It's beautiful to witness a yard transform from a boring grass lawn to a prairie meadow teeming with pollinators and vibrant flowers. It's even more rewarding when you cultivate the land yourself and get to admire your hard work.
One gardener shared photos of the fruits of their labor in the r/NativePlantGardening community, explaining that they'd been working on a sod-to-prairie transformation since the fall of 2022.
"I was worried the sod would [outcompete] the native flowers/grasses, but fortunately, that is not the case at all. I also know I should be mowing this down every time things get around 12 - 14 inches this first year, but after doing it twice, I have given up," they said in the post.
"We may move houses in the next year or two so I am being selfish and letting it grow the rest of the year so we can enjoy it," they added.
The Redditor shared four images of their beautiful prairie lawn filled with eye-popping flowers, including butterfly milkweed. In the third photo, an adorable bee seemed to love the lawn, landing on one of the coneflowers.
Rewilding your yard can save tons of time and money on lawn maintenance. Architectural Digest noted that you only need to mow meadow lawns a few times yearly. This also helps the environment since gas-powered mowers release harmful pollution into the atmosphere.
In fact, installing a native lawn can save you nearly $3,000 on water bills, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides over 10 years. Replacing even part of your yard with wild plants, like clover or buffalo grass, can make a big difference.
Plus, native plants add biodiversity to your yard, which will help attract more pollinators like bees and butterflies. Pollinators are crucial to human survival and healthy ecosystems since they're responsible for one of every three bites of food we eat.
It seems native lawns are starting to take root. The National Wildlife Federation recently found that 25 percent of people "specifically buy native plants—an increase from 17 percent in 2020," as reported by The Wash.
"Is that last one a type of milkweed?? It's beautiful and I need it!!! Lol the whole area is beautiful," one person said, adding a heart-eyed emoji.
"It looks gorgeous!" another person complimented.
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