Gardener shares progress pictures of their lush, low-maintenance yard: 'This is spectacular'

Have you ever been on a walk in your neighborhood when you see a garden so beautiful that you stop in your tracks as your body floods with jealousy?

This garden, shared to the subreddit r/NativePlantGardening, might produce a similar effect. Luckily, this Redditor was generous enough to share a few tips about their gardening process — which is remarkably simple. 

"May in my mostly native plant garden," they captioned their post, which features photos of a resplendent front yard positively spilling over with a variety of lush plants. 

This Redditor is located in southeastern Pennsylvania and says their native plants include cutleaf sunflower, mountain mint, butterfly weed, zigzag goldenrod, native honeysuckle, and much more. 

They add that the garden is "relatively low maintenance" and the density of the plants keeps out most weeds. 

In order to get started on a garden like theirs, they recommend using an action hoe to remove the lawn, get "as many aggressive keystone plants as you can" squeezed into the space, and then "let them fight it out for dominance." They started out mulching, but these days, they let everything self-mulch. 

According to them, it only took a couple of years to get their garden to where it is. Now, they say the hardest part is cutting back plant growth to ensure that everything gets the right amount of light. 

Though it may seem counterintuitive, cultivating native plants in lieu of a lawn can be a fairly low-maintenance task. Because native plants are adapted to their regions, they use less water, fertilizer, and pesticides — which saves on maintenance costs and water usage and intercepts the use of harmful chemicals. 

Cultivating native plants also has a sustained positive impact on the environment, as they create food and shelter for local wildlife and a healthier ecosystem for pollinators all year round. This benefits humans, too, as pollinators protect our food supply. 

In addition to gardens such as this Redditor's, other eco-friendly, low-maintenance lawn-replacement options include buffalo grass and xeriscaping. Even a partial lawn replacement allows us to reap these benefits.

Many Redditors took to the comments section to gush and ask questions about the OP's garden. 

"This is SPECTACULAR!!" one user commented. 

"Absolutely love it!" another said. "I'm going to show this to my gardens so they understand what they are supposed to do."

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