A homeowner shared a photo of their second-year prairie yard via social media.
The image was displayed in a Reddit community with the message, "Monoculture lawns must come to an end and bring forward the biodiverse lawns era!"
The Redditor explained that "the black tarp is where I'm 'solarizing' the lawn for this fall's plantings."
The image shows what appears to be a natural prairie, with some flowers scattered about behind a house that is visible in the distance. In the grass is the black tarp mentioned above.
"My second year prairie yard," they wrote in the caption, adding, "HOA community too."
Turning traditional grass lawns into more natural and wild prairies may be growing in popularity, and for good reason.
Grass lawns may look nice and can be fun for kids to roll around in, but they require extensive amounts of water. These not-so-natural green blades that we love devour approximately 3 trillion gallons of water each year in the U.S. alone.
They also need a lot of fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides, which are made up of toxic chemicals that often end up in groundwater and can eventually affect humans and animals.
Native grasses and plants, meanwhile, don't need nearly as much water and are more effective at removing planet-warming pollutants from the atmosphere than those good old-fashioned grass lawns. A diversity of plants helps promote biodiversity while increasing soil health.
This means that with natural plants, you can expect to see more butterflies and perhaps even some squirrels in your yard, depending on where you live.
A natural lawn can save you money since you won't have to constantly water it and make regular trips to the store for harmful chemicals, as you would to maintain a grass lawn.
While many people love taking on the task of rewilding their lawn, others use companies like Yardzen to help them craft the perfect plan for their yard.
And if your home is run by a homeowners association, don't worry — there are still plenty of ways to work around your HOA's strict rules.
Redditors had plenty to say.
"This is so beautiful and natural," one commenter expressed.
"Nice! Love to see someone close by! Looks beautiful!" another added.
A couple of people celebrated the original poster's ability to transform their yard without any interference from their HOA.
"Bravo on HOA taming," one person wrote.
While another commenter was not shy about expressing their feelings: "Your yard is like a magical creature! Sleeping, creeping, leaping... it's a prairie fairytale! HOA has met its match indeed. Bravo!"
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