What if we started to think about our yards as natural meadows instead of resource-draining, high-maintenance plots of non-native plants?
In a viral Reddit post captioned, "Building a meadow instead of growing a lawn," one homeowner shared photos of a stunning yard filled with wild grasses, blooming flowers, and native plants.
The slideshow of photos begins with how the yard looks now after the meadow-like makeover and ends with how it initially looked — green grass with a person pushing a lawn mower.
"Neighbours are still confused because when we moved in this was lawn. But I took a different approach haha, a few years in and it is starting to look great," the homeowner wrote.
In the comments section, one Redditor explained how a wild yard incorporates native, low-maintenance, drought-tolerant plants and eliminates the use of pesticides and noise pollution from mowing.
The Redditor also shared that a yard like this brings in beneficial pollinators, restores nutrients to the soil, and can look beautifully natural, not sloppy, when done right.
The original poster revealed details about growing over 30 different plants and how the revamped yard requires less maintenance each year. Watering the plants once they're established is not necessary, but the homeowner cuts plants back in the fall, digs out certain weeds, and adds new plants to provide a variety of textures and colors.
Today, the yard is filled with many native plants, focusing on drought-tolerant plants that are strong growers.
Like the original poster, you can up cultivate a natural lawn to avoid the time-consuming chore of mowing and cut back your water usage. At the same time, you'll eliminate toxic pesticides and fertilizers from your yard and help local pollinators.
A Redditor user commented: "This is GORGEOUS."
"That looks so much better," another Redditor commented. "I want to do that to my townhouse's road verge since our grass is just dying anyway."
However, as Redditors discuss in the comments, depending on where you live, embracing a wild yard might require some convincing from your neighbors.
"I do think when 'selling' the idea, it should be less prairie and more natural scape," one Redditor suggested. "Everyone loves a natural scape with bigger rocks, flowering plants, succulents, compact mound grasses, roses, echinacea, yarrow, lilies, lavenders, spigelias, etc."
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