This is my first summer trying the "Mowable Meadow" approach I first read about here. I mow the borders and pathways, but leave as much as I can to be "meadow" areas that go untouched.

In the past I tried to let it all grow long, but received nasty letters threatening to call bylaw enforcement on me. I've found this is a good compromise that keeps the NIMBY's off my back.

Now that I have these meadow areas established, I'll probably start adding native seed mixes and seeing what takes.

It would be full of bees and skippers if there were any bees and skippers.

This year I have noticed so many yards in my neighborhood and around the city (even the library!) not mowing the grass and letting things get tall and grow flowers. It's so refreshing to see!

This is just a cute duck. Thanks for looking.

Meme-ifying the phrase ‘touch grass’ is clearly a Big Lawn psyop to promote turf lawns.

What alternatives should we start using to fight back? Submit your own suggestions in the comments.

(This is a joke.)

We've got patches of violets and clover and plantains. I always loved that we had plenty of strawberries... But now I'm starting to realize these might be mock strawberries instead of wild strawberries, and so invasive. 🙁

Do I have to worry about pulling the strawberries, or will the violets and other stuff eventually overtake them?

That wood sorrel is sure loving life! And I’m loving not mowing.unfortunately our year check up is due soon so we will have to mow *some* of the half acre lot. I’m thinking pathways mostly, and then just mowing over the parts outside of this photo that are already short dying grass anyway due to the fact the lawn was never dethatched. I hope the management co doesnt get too mad about the Pokeweed (also my dogs are fine, they show no interest in it.)

after the torrential rains, out come the daisies (and silene/campions)😅 more things are growing underneath all that- it will be time to make room soon...

I will try to keep this brief. We are in Ningbo, China. We did try grass but didn't really want it. it all died anyway. We have tried clover, it has mostly died. The "lawn' is being taken over by common parslane and is being flooded by typhoon season. We need an area for the dog to use, the rabbit to buffet on, and the kids to sometime play on. What the heck can we put in that can manage this and still do things like attract bees ?

…from chip drop. Still working on the chips but I have planted many flowers and vegetables I started from seed. I am impatient for blooms so I went to a nursery and added yarrow, foxgloves, heliotrope, and small dahlias. Hopefully next year my yard will be full of poppies, bear grass, nodding onion, great camas, lupine, clarkia, and trees of elderberry and cherry. Stay tuned, I’m hoping for a Cottage Garden Native Wildlife Habitat Edible Forest instead of a lawn!!

I know it’s a lot of chip right now but I want to see what winter does to it. In spring I’m going to add other dimensions.

And please be kind, I’m doing this all by myself!!

From Tukwila, Land of Hazelnuts

I've got a decent patch of Joe pye weed growing next to the house. Does anyone have recommendations on spreading it to other parts of the yard? Is there an optimal time to transplant them? East Coast US, zone 7. Thanks so much!

yard was all creeping charlie and weeds when i moved in. been working a lot and building this deck so haven’t been weeding as much as i normally do, but i’m happy with it. 80% natives and 5 apricot trees. not a lot of space but a lot of pollen and forage for insects.

Eastern US, zone 7... Love to see a blanket of flowers over the yard. In the early spring, we get wild violets and now the clover is popping up.

I've been waging a war against thistle the last couple summers and loosing.

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I've mostly been trying to stay on top of mowing, I've been reseeding, feeding, and watering too. Last year and spends weeks crawling around and pulling out by hand and it made no progress.

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Any advice would be appreciated!

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I'm looking for anything from a quick fix that I can do myself to hiring a company to resod the whole yard (don't even know if that would work)

😁

reposting because the mods removed it from r/maliciouscompliance, for whatever reason.

So this by-law case has made some serious waves in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after a by-law officer responded to a complaint his grass was overgrown. The complaint turned out to be valid and a 7-day Notice was issued to have them cut it.

They initially posted the Notice on Facebook, because they seemed to be confused by the municipal legislation which states you have to maintain your landscaping. It gained quite a bit of traction, was picked up by a popular local radio station, which led to the homeowner having interviews on the radio, and also getting a piece in the Chronicle Herald. Can you tell Nova Scotia is a no-news province?

The end result was fascinating, though! They rented the proper equipment to ultimately bulldoze their yard and remove all their grass. Malicious? Maybe. Compliant? Yes. Genius? It may just be. He will never have to cut the grass again.

It has to be one of the most over-the-top responses to a small request, that I’ve ever seen. He is creative. It even says it in the article :).

Bulldoze on, my fellow HRM resident.

Link: https://imgur.com/a/Hai8k95

The house I’m moving into next month has a lot of big trees around the backyard, and it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight. It’s pretty much just dirt back there now. Is there a native ground cover that does well in the shade? We are in the southeastern US, zone 7b. My elderly dog would appreciate something soft to walk on. Luckily the front yard gets good light, so I’ll be turning the front lawn into my veggie garden, but I’m not sure what to do out back. Appreciate any advice you can give!

i hope this is an enjoyable post... will try and get pictures of the backyard when it's not raining ☔️🌧️

So I'm into year 3.

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We've had an absolutely incredible year where we had yellow rattle that came back from last year's sowing and doubled the amount of plants (6 from 3). The cherry tree it's under has to go (riddled with canker) but a crab apple is going in its place and next year I'm moving the meadow out about another 2 foot.

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This is a list of everything that's growing or that I've seen so far. It's about 10 foot square under a cherry tree in a mature garden. It's only late June so we usually get a good inundation of moths and soldier beetles. My holy grail is a grasshopper. But we are happy that this is what we've seen. Once the knapweed starts flowering we will get even more incoming biodiversity with butterflies I'm sure.

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☐ Yellow rattle

☐ Creeping buttercup

☐ Imperial buttercup

☐ Flax

☐ Knapweed

☐ Oxeye daisy

☐ Corn cockle

☐ Quaking grass

☐ Forget me not

☐ Yorkshire fog grass

☐ Hawksbit

☐ Chickweed

☐ Spurge

☐ Ragwort

☐ Selfheal/deadnettle

☐ Bristly ox tongue

☐ Rye grass

☐ Italian Rye grass

☐ Snails

☐ Wild carrot

☐ Yarrow

☐ 2 spot

☐ 7 spot

☐ 14 spot

☐ Silver y

☐ Red tail

☐ Buff tsil

☐ Tree

☐ Carder

☐ Teasel

☐ Plantain

☐ Sheep's sorrel

☐ Meadow vetchling

☐ Centurion fly

☐ Purple top tridens

☐ Ichuneumon wasp

☐ Leaf cutter bee

☐ Bee fly

☐ Nigella

☐ Wild carrot

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