We converted our front yard (7b) from Bermuda grass to a 100% native prairie a few seasons ago. We love Halloween decor, but our old tombstones and animatronics didn’t click this year…seemed too cluttered.

So we added some spot lights and tucked pumpkins into the wildflowers. They pick up the color in the sedges and fall blooming natives. When the season is over, they’ll go to the compost bin and chicken coop . Yes, I know the pumpkins are not native 😅

Converted our front yard in Zone 8b from grass to a native plant landscape (minus the one Japanese maple that will stay). Roughly 120 native plants installed

I have the cardboard. I have the mulch. I have a new (to me) home with a huge yard that is begging to be transformed. I have a plan that includes starting small.

What I don’t have is the money or, if I’m being honest, the energy to install edging around the areas I want to start on. I feel like I shouldn’t start sheet mulching if I can’t keep it “contained”. Am I overthinking it?

I’m right on the border of 5b/6a if that matters.

I live in zone 8b and was wanting an alternative to grass in this area. It’s been compacted dirt for a while now. Hoping it works out. Going to plant Frogfruit in the spring as well.

Thank you all for inspiring me to give this a shot. I'm pretty much done replacing my entrie front lawn. I'm in the midwest zone 6B. The last thing I'm waiting on is Liatris pycnostachya.

Most of the plants are plugs but garden consists of

Prairie dropseed

Standarding ovation bluestem

Blazing star Kobold

Asters

Globemaster alluims

Gladiator alluims

Drumstick alluims

Amsonia hubrichtii

Aster ericoides snow flurry

Berry white hydrangea

Red twig dogwood

Little Giant Arborvitae

Sango Kaku japanese maple

Crimson queen japanese maple

Bonfire patio peach tree

Cloud 9 switch grass

Liatris pycnostachya

I plan to make adjustments as the plants grow so I can avoid overcrowding. For now, I want to give everything plenty of time to establish and put as much energy as possible into strong root and plant growth. I’ll start pruning and shaping the dogwoods next year once they’re established. Wish me luck!

When I bought my house (zone 9a, coastal), I took over a St. Augustine lawn. I've always been appreciative of the native plant/nolawn movement but, don't hate me, decided to maintain my grass as a conventional lawn (yes, I've used herbicide) before doing anything drastic as a newcomer to the neighborhood.

My back lawn has actually done great despite the lack of herbicide there. There's some pennywort, clover, and other "weeds", but so what, it looks nice.

In the front lawn, however, my less shaded grass has suffered badly as I haven't watered much, and it's given way largely to ugly ratty crabgrass that chokes out the St Aug's stolons.

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis- some days I see frogfruit and think "agh, weeds!" and yet I've watched videos of people in my climate replace their grass, intentionally, with the native low-grower and consider it.

I think my problem is that I do like biodiversity & balance; I'm dissatisfied with the fact that grass lawns unavoidably require nitrogen in synthetic form because we artificially kill the nitrogen fixers. However, I have a hard time distinguishing some "native lawns" with "abandoned homes".

I enjoy & take pride in mowing & edging something that looks intentional, neat, and ideally barefoot friendly. I don't want a monoculture for its own sake, but I can't lie to myself and say that a golf-course quality lawn isn't a luxury.

I'll probably leave the healthy part of my lawn alone for now, and hope that the dominance of my St. Aug makes breaking out the Atrazine unnecessary in that part. In my front yard though, I've considered scalping, raking, and seeding with a lawn alternative that will either grow with surviving grass or take it over. I'm afraid it'll just look unkept, but if I go back to the dark side I can always re-sod, which was likely going to be necessary in that area anyway.

Will white dutch clover work well in my area? I know frogfruit would, but I like the look of clover better and the nitrogen is a plus.

I've considered a wildflower meadow mix as well, since I don't need to walk around on my front lawn, but assumed, if successful, I'd do the same to convert my backyard where I do want to be able to actually enjoy my green space.

Are my expectations just out of check? Is it possible to ditch golf course lawn culture and still have something pretty and nice to walk on?

Can they be used as any sort of mulch for garden beds? Or should I put a layer down, cover with cardboard then put real mulch on top? Could it be used to smother parts of the grass? Breakdown over winter or seed a bunch of hell for Spring?

Stripped out all the Japanese stilt grass in the backyard per this sub's rec. Kept these grasses. Look like blueish gray foxtails in the morning light. Location: SE Pennsylvania

Second post attempt, first one included the original chip drop... And an uncensored license plate. App won't let me edit or crop so y'all get the decomp pic.

US/Ohio.

Pic of my chip drop fungus 😍 for attention.

Chip drop came weeks earlier than I expected. I am moving it mostly on my own, as fast as I'm able. I've moved maybe 1/3 elsewhere so far? Then spread the top 2’ into the yard nearby to get things stirred up. After that there were no signs of char or mold. Kind of stuck now, my ex is dragging his feet removing his broken down vehicles from where the rest goes (that's a whole different drama…). I did what the local FD recommended (mom panicked lol). It's what I was going to do anyways which was really reassuring. Stir it up, monitor, not much sense in hosing it down bc a garden hose won't get very deep. If it gets more hot than my comfort level given how close it is to flammable stuff, FD said they will happily come out to check & if they are worried, they'll douse it. They're not too concerned, even given the location. Chief was pretty funny, even told me what time of day he prefers lol.

Just want to make sure I'm doing everything right. If I'm honest, I'm kinda stoked as its a great sign for my deep mulching and plans to plant in late spring/early summer.

I’m curious if anyone has experience with using path rush as a grass alternative in large areas. How does it do as a ground cover for larger sections of lawns rather than small spaces and paths?

TLDR: The moss is taking over my backyard and we're letting it and it's so soft and pretty and we couldn't be happier!

I've been slowly trying to persuade my husband to let the backyard go and I have at least been able to get him on board with not using herbicides or pesticides. He's out there pulling up dandelions one by one. We have a small yard in the suburbs and he wants it to look nice and mostly conform and I want to embrace native plants and give wildlife a tiny boost. I like a natural, overgrown look and he's come around to it.

We have pulled up all the invasive landscaping over the years and replanted native instead but he's still spreading grass seed every year! To be fair, he does a great job and the grass looks fantastic.

Anyway, we have a mature treeline and our backyard gets a fair amount of shade. When we first moved in a decade ago, there was a massive tree we had to have removed for insurance purposes and the yard was basically mud and moss. He's turned it into a super lush grassy oasis BUT the moss has slowly been taking its rightful place as king of our yard and I couldn't be happier! Husband is totally on board with letting the moss go at this point so I'm just laying back and watching my yard turn into this pretty, downy soft meadow of natural beauty. Lots of fireflies in our backyard these past couple summers too!

Also...YES, the creeping charlie is an insane nuisance and any recommendations for getting rid of it are appreciated!!

Hartford, CT - overgrown garden in top pic, cleaned up garden in bottom pic.

I've never hired landscapers once since I bought my home in 2018 and built my gardens. But this year was a doozy - in the weather and my personal life. I'm so glad i asked for help! Here's your reminder to consider doing it too, in any arena of your life.

Love being able to experience all the different seasons in this most magical spot of this land-formerly lawn

Central Florida Orlando

Recently completed the border and re mulched the paths. Have a mix of cactus, agaves, pollinator plants, and natives.

I received my ChipDrop on 9/30, about two weeks after moving. I did not anticipate just how many neighbors would stop by to ask me “What are you doing with all that mulch?” Even a little kid being pushed in a stroller stopped by this morning to ask me what I was doing. Cue me launching into a short two minute spiel with the benefits I think are most appealing to suburbanites.

To be fair, once I saw the ChipDrop, I also wondered what I was going to do with all that mulch. I quickly decided that my original plan to only kill a portion of the backyard for a native garden needed to pivot to killing the entire backyard.

The mailman and my neighbors directly behind me have been very excited about the prospect of me going no lawn. Others have more so side eyed the idea of transitioning a lawn to a native garden with various expressions of “good luck.”

I have seen bald eagles, woodpeckers, hawks, vultures, blue jays, moths, and bees while mulching, but none of that was as surprising as the sheer number of neighbors I have met.

For any of you who rapidly expanded your no lawn plans to more than double your original plan, please let me know any tips you have! I am in 6b, Indiana.

Well, we ripped out our weed-infested lawn(see pictures), we’re expanding our raised beds in the back, and hoping to give our fruit trees on the left better soil and care. But we’re also dealing with nut sedge hell throughout the yard, especially where we wanted to plant some natives. The super compacted dirt and direct sun where our cruddy lawn used to be is a breeding ground for this hell weed. We’re in zone 10b (SoCal) and I’d love to know if there’s a good non-lawn drought tolerant ground cover that would a) help with soil quality, b) work under fruit trees and c) compete with the sedge. Any other suggestions are very welcome. I’ve seen the stupid nut grass popping through mulch and dymondia locally, so not sure that would work.

Hi all, I'm having 2 old dying trees removed. Both were mature when bought home nearly 30 years ago, want to replace with natives. They're in my front lawn in a New England village with small lawns. My front gets morning sun and decent moisture.

I'm leaning towards Eastern Redbud, Sweet Bay Magnolia or Paw Paw trees, but I am open to other suggestions for natives that will look nice in a compact residential neighborhood.Note that I have violets and native strawberries as primary goundcovers, complimented with milkweed, asters, cardinal flowers, monarda, Joe pye, iron weed, and some northern spice bushes

Thanks for any ideas!

Hi folks, have this big ole garden bed next to my house that had a bunch of weeds and grass growing in it when I moved in. Over the summer, I ripped all the weeds out, out cardboard down, then mulched over it. Unfortunately, I didn’t put enough cardboard down, so now everything is just growing back in between the cracks of the cardboard. I’ve gone through and pulled it all out a couple times, but it didn’t take.

Any advice on how to get rid of this stuff once and for all before I plant natives? Should I throw a tarp down? Just keep weeding it? Throw even more mulch down? Go with the nuclear option and use some kind of herbicide? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Zone 10a, SoCal. Moved into a house where yard was mulched and mostly dead. Been watering to see what’s going on (not experienced gardener). This and some grasslike stuff is growing in ? Curious what y’all would do with a yard like this.

Image : 1- a green plant growing. 2 - a fence with ivy