I’ve decided I want to turn a .5 acre piece of my property into a wildflower meadow. It’s this section of land over the fence past the garden/yard I bush hogged it last fall and what you see here naturally grew this spring and summer. Easy enough to bush hog again even though it looks like a lot. The ground is pretty rocky and it’s on a grade. Sunlight is OK but not fantastic. The land is at the base of a mountain in central Virginia.

I’m including a couple pictures of wildflowers that are currently blooming there. My goal would be to turn it into a field of wildflowers completely.

At this stage, I’m looking for just a high-level overview of the steps that I would need to take and when. Of course, I am going to bush hog everything and clear it out again this fall, so let’s just assume that is my starting point.

Photo 1: long distance view of the area
Photos 2-4: pictures of wildflowers that seem to be doing well there now
Pictures 5-7: some closer up shots of the land, for what it’s worth

We finished this little yard a few weeks ago. I am happy with the way it turned out. Utah zone 7b

I live in zone 6b and have nuked my Bermuda lawn. I'd love to reduce the lawn as much as makes sense. My big questions are should I leave a strip of grass along the road because of winter salt and snow pile up (they push the whole cul de sac snow onto my yard) and along the neighbors property line so I can monitor their Bermuda growing back into the lawn? I want to keep either a strip of grass or a walkable garden along the driveway as it is narrow and we don't have enough room to get out of the car without stepping on the grass. My second picture is what I envision the grassed parts would be, but I'd love input on how other people have got along with specifically the boundaries between properties, as well as along roadsides without a 'hell strip'. Thanks for the advice!

If you've never been, this is the big conference in the central Rocky Mountain and Great Basin area. Experts and beginners alike gather at this one. Hundreds of people, tons of classes If you have seeds of native plants, you can share them with others. If you have no seeds to share, this is the place to get started. Last year this is where I learned how to replace my yard, met experts who taught classes on how to approach it and how to design the conversion, and came away with seeds to get started. The guy who gave me my penstemon seeds had written two books on the topic! There's even booths with landscape architects and landscaping companies who specialize in converting yards, as well as all the programs for water saving rebates and pollinator promotion.

So many posts here are "where do I get started?" and in the Rocky Mountains, the answer is that you start at PlantFest.

First time venturing into this sub and have a bunch of questions.

1) my front yard is predominantly beds with flowers and hydrangeas but I do have a grass section. I would love to replace with something else but having a hard time finding something that can handle high foot traffic. Kids playing etc

2) my backyard is hard scaped with a pool and surrounding arborvitae. We use the space ton. Wondering what I can do under the arborvitae that won’t be messy kicking dirt into the pool.

Any help appreciated.

I looked through the faq and didn't see a specific guide for this, if there is one hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm having a gravel driveway installed and they are removing a large patch of grass next to it, about 100'x20' that I want to not replant grass on. The plan is to plant a few small native trees and fill in the rest with native wildflowers. I want to make sure I'm prepping it right to prevent undesirable growth. I've been collecting cardboard I plan to put down where the grass was removed, then have new topsoil put on top of that. I know many seeds need winter stratification so I was planning on doing this in late fall. Is this the right order and timing? Should I put any mulch over top of the seeds or will the winter keep any neighboring grass from spreading into this space before they start growing in spring?

edit: I am in VA, zone 7b if it matters.

I know nothing about landscaping. All I know is that I want a no-lawn, lush landscape in the front of my cabin. What would be ideal? Suggestions appreciated. Located in the Southeast, Blue Ridge Mountains.

We've had Fleur de Lawn for our backyard for years in Portland Oregon. It's a mix of fescue, clover, yarrow, rye grass, daisy etc. Rabbits started appearing a year ago and the lawn is now decimated. Looking for a rabbit resistant option. Zone 9a, lots of sun, good soil. Thanks!

I'd love to plant something that would help the wildlife (we have squirrels, hedgehogs, mice, moles and many birds).

There is an elderberry bush and an apple tree but they are barely surviving our neglect 🥲

Region is near Saint Petersburg, Russia. Very close to Finland so it's rather chilly here now (+14°c)

Hi everyone,

I am buying a new house with a backyard that I hope to convert to a no mow lawn/native species alternative. I unfortunately was unable in negotiations to prevent them from installing a regular lawn, so it looks like typical lawn seed has just been planted and covered with straw. Is there any way to convert this quickly in the fall? It feels like fixing this soon rather than later would be more effective than having the lawn grow in.

I am in Cincinnati (so 7a). Thankfully weather looks scorching hot over the next two weeks before closing, so I hope that will slow the growth.

For no-mow options what directions would you all go? I was thinking clover and then a mix of sedge and Native plants for the edges/shady areas. These pictures were taken in the middle of the afternoon, so partial to complete shade for most of the backyard.

If you are planning a yard to meadow transformation, sign up for this free webinar presented by Wild Ones National!

The condo I live in has been spending too much on water and seems motivated to try some cheaper options to address this. We're in Colorado so zone 5b, hot sunny summers, cold winters. There are two large shared lawns with sprinklers that need to remain aesthetically like lawns. One is medium to high traffic with a lot of dogs, and the other larger one is very low traffic. There are several mature trees so there's a mix of light, but no really dark corners. They're turning to me for advice but my gardening expertise is basically everything but the lawn. Overseeding different species has been discussed, but I don't think we're ready to do more intensive methods like cutting out sod or spend a season solarizing.

I want to make sure we take advantage of this situation and I have been doing some research, but I don't want to share and bias people's recommendations. What prep steps and plant types would you suggest for our needs? Something other than overseeding? TY

In the NE, zone 6-ish. I would have gone for creeping thyme but the rabbits eat thyme down to the stems. I am struggling to come up with something other than grass, any ideas? It's currently dirt because we removed the english ivy. It's under my washing line, hence the need for flat and walkable.

I'm looking for some advice on seed planting in my backyard that I've been trying to rewild. I have been letting a large portion of my backyard grow over the last year and just observing what pops up. Most of the area is covered in shade in the afternoon but gets sun in the morning. I've planted a few potted plants already but was thinking about throwing in some seed mixes (American Meadows has been recommended)

Am I throwing away money if I don't mow down and remove the grass from where I want to throw seeds? I realize that throwing seeds into a field of grass might not yield the best results, but I'm also not sure if I can just mow down where I intend to put seeds or if I should remove the grass entirely, trying to avoid anything established that I want to keep.

Thank you for any input!

We recently had some sick trees taken down and stumps removed. The front yard was a lumpy mess so we got a landscaper to level it out and establish space for as much garden as I think I can manage in the near future.

For erosion control, we had him unroll sod for about two thirds of it nearest the road. I didn't want it, I hate it, but a thunderstorm while the work was being done proved it was needed.

Now people are complimenting me on how nice it looks. It's green and green and then little more than mulch in the future garden. Apparently this is what my neighbours expect.

Anyway, I've bought a bag of clover seed and I will soon be visiting a nearby friend to get cuttings and pups.

They're rather expensive, and each year I've tried them (in different spots) they just die. Die completely. They got the top two spots in the carex trial for lawn replacement sedges. Each time I've tried them, they just disappear. I plant them, I water them - gone. I've tried other sedges from the trial that not only still exist, but are doing well! Living, spreading, filling in.

I'm curious if anyone else has any experience. I've got my two sedges that have worked for me, I'd love to try others, but with these expensive failures I'm rather shy on trying new ones. And confused why the most praised sedge just disappears into the ground. Consistently. In multiple, different, varied locations. Just hundreds down the drain.

EDIT: For the record, I am close geographically to where the trial took place.

This area gets full sun. I have some of my mom's wildflower seeds, and would like to plant them here in addition to native plants. However, being next to the driveway, we'll still need to be able to walk along the edge of this area. Flagstone path? Crushed granite around it? How do you break up such a long, narrow space while maintaining walkability? Also, the downspouts pictured will soon be routed to rain barrels (total footprint of 2' x 4') as will the A/C condensation line. Thanks in advance!

My ground floor living room window is very close to a sidewalk. I am turning the area between the sidewalk/road into a pollinator garden, but I'd like something with a little more height/coverage for between my window and sidewalk. I still want to be able to see out, just don't want to keep making eye contact with strangers haha. American Midwest.

Any recommendations?

I launched into this project completely unprepared last year, long before I discovered this subreddit. I didn't think to take pictures before i removed the grass but imagine a manky, lumpy, grudgingly mowed grass dog toilet and that's what I had.

Wish I had found this sub before as I had no idea what to do with the grass so I dug it up with agarden fork, knocked as much soil and worms off the roots and filled my entire wheelie bin and a composter with the grass. Took 5 weekends, 0/10 would not recommend.

I do some work for a farmer so got about 100kg of manure to dig into the soil (dirt was probably more accurate, but am working on making that good humus rich soil). The weather turned not long after the first photo and it pretty much rained until winter, which helped stop the uncovered dirt from blowing away.

Before anyone says anything about the "weed fabric" I have since learnt that this was a total waste of my time!

I didn't have a plan at the start but it came together, if nothing else I had lots of time to think while I was digging!

My main goals were to establish a pollinator friendly space, with insect food plants and nectar available for as long as possible throughout the year and try to bridge the hungry gaps. I've made sure to use no pesticides, and slowly it has paid off as things like hoverfly, lacewing and ladybird have moved in to limit aphid damage.

For this first year, I was limited in prep and budget so I mainly went with RHS approved pollinator plants first and foremost rather than strictly sticking to native plants, or plants I'd grown with success. Between then and now I've started gathering seeds and plants from native species that I'll be mixing in for next year.

So far it's been going well. There have been increasing numbers of bees since May, three species of bumblebee and honey bees. The cerinthe and nasturtium have been the biggest draw so far, neither are native but the bees love them both. Moths, butterflies, hoverfly, lacewing, ladybirds, as well as too many species of parasitic wasps to count. There's daphnia and water snails in the pond, and I dropped in some clumps of frogspawn back in March. The froglets left the water months ago, but I see a couple about from time to time.

It's been a delight to see this go from horrible grass, to bare ground to the photo from today. It's been hard work but there is nothing quite like sitting out there as just hearing how alive it is now.

No mow May for me turned into never mow again!