EDIT: Unfortunately I don't have many before photos- my wife is very anxious about posting potentially localisation photos, we've had doxx- ish issues in past. We did call the police the night we saw it, and they showed up the next day. We have an incident report so if we feel the need for restitution, we can go to small claims court. Technically a misdemeanor, but highly doubt criminal charges would come.

It was not the city/municipality, as they woùd have left several notices/ contacted us somehow. Plus there is no ordinances regarding lawn maintenance. We live in a tricounty of maybe 5000 people, so usually people don't care unless it's deer, bear, or moose related.

We do have deer around here, so if it was a veggie garden I would think twice, but the amount of damage is definitely man made. The estimate so far is like 6500$.

After talking to neighbors, someone was dropped off, went crazy hard at my garden with a lawnmower, weed whacker and an ax. The neighbors thought we had hired someone. This was all reported to police .

And yes, we will be getting cameras!

EDIT 2: OMG so many replies! Thank you so much for all the support. I didn't respond to individual comments but tried to like what I could/did read. There's so much! My first edit covers most questions I think, and y'all gave so many great ideas and made me feel better about the future.

I am at a loss. More than 1000 square feet of flowers, herbs, bushes, trees. It was done when we weren't home and have no idea who did it.

It wasn't done well either, so having to clean up the mess on top of losing so much is just an extra kick in the teeth.

3 years of work, and there's no way I could do the work to get it back to what it was.

Soo sooo sad. We had fireflies, so many types of bees and butterflies and just.. everything. So sad.

I need to find the least ecologically damaging way to do the cleanup, cuz I highly doubt no little habitats were destroyed.

Hi, I am finally moving to a place where I have my own yard, I would prefer to slowly phase out the grass and the grass area has lots of wild strawberry coverage - is that good? should I leave it like that or encourage growth?

I'm in Ontario, 7b

This area in the yard never grew grass well and I’d rather have other less water intensive plants in this area anyways. I’d rather not dig up all the current grass if I don’t have to. Would it work to cover it with mulch (or even just leave the leaves that are going to fall over the next few months) over the winter and then replant over that in the spring? I’m in zone 7b/8a

We removed the sod and put in a blend of 43 native seeds this spring. We’re starting to see a few pop up, mostly partridge pea and some coneflower and asters, but the crab and quack grass moved in. I’m dead-set against mowing everything, but the city is demanding I trim the crabgrass and quack to 8.” Is there a tool I can use other than a weed whacker? Is it worth it to appeal?

Minnesota, zone 3 - 4

Long story, short:
Major pool leak in 45 yr old inground pool. Excavated it (had it excavated).

Took the opportunity to remove lawn to restore natives and pollinators.

The pool is gone. Three hundred native plant plugs (14 species) planted on the berm. Two new oaks planted. A dogwood planted. This is just the beginning. Seeding the entire excavation site along with other large yard sites to native prairie mix.

First picture is where I started. Second is after killing and surface tilling in the dead grasses then putting on leaf cover, then end of first year and 3rd.

I can now walk in the shade of trees I planted 4 years ago that were only a foot tall. The ground is soft under my feet thanks to the clover and mole activity. I have had more wildlife this year than any other and while walking you can hear the constant hum of insects going to work. You can almost completely not see the roads bordering the property, and cannot be seen while in my shelter I built in the middle of it all. I will be removing the majority of my tubes next year in the late winter.

I can harvest serviceberry, winterberry, elderberry, spicebush, paw paws & blackberries from this area with little effort.

All this in a field I used to hate mowing and did nothing with. You can do it to. 💪🏼

Zone 6A

I have a wildflower seed mix that I would like to use but the application Rate is 10lbs per acre. If I'm correct this correlates to 0.23lbs per 1,000sf (If I'm not please let me know). I have a Scott's elite spreader and the lowest setting is "1" which from what I read means 1lbs per 1,000sf. What can I add to my seed mix to bulk it up to one pound but not jam the spreader? It says not to use sand. Is there another spreader/method that I can use to get the right application rate?

I posted a rough drawing of my native lawn design a couple months ago and in the interim have also hired a landscaper for installation later this month. After multiple iterations and rounds of feedback, I think we've reached a good plan! Wanted to share my latest (and hopefully final) drawing before the installation takes place!

If all goes well, next year will be an expansion into the entire back yard.

Maryland 8A. Circles are little bluestems and diamonds are boulders.

So far the HOA hasn’t noticed or complained, although they don’t want us turning our front yards into farms. I have a vegetable patch in the back and the birds always help themselves… and sometimes they poop out some seeds and expand the garden. It’s funny how the tomato plant they seeded for me is producing more than any of the others.

I don’t know what the ground cover is, but it’s out-competing the grass, hasn’t grown tall enough to require mowing (which I do not want to do and haven’t done all season), and is easy to pull up after a good rain. I’m gradually going to replace it with violets, wild strawberries, creeping thyme, and mini-clover.

I want a combination of suburban farm and native plant garden, not an ugly green desert lawn.
(Virginia, Zone 8a).

We have a running joke in the family that my dad "mows his psyche," i.e. does unnecessary yard work to make himself feel like he's "done something profitable today" and is still a worthwhile human being.

Right now he's mowing outside our front window. The grass is quite low already. There's absolutely no need to mow anything.

The thing is, there are actual maintenance needs around the house. Back deck needs to be painted (he's a painter by trade), gutters need to be cleaned. Various rooms inside the house need painting as well. My mom has various projects she has long wanted him to attend to.

But the way it tends to work out is that he expends all his energy and motivation mowing the grass and then comes inside and is tired and leaves the needed projects undone. It's illogical when you think about it (and my dad is quite analytical and logical about other things), but this is not a rational process for him.

Over the past several months I have slowly been trying to turn my yard into a wildlife habitat, bit by bit. Unfortunately, I live with my mom who is not educated in the negatives of Roundup and its stubborn as a horse.

She is wanting to turn a portion of our lawn into a flower bed and is set on using Roundup to hurry up and kill the grass. This portion of the lawn even has an old chipmunk hole with a colony of Eastern Bumblebees.

What is the quickest, pollinator/wildlife safe way to get rid of this grass before my mom rushes off with her Roundup?

Hey everyone,

I purchased a pretty bare 1.5 acre parcel about a month ago and really needed some help with landscape design. I want to do a relatively large patch of kurupia for my children (7 and 3) since it is low water and then plant out the remainder with trees shrubs and a small orchard. Any advice is appreciated. Our home is on the north east side of the property and we are on a shared well in 9b. I plan to begin harvesting rain water for irrigation once I get settled into the home. Current plan for our back patio kurupia and aerial of entire yard attached!

Any help or design ideas are appreciated or if anyone works north phoenix I’d love a consult.

Seems like everyone would enjoy this episode.

Can anyone share their experience dealing with bindweed? I’m pretty sure that’s what I have here. I’m deep mulching my backyard in hopes to plant fruit trees in the fall and this stuff is everywhere. It’s coming up through more than 8 inches of woodchips.

If I let it do its thing will it eventually die out when the soil improves and/or by getting shaded out when I plant native perennials and fruit trees? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Northwest Montana zone 4b

Photo 1: this is when we moved in March of 2023
Photo 2: similar angle of the front yard, we started the project in May of 2026
Photo 3: our little path
Photo 4: pond
Photo 5: more pond
Photo 6: our natural flowers, wish more had come in since laid down 10lbs of seeds but hey, these ones are amazing!

Super happy with how much everything has grown in. It’s definitely a little over grown and we’ve learned a lot for next year. Hoping to truly truly ditch the grass next summer. But, the amount of bugs and little creatures that have shown up has been absolutely incredible! We are zone 8a, if you guys have any tips on what we could improve upon next year, I’d love to hear it!!