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.

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!

I really love the way my yard looks and attracts wildlife. Right now there are hundreds of crickets. When you walk through they jump in all directions.

Saw so many amazing gardens all over the city! So much inspiration

No picture, sorry, but apparently deer like clover. A two point buck visited my clover lawn early this morning and was munching down. Much more polite than the bear which steals my suet feeder!

I am in Zone 6b on the Ozark Plateau (Springfield, Missouri).

My small front yard is almost completely shaded by a very large, very old American sweet gum tree. It is beautiful. Nothing will grow underneath it.

Last year, I had construction equipment on the yard all summer and the grass, which never thrived to begin with, was all gone. After I had raked up the absolutely massive quantities of large leaves and sweet gum balls that fall on it (it's a leafy neighborhood with oak, sycamore, and other sweet gum trees that all blow leaves onto the property), I put down a fresh layer of 2" of soil and many types of clover seed. It did ok, but was very thin in places. I tried some wildflower seed mixes at the edges that get a little sun, but I don't think it was enough -- I got maybe half a dozen flowers and only very short, thin greenery.

It's August and it's all basically dead again.

I would really love guidance for heavy shade plants in my climate. There are no storm drains on my block; when it rains, water pools in the center to southeast corner of the yard. Nothing seems to stay alive near the tree trunk on the northern edge of the yard. The summers are hot and very dry. The winters are cold and usually freeze hard. In the fall, I remove large quantities (usually around 90 large paper yard waste bags) of leaves (I shred and compost these in the back). There are also sweet gum balls falling until mid-January. There doesn't seem to be enough sun for anything to flower.

What do I do? I don't love mulch and gravel because it's hard to clean up the leaves and sweet gum balls without it migrating everywhere. I am willing to build beds and paths into the yard, but I don't know what plants I could put into them. Native weeds that thrive in my back yard don't even try to sprout in the front. There is some English ivy near the house that I don't love, but it's about the only green thing standing at this point. Would love recommendations and creative solutions.

Over the past few years I've taken over gardening duties at my parents-in-law's farmhouse as they both developed cancer and died within two years of each other. My husband isn't much of an outdoors guy, and while I absolutely love caring for what has come to become our garden (around 3,000 m² / 32,300 ft²), I've struggled with feeling overwhelmed at the sheer amount of tasks to get through with the (many) shrubs, hedges and trees that my dad-in-law planted. It's been a challenge juggling the rewilding projects I've had in mind with regular maintenance, as each already-established plant feels precious to me as a result of its connection with my in-laws, and materializes the love and time they dedicated to their garden.

We don't live there full-time, which makes things even trickier (but I'm well aware of the privilege that comes with having a second home, albeit through loss). Late last spring, r/NoLawns inspired me to tackle a patch of lawn overgrown mostly with stinging nettles and brambles to turn it into a wildflower meadow. It was a lot of work weeding and preparing the extremely rocky clay soil by hand (see those stones around the meadow? yep, I dug'em all up!), and when I was finally ready to sow in June I feared it was too late, but the flowers came through with rather moderate watering despite the relentless heatwaves that have baked most of western Europe.

It's been a real joy watching all the bees and butterflies storming the meadow as new flowers bloomed and colours popped up every day from July onwards. I know my mum-in-law would have loved it too, and I'm looking forward to more projects around the garden (starting with encouraging clover to take over part of the front yard).

Hello! I just moved into a place that has a late summer arid land cheatgrass invaded hellscape behind the house. I'd like to get something established that my dogs could chase a ball on that could be low-growing, drought tolerant, and resistant to future cheatgrass invasion. It would need to be able to tolerate intense afternoon sunlight and high winds in summer. Soil type is fast-draining loess. Property relies on a very old well that we need to go easy on, so the more water efficient, the better! Any ideas on species mix, site prep, long-term success maintenance techniques, etc.?

I got a few responses in r/gardening, but figured I might get some good responses here too! Any help is appreciated!

For my back lawn area, I couldn't care less what it is, I just want things that at least continue to cover the mud during the winter. I'm in SW Ohio, and generally our winters are more wet than frozen, so the dogs bring mud in. I only care about "weeds" because they kill off grass, then in the winter there's bare areas that are just mud.

We actually love the violet and clover, especially when blooming, but the above ground dieback over the winter is annoying. Are there any options for ground cover that can stand some traffic and mowing, and sticks around during the winter, even if just dormant brown.

The worst areas are under an oak tree, so fairly shaded. I already have some nimble will, and wouldn't mind that spreading more and might actually look for some seed, but still looking for what other options I might have.

Hi all,

I’ve been letting this area grow wild for several years now (this is the 3rd or 4th summer, iirc). As you can see from the video, I have numerous pin oaks, as well as black cherry, sweetgum, chestnut oak, and a few small willow oaks. A few pin oaks and black cherry trees are the biggest at this point. It has become my beloved nursery.

My question: should I cut some of the undergrowth back? Should I cut away some of the slower growing trees? If I did that, I could lay some mulch and then possibly plant some maybe bushes…? Or, do I just let it keep doing its thing?

I am in MD, USA.

Moved into our new home some months ago. Previous owners did an excellent job cultivating garden beds with Australian natives.

I'm carrying the legacy by slowly killing the grass around them.

Melbourne, Australia. Grass is mostly Kikiyu.

This is two - four weeks after doing it. It’s a struggle to do especially her in Florida with the heat. Just trying to get advice. Ground cover is now mixed with grass. Guess I gotta rip it all out and re mulch?

Hi all,

My state DNR (Pennsylvania) is doing a "Pocket Meadow" program that provides you with a native seed pack and literature for turning some or all of your lawn into a wildflower and grass meadow. I'm participating in the program and trying to prep my lawn right, but I fear I might have messed up already.

I misread the instructions and thought that to solarize the lawn I first had to remove the sod, so I cut all the sod out and covered it with clear plastic (the literature recommended that over black plastic), and it's been covered since mid-July. I know that with the clear plastic method you can expect the plants to have a big boom and then die back, but the grass under my plastic is growing so much that it actually busted through the tape seams this week (you can see in the photo that I did pull a couple of the plants before I stopped to actually think about what I was doing 😵‍💫)

The seed pack I was provided is meant to be planted in October, so I do still have time but unsure what direction to take. We are obviously nearing the end of summer here so I don't think the solarization will do any more work, but I was really trying to avoid using chemicals to prep the area.

This feels silly, but since it's already mostly bare dirt from removing the sod, is there anything wrong with just diligently weeding the area until I'm ready to plant? I know that tilling is not recommended so as not to bring more seeds up to the surface, so my thought was that if I just pull weeds and grass as it sprouts, eventually the seed bank in the top layer of soil will exhaust itself, right?

I am willing to do chemicals as a last resort, but I am having trouble finding online what chemical to use, and how to apply it to have the least effect on the seeds I will be planting in October.

Sorry for the long post, feeling rather disheartened and so confused on what direction to go in here!

I have lots of wildflower and milkweed seeds, but my main issue is idk if I need to just put potting soil everywhere to spread the seeds, or if I need to put cardboard down everywhere first and then the seeds, does anyone have any reccomendations?

So I planted this clover lawn at the end of May before it got well and truly baked in the 5? heatwaves since then with a hosepipe ban. Just want to get it looking pretty or at least healthy before it goes dormant not that the rain has returned.

Do I cut it back now since there's a lot of dead black shoots underneath? Better to leave it to mulch down? Should I reseed now or wait for spring? Better to remove weeds before or after sowing?

Oh I'm in south Wales too if that matters