piedmont (South-east US) region with a hardiness zone of 8a. I have a large area of turf grass, and I want to plant native plants, attract butterflies, native insects, fireflies, all of it. I'm looking for trees, shrubs, small plants, anything would be nice to plant.
Where do I start? I see a lot of different species online, but where can I get seeds for them to plant? Is planting from seeds a viable option for a beginner?
Any help would be appreciated!
- one day i'll have a house with a lawn and there's gonna be so much damn native grass...
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/15199305
> [alt text: Text that says, "People [say] 'I never see butterflies or lightning bugs in my yard. Their yard: (colon)". Below the text is a photo of a birds-eye view of a large house with an equally large yard. The lawn is covered in standard turfgrass (probably Kentucky bluegrass) that has been recently mowed.]
- Grass Alternatives: 12 Low-Maintenance Lawn Replacementswww.almanac.com Grass Alternatives: 12 Low-Maintenance Lawn Replacements
Wish you could ditch your grass altogether? Or, how about replacing your lawn or part of your yard with a stepable carpet? Before you put down yet more grass seed, discover 10 grass alternatives.
- How to get rid of Privet for good?
I've been at war with Privet. No matter what I do, the little bugger comes back in full force. How do I get rid of this relentless plant for good?
- An unexpected but enjoyable nighttime activity
I came home from bringing my daughter to an extracurricular to find a big pile of grass in the backyard. My wife said that she was trying to pull out some of the Ground Ivy that has been plaguing our yard and garden over the last few years and found that the sod just started coming up like a carpet, so she went with it. We spent the rest of the daylight hours as a family ripping up the whole damn backyard.
We still aren’t quite sure what we are going to put back there but at least this part is out of the way. I’m excited to see what we are going to do with it now.
Hoping we can knock out the rest of the Ground Ivy from the garden so it stops trying to choke everything else out.
- Give Your Yard Back To Naturewww.popularmechanics.com Why You Should Let Nature Take Over Your Lawn
Turning your perfectly unnatural (yet impressively green!) lawn into an imperfectly wild(ish) piece of land requires a little time and energy at first. And then...a lot less mowing.
>A garden that’s planted purely by aesthetic decisions is like a car with no engine. It may look beautiful, the stereo works great, but you’re going to have to push it up the hill.
This is a really informative article by Popular Mechanics describing how to effectively landscape with native plants, as well as the long term benefits you will see as a result.
- The Best Way to Put Carbon Back in the Groundyt.artemislena.eu The Best Way to Put Carbon Back in the Ground
KILL YOUR LAWN...and plant a grassland. note: the smut fungus in this video is quite likely Sporisorium occidentale, a *basidiomycete" fungus infamous for parasitizing Big Bluestem. Andropogon gerardii (Big Bluestem) and Sorghastrum nutans (Indian Grass) are arguably two of the most important gras...
- The Worst Invasive Species in the Midwest You Oughta Be Killingyt.artemislena.eu The Worst Invasive Species in the Midwest You Oughta Be Killing
Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) has ravaged the ecology of Northern Illinois (and many other areas in the Eastern US at the same latitude). In Europe where it's native, it's an important member of the ecosystem. In the Midwest though, it's a scourge that forms monocultures and leads to local extinct...
- Discussion: Do Yellow Bug Lights Keep Bugs Away?www.thespruce.com What's a Yellow "Bug Away" Light?
You may have noticed you see yellow bug lights in the summer. The most common place to see one is on a porch.
I recently replaced two outdoor light bulbs with dusk-till-dawn bug lights from Sunco. Immediately noticed less bugs around lights which means less bugs caught in the never ending spider webs.
Anyone else do this?
Another article with more science: https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/45105/20230727/what-bug-light-bulbs-effective-repelling-insects.htm
- Invasive species cost humans $423bn each year and threaten world’s diversitywww.theguardian.com Invasive species cost humans $423bn each year and threaten world’s diversity
At least 3,500 harmful invasive species recorded in every region on Earth spread by human activity, says UN report
- Reminder: Your lawn isn't "being invaded by weeds," it's undergoing natural selection.
Especially ironic when suburbanites rave about how houses are infinitely better than apartments because they're "closer to nature." You want to be closer to nature? Let natural processes work and have a lawn of whatever grows in your area naturally (even an "invasive" species is better than lawn grasses, unironically, and lawn grasses are almost always also non-native species, just ones that can't actually survive in the environment.) Don't water, don't mow, don't fertilize, just let nature do its thing. It will also attract more pollinators, birds, wildlife in general and instead of a lawn, soon you'll have a natural meadow in your yard. That's nature, a lawn that needs excessive water, chemical fertilizers, and poison just to maintain isn't.
- Da Beautiful Chaos of Da Prairie (KILL YOUR LAWN)yt.artemislena.eu Da Beautiful Chaos of Da Prairie (KILL YOUR LAWN)
Embrace the Beautiful Chaos of Da Prairie Real Nice. Prairies may be mostly gone but that's why you gotta re-create what you can in your area if you live where they once occurred. Collect seeds, establish stock plants, then continuously spread seed around you in public parks, railroad embankments, ...
- Maui’s neglected (Invasive) grasslands caused Lahaina fire to grow with deadly speed
This story documents how the invasive grasses allowed the fire to grow.
- B.C. woman who deliberately damaged neighbour's trees ordered to pay $150K in compensationbc.ctvnews.ca B.C. woman who deliberately damaged neighbour's trees ordered to pay $150K in compensation
A B.C. woman who repeatedly trespassed on her neighbour's property and cut the tops off of cedar trees with a chainsaw has been ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in damages.
- follow up work in progress
Got all the plants and trees in yesterday, got most of the trees in the ground. Couldn't figure out where 2 of them should go so I'll be doing those by hand later.
These are mostly mocked up so I can figure out where to plant them. Let me know your thoughts.
A lot of overgrowth, other things to clean up in the background. Wood chips are next and then next year we'll do it all over again until it's fully covered!
Looks like I can only upload one picture with the post so I'll throw more in the comments.
- No mow: is Australia’s long love affair with lawn ending?www.theguardian.com No mow: is Australia’s long love affair with lawn ending?
Over centuries lawn has come to dominate not just Australian cities, but cities around the world. Might we be ready for something else?
- Don’t you dare rake your leaves this fallwww.washingtonpost.com Opinion | Don’t you dare rake your leaves this fall
If the mass extinction of insects isn’t reversed, it will decimate the entire food chain, threaten crop pollination and generally cause havoc.
Not sure if pay-walled. If someone will post a pay-wall bypass I will update the link.
- no lawn journey starting tomorrow!
starting my no lawn journey tomorrow. I'll post a different thread about it
25 native trees, 15 native bushes, 2 dawn redwoods because I'm oddly infatuated with them. pic of small first delivery.
- [Recommendations Wanted] Has anybody over-seeded their lawn with wildflower seed mixes?
I live in the Kansas City area which is comfortably Zone 6 from my understanding.
We've recently purchased our first house and the yard work is super time consuming! With .5 acres just mowing alone takes like 2 hours with my push mower due to all the trees and hills in the yard. I would like to have a pollinator friendly yard while also not having to spend so much time mowing. Using less gas in general would also be neat.
What I am thinking of doing is prior to first snow fall, over-seed with wildflowers from American Medows for most of the yard, and then in areas with some foot traffic, plant a mixture of clover and native grasses and then only worry about mowing in that area periodically.
Has anybody else ever over seeded with wildflowers? A lot of stuff I see posted here (and formerly on reddit) seem to be a bunch of elegant but hard and time consuming work like ripping up the yard, putting cardboard and mulch down, and then planting over that. However, I don't really have the time and money to do all that 🙁. Would I have desirable results with just over-seeding?
- Plant diversity in urban green spaces led to sevenfold increase in insect species, study findswww.theguardian.com Plant diversity in urban green spaces led to sevenfold increase in insect species, study finds
Scientists find ‘substantial ecological changes’ after greening initiative by major road in Melbourne, Australia
- I'm Rewilding My Lifeless Garden - here's howyt.artemislena.eu I'm Rewilding My Lifeless Garden - here's how
If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe & become a Leave Curious member here on youtube to get exclusive videos! - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrYUtfJiZHN3iJKqrd8UhQ/join Become a Mossy Earth member - https://mossy.earth/?referral=LEAVECURIOUS Interested in learning about Ecolog...
- Big yard
I have a house that's set back from the street about 100 feet and the yard is 120 feet wide. I don't water or fertilize but I still need to mow to keep it under control. Does anyone have any tips for a space that big that won't require an enormous amount of maintenance? I'd love to use primarily native species but the only thing that really seems to take off is thistle.
- A Pretty Yard for Inspo
Taken from reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/15u06f0/my_favourite_type_of_propaganda_encouraging/
- If you have seeds but you have no property
What are some general considerations for where seeds would like to be around the neighborhood, around town? And is it generally best to wait for rain?
- Replacing grass lawns with native plantsinvidious.protokolla.fi I replaced my grass lawn with native plants
I planted native plants in my "hellstrip" out front of my house and watched as many pollinators, insects, and birds returned. Because there is no parking on my street, I don't have to worry about providing enough room for people to exit their vehicles. If you're going to do this, make sure to follow...
- Why is it so hot?www.tiktok.com Kyle Lybarger on TikTok
Even as a forester I’m so tired of the tree planting campaigns. If you truly believe there’s a problem let’s use some common sense. Here’s how ecosystems have changed.. we have more trees than ever, while we’ve lost 99.9% of grasslands, we have 40 million acres of mowed grass. #nativehabitatproject ...
- Doing my tiny part
We have honey and solitary bees, sunflowers lavander and a lot more :) Our journey started last year and it only gets better!
- I built this bee house for my folks, looks like it's getting some use
I was surprised to see so many tubes sealed (it's on its second year but it looks like we missed the window to swap in the replacement tubes I'd made). If you spot any other issues please let me know.
- Native Front Yard projectnative-front-yard.writeas.com Native Front Yard
The project of converting my front yard from turf grass with Asian shrubs to all native plants.
>The project of converting my front yard from turf grass with Asian shrubs to all native plants.
- 10 gravel landscaping ideas that have me convinced this is the lawn alternative to elevate modern backyardswww.yahoo.com 10 gravel landscaping ideas that have me convinced this is the lawn alternative to elevate modern backyards
I used to be on the fence about using gravel in a yard, but these ideas prove modern landscapers are using it in amazing ways
- Scottsdale bans natural grass in front yards of new houses to conserve water amid Arizona's drought | CNNwww.cnn.com Scottsdale bans natural grass in front yards of new houses to conserve water amid Arizona's drought | CNN
As drought-stricken Arizona bakes in searing heat, the Scottsdale City Council unanimously agreed this week to ban natural grass in front of future single-family homes in an effort to conserve water.
- Native Grasseswww.tiktok.com Kyle Lybarger on TikTok
This is a monoculture of Big Bluestem used for seed production. Our grasslands should be full of forbs, sedges, and other grasses. Biodiversity creates healthy grasslands! #nativehabitatproject #nativegrasses #beef #grasslands #prairies #conservation
If you're going to plant grass, make it native to your area, wildlife depends on it.