this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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No Lawns

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A community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation. Rain gardens, xeriscaping, strolling gardens, native plants, and much more! (from official Reddit r/NoLawns)

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[–] CherryBullets 13 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

We planted clover; it blooms (great for pollinators), spreads fast, is very comfy to sit on, absorbs shock better when you fall on it, has a max length that's much shorter than grass, so you don't really need to mow the lawn unless you prefer it short and leaves less space for other undesireable plants to grow, while not needing much water to stay green (saving water). It's pretty great honestly!

Little fact: clover is edible, so if you feel like eating clover nectar, you'll be able to. I know some people might find that weird, but it tastes very good, which is why many farmers let their bees collect clover nectar to make their honey (it makes sweet/tangy delicious honey, due to how sweet clover nectar tastes to begin with).

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Clover sucks if you got children that step of the bees.

[–] CherryBullets 8 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don't understand what you mean? I was around plenty of clover as a child and never got stung once, neither did my siblings. It's not that hard to avoid bees/wasps/bumblebees. Besides, most times they are too busy buzzing around the clover flowers (when they are in bloom that is) to even be bothered that you're there to begin with. The bloom doesn't even last that long.

If you teach the kids to respect their environment and be cautious during blooming time, they are pretty good at avoiding getting stung/bit by the pollinators in general.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I stepped into them a lot. Some people find it difficult to look before every step they take. I cannot do that. Blooming time is long and playing kids pay less attention to their surroundings.

Edit: like 5 times. Which is an issue if you stop being able to walk after you step into them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Teach your children to watch where they step, simple as.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

No playing in the garden!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

Fucking... Don't tell me to look both ways before crossing the street, tell the cars to wait! That's why I need childism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I've always wondered what it must be like to be a cow and just eat the floor

[–] CherryBullets 7 points 14 hours ago

You don't eat the leaf of it, you pick the petal and suckle the nectar out... it's one of the rare flowers that you can eat the nectar of. Also if you ever ate broccoli and cauliflower, congratz, you ate a flower, like a cow would.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I highly recommend clover yards. Minimal upkeep and they help nature. They also require like 60% less water and stay green longer. Only grow to about 4-6” so you don’t have to mow.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

Tell that to the home owner's association.

Please.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Victorian aristocracy: ah, yes, mowed laws, because useful land is for peasants.

Americans: FREEDOM LAWNS

[–] [email protected] 15 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

A major cultural component of the US is the cult of wealth. You're kind of taught/expected to put forward the veneer and appearance of economic success and wealth, even if you are neither. Fundamentally, Americans have been taught a sort of economic moralism that goes that good people become wealthy people and bad people become poor people, ergo the wealthy are good and the poor are bad. So, you want to project that you're a good person, and one way to do that is projecting the appearance of wealth. Shit drives me bananas, man.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

The chinese used to present their wealth by making dumplings with a lot of meat and thin wrappings.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (4 children)

I dead ass had a pest company come to my door and offer to flush my lawn with pesticide to get rid of all the bugs in it. I said "my guy, did you know that global insect populations are crashing and we're heading towards complete ecological collapse? I recognize everyone's gotta get their bread, but this is pretty bad stuff you guys are doing." He seemed interested and moved on. I doubt he quit the company, but a boy can dream.

Edit: no HOA, and my neighbors dgaf, so I can be a proud dandelion enjoyer. Planting tons of natives, we'll see how it goes.

[–] ILikeBoobies 8 points 21 hours ago

Or the obvious, these bugs keep the yard healthy

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

I'm sorry, he wanted to exterminate your garden?

That is the stupidest thing I have heard in ages.

edit: as in, stupid on the pest company.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

I mean that's a growth market if you can convince people it's something they need.

The best part is it's outdoors, so the bugs will come back and then you get repeat business! I bet you even get some whales who get you out for it every month!

This is actually how "entrepreneurs" think. They'll come up with these evil, manipulative schemes and think they're being clever.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, exactly right. I was fucking flabbergasted at first, but I had to make sure dude understood what he was doing to earn his bread

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Hopefully you saved some other insects from him.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

One can hope

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

there are a LOT of cool native ground covers in most places. grass isn't just wasteful and ecologically devastating; it's ugly as hell.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, fescue is not my friend. I'm looking into growing some native clump grasses and clovers and replacing my lawn with that. There's some downright interesting plants that used to be all over the San Joaquin valley. Drives me batty when people say that nothing used to grow here before it was settled and cultivated.

Right now I've got California Poppies, Black Sage seedlings and Coyote Mint seedlings. There's an epilobium species growing here that might be native and edible or non-native and poisonous (I'm an experienced and cautions forager; seems like epilobiums can be kinda bastards to tell apart, so I'm not going to proceed further there), and red clover. I'm looking into getting some Nodding Needlegrass, Three-awn grass, and some Triteleia spp. I was looking at Owl Clover, but it's parasitic on grasses, and I don't to piss off the neighborhood by setting off an epidemic of parasitic owl clover (my power level isn't quite that high yet).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago (11 children)

oh! you're in central california! there's some really cool stuff out there. there's cool drought tolerant tall purple grasses.

or you could grow something more utilitarian; like vegetables or herbs or something. that's also really nice. they don't look as pretty, but they smell AMAZING. plus you can attract cats.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

No drop of rain blames themselves for the flood.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Still get knocks on my door from companies wanting to help me with my yard.

No thanks.

Bunnies made homes in leaves, I get to watch a red-tailed hawk hunt in my backyard with their adolescent hawks, baby deer taking naps in the grass, the turtles still visit and have a places to lay their eggs (small pond on property), peeper frogs in the spring, lightning bugs like crazy in the summer, 3ft garder snake that suns in the bushes / front steps in the summer, birds have taken over the bushes and my dogs get to chase bunnies and watch the birds from the windows.

Besides this being a remenant of slave ownership, look how many slaves I have to keep my lawn perfectly manicured type thing, it's just another capitalist shit storm they sell you to keep you from seeing what's really going on and paying more for things that are ultimately killing you, us, everyone.

Oh, and I don't spend every waking fucking moment on the weekends, mowing, raking, moving specific nature into another spot, all for vanity's sake and to turn around and do it all over again.

Or go get gas, spill it filling up the lawn mower, further pollute the atmosphere etc., (my stuff is electric anyways).

So many benefits to this.

Take your time and energy back.

Stop fighting nature.

Let the planet live like it wants.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Do you just let your grass grow wild or planted something like clover like others are suggesting?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

For now, I let it grow wild and mow it in certain areas because the grass grows so long and thick it's like a foot tall shag rug standing up. My dogs get lots in it and there's a ton of ticks if I don't.

I also already have wild strawberries, clovers, etc. and I'm happy for those to take over the yard. But I want to add patches / areas of native wild flowers eventually. Help the pollinators out some more.

There's a place, in my state, that sells native griund cover and even gives tips on how to 'kill' your yard and replace with native ground cover.

I also didn't specify, my backyard is all open and I've let that go completely. It's really fun to see how nature has taken it back.

Part of the front is fenced in, to keep the dogs safe, but that's the only part I do any mowing in, so I can see my pups when the grass grows too long.

Thanks for asking!

What do you do with yours?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

I let it grow for a 3 weeks before cutting. Nothing special over here. My grass grows slow so that's nice.

I've thought of doing some planting but I get over whelmed and just let it go

[–] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Our first one of the year earlier this week

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

Native plants ftw! Did anyone look into pocket forests too? I'll try to pitch it on my next community meeting

[–] [email protected] 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I live in a van, I've spent a lot of time deep in the woods all across the US. There are still hardly any insects when the nearest lawn is dozens of miles away. This is almost definitely related to industrial scale pollution effecting the entire ecosystem not just just localized habitat destruction.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago

I live in California's central valley. It's a big area that's kind of similar to the serenghetti in terms of ecology in that it's technically a desert purely by rainfall measures, but it's a seasonal wetland in practice. Suffice it to say that bugs used to be off the fucking hook here; if you drove for forty minutes, your car was caked. Now, you barely get six bugs. Scared the shit out of my nature-loving mom when I pointed that out.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not my lawn. I've been selectively breeding my yard to only have highly drought tolerant native plants. My neighbor brags about his st Augustine monoculture and the $400 a month water bill to keep it alive, but always asks me what my secret is because I literally never water, fertilize, or poison it (besides with specific poison for invasive fire ants).

Although I am planning on seeding clover this year, largely because I plan on urban farming in my backyard, but I won't complain about the nitrogen fixing in the front either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Your lawn sounds far more interesting than his. I hate the cookie cutter, artificially green lawns.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 23 hours ago

I think it looks better, but I'm an outdoorsman at heart so I prefer nature.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

What do you use against fire ants?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago

Pollinators HATE this one simple trick!

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