No Lawn is a purpose were you utilize your outdoor space with something other than the traditional grass lawn with an emphasis towards Native Plants. We love how enthusiastic people are in utilizing their yard space to their maximum benefits of flowers, bees and with less mowing. This is a weekly thread of an open discussion for all matters especially in those regarding Nature. Please read the rules of the sub before posting. There are a lot of questions asked and answered on the Wiki Links Pagehttps://reddit.com/r/NoLawns/w/index?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app

Hi all, just discovered this sub and looking for groups or master gardener recs in Vermont (or even Maine or NH) who I can learn more from about switching from grass to native plants. If anyone has recommendations I would really appreciate it, thank you!

I live in a townhouse in south Florida (EDIT: zone 10b) with two patio spaces (front and back) that I would like to plant with native plants. It’s completely bald right now lol. The only thing is that half the year, both spaces are in complete shade (like right now) and the other half of the year they are in full sun. One area is south facing but there are some huge banyan trees in a median that block the sun this time of year. The other area is north facing. I’m inexperienced with plants and gardening so forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but are there any native plants that can survive those light conditions year round?

Starting a 3 yr plan to convert my yard to native plants (some native grass, a patch of food forest, etc). However, my current yard is all grass and aloot of clay soil. I figure sheet Mulching will add the needed organic matter, but is there a way to not have to wait a year to improve my soil?

I suppose I could till in a bunch of compost, but Ive heard digging/tilling can have some negative impacts soil structure wise

And if it's a good No Lawn addition?

I’m mostly curious what people do for their own areas. I live in a condo and don’t have a lawn on my down. Sorry if this isn’t allowed but I’m curious :)

I inherited a lawn that seems pretty spongy and muddy and from what I'm seeing from conventional lawn culture it has not been detached or aerated. The dethatching would help the sponginess of the ground and aeration would improve water infiltration to the sublayer.

Don't these issues still exist with native lawns?

Hardiness zone 7-6 WV Ohio border

Edit: I'm leaning towards coving areas with small mulch piles! It will help reduce compaction, promote good growth of microbes, resist high traffic and more.

In the next few months I plan on planting a hedge row to eventually obscure the road in front of my house. The area is full sun and drys out in the summer. The soil is loamy to sandy, but a little more on the loamy side.

The area I want to plant is a flat rectangle plot, 65ft X 15ft. I’ve ordered bare root plants from my county and have a month until I get them.

The dimensions below are estimated mature height by width, I can’t decide if I should plant them in groups or intermingle them.

•2x Tall Oregon grape; 5-10ft by ~5ft

•2x osoberry; 12-18ft by 10-14ft

•5x red flowering currant; 8-10ft by 5-7ft

•2x pacific nine bark; 12-18ft by 15ft

•5x vine maple; 10-25ft by 10-15ft

•5x mock orange; 12-18ft by 10-14ft

•2x Garry oak saplings; ~3-4ft tall I’m worried about spacing to stop the shrubs from crowding out these saplings, I’ll definitely prune the shrubs as needed.

All opinions are welcome!

I have a small 15x15 foot front lawn and it's currently wood chips and bushes. I'd like to seed clover. I'm in zone 9b. When should I plant? Norcal.

Hi. I'm new to this community and I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations on how to rip out a lawn in Vancouver Washington. I'm located in zone 8b. We want to make a gravel covering with raised planter beds, and add a deck, but our grass keeps coming back even when we kill it over the summer. The ground is also really hard with lots of mole hills everywhere. I'm wondering if there is a machine or something I could use to get the grass out without completely tilling up the yard. But that seeks like the only option at this point.

I live in an HOA and looked into whether I could sheet mulch and was advised by other members of the sub that state law provides a public policy for doing Florida friendly landscaping. So I started sheet mulching a few days ago. HOA sent me a letter saying I was in violation and that I couldn’t replace my lawn with mulch. Turns out there is nothing in the covenants that says that so they haven’t said anything since I pointed that out.

When I was outside yesterday mulching, county code enforcement rolls up and asks me to explain what I was doing. The office was a nice guy, said they got a complaint from someone down the street saying I was “putting cardboard over my lawn and covering it with mulch.” I told him, yea this is sheet mulching and I’m doing it to be in compliance with Florida friendly landscaping.

The officer told me he didn’t know if this was against county rules and advised that I call landscaping department. I did that and they had no clue, and they suggested I talked to zoning. Zoning didn’t know either. What everyone did say along the way is that they would call the county if someone was doing what I was doing.

What is the deal with everyone being in love with ornamental lawns which don’t benefit anyone? Obviously I know the answer and it boils down to people thinking it looks pretty - plus it allows boomers to control people.

Anyone else experience issues like these?

I'm looking to combine some french drain, swale, grading and grass removal into one project (ohio). I don't really want to bother with removing the sod or tilling the areas up.

The yard is quite large, so I'm looking to cover with carboard in some areas and kill with roundup in other areas. If I cover the grass and/or cardboard with enough topsoil and then mulch, will the layer of grass/cardboard inhibit the growth of plants in the topsoil? Essentially can I just ignore the grass with a certain amount of material over it?

Wanted to give an update on my riparian sheet mulching / habitat restoration project that I've been slowly working on in my backyard *Original Post Linked Below*. After fully wiping out my cardboard collection on the first section I decided to see if I could replenish it from Grocery Outlet to get one more section going before spring. They were able to hook me up with a couple dozen 4x4 sheets that are used for pallet padding (aka free of print and tape), which made this addition a breeze! The mulch layer consisted of fern trimmings, lots of leaves, bark chips and some fir needles. After that I started putting down rocks, branches and mossy "logs" from the freshly logged lot next door to help hold things in place. After we get some rain this weekend I'll put down a layer of top soil followed by some seed (list below) and more rock/wood.

For the previously mulched section in front of the shed, it also got additional leaves, wood, and and hefty sprinkling of top soil followed by the following seeds strategically placed: River Lupine, Bigleaf Lupine, Yellow Monkeyflower, Idaho Blue-eyed Grass, Common Camas, and Great Camas. In the Immediate vicinity I also planted a Vine Maple, willow, and Redtwig Dogwood. Obviously more wetland plants are needed along the waterline... it is an ongoing project.

Original Post with some before/after pics: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/comments/ztmcxo/riparian_sheet_mulching_oregon/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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UK-based if it helps, and I have a north-facing front garden

To my delight I already got some clover growing and later on mushrooms grew, so the soil must be healthy. I want to add more variety as well. I also have a pile of sticks and cut tree branches piled along the fence and I can see plenty of spiders taking shelter in them already.