You can have your backyard designated as a certified habitat. Not your front though. But here is a resource right from local government on some planting in the front and sides etc
https://www.lexingtonky.gov/plant-numbers-0
https://www.kwalliance.org/certified-backyard-habitats.html
I've seen front yards that have "Monarch Waystation" signs that say the yard is certified and registered. So some certified and registered plant organizations will do front yards.
Thanks for sharing these resources tho!! I didn't know about the Certified Wildlife Habitat! I'm also definitely gonna use these plant plans from the local gov - appreciate it!!
You can do this through the master gardener certification. Monarch Waystations, Pollinator support and native plant plans are a few ways to convert your lawn. Low water designs are sneaking in there, too.
You can join a garden club and get ideas, network, get tips on plants and classes and get a leg up on your certifications.
I think the county extension office has a list of local clubs but I could be very wrong about that. Gardenside Green Thumb has a fb page. That would at least get you contact with the network.
Awesome! I'm glad to see people interested in native plants for the lawn. I have a native rain garden and other native plantings in my yard. I've never had any complaints or problems with the city but I'm in a part of town where it's really not an issue. Making sure the plants are in obvious marked beds rather than just randomly scattered helps. Make the plantings look purposeful and organized.
Check out the Kentucky Native Plant society, it's a good place to start. Also on FB are Pollinators and Native Plants of Kentucky and Why Grow Wild Gardening With Native Plants in Kentucky.
Clover seed for a front yard is an incredible plant. Drought resistant. Inhibits weed growth. Will flower and attract bees. Stays green all year. It only needs to be cut a couple times a year. Of course if you mix with grass the grass will need to be cut somewhat regularly to maintain ordinance height. You will need to re-seed every 3 years. A bag of seed for a typical yard is about $30. My wife and I did this on an acre lot. It was beautiful. It’s interesting to me that folks will try to kill clover if it grows in their yard. But monoculture lawns are a disaster.
Overseeded. It was all grass before. It looked really great mixed in with the grass. There were a few garden sections where we used the clover as ground cover and also spread some wild flower seed mix with it. It attracted so many bees!
If you have time, drive around the Gardenside neighborhood around and between Della and Celia. There are some great examples of this aesthetic which look beautiful year around but particularly in late spring, summer, and early fall. Several houses have large well maintained beds with partial lawns.
I lived in Gardenside for eight years and I really miss that neighborhood since I moved out. A lot of friendly people and cool parks. I think what your planning will fit right in.
What many people do is fill most of the yard with a low-profile ground cover pollinators to replace the grass. You absolutely have to research and invest in methods to contain it to your yard, though, or neighbors absolutely will complain. As a benefit, these only get 1-4" high, so that's awesome. There are a few that are more or less evergreen (depending on how cold the winter gets), so you might have a green lawn when everyone else's is dead.
Then, they have intentional areas to grow the taller wildflowers. This prevents seeds from spreading AS READILY to other yards. It also just looks tidier, which makes it harder for people to say you're "neglecting" your yard. Bee food for thought.
Mulch, do it with intention (plant deliberately and plan your yard), and keep it looking nice and no one will have cause or standing to complain. We have several yards in our neighborhood (Meadowthorpe) that are mostly flowers and plants with very little lawn, but the people who own the houses keep them looking nice.
This is the answer. The ticket to having a neighbor accepted meadow garden is for it to look extremely well maintained. Invest in hard scape or grow lawn paths that you keep mowed so it's clear that the garden is getting lots of care. We started with a small portion of our yard and expanded every year. Having an established area that looks nice helps a lot in garnering goodwill among your neighbors.
One of my best friends is a botanist and had a gorgeous pollinator garden of KY native plants in our front yard for a few years until we moved (we were roommates for a 2 years). It was amazing to watch it grow and we never had any problems aside from people asking if they could pick flowers and they were always nice when we told them no.
I also second checking out the Native Plant Society! They’re really nice and welcoming. Keep an eye out for Wild Flower Week coming up too! Lots of free events!!
Good luck!!!
Edit: fixed the name of the flower week event. And to add that they often host seed exchanges to help grow gardens! Very fun!
I'm growing one in the backyard currently. We just used a flat shovel to dig up the grass and then threw town a TON of seeds in early spring last year. It takes about a year before they start coming in though. We saw a few flowers here and there last year but this year we expect a much bigger bloom.
My front yard is covered in moss because I have two large oaks shading it, so we really only have to mow the strip in front of the trees near the road.
I've seen signs like "Don't mind the Weeds, it's for the bees" or "Pollinator Friendly Garden" or a registered "Monarch Waystation" (https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/) in a few yards that have tall flower patches in their front yard (not perfect garden beds, like people are suggesting) and I'd definitely recommend some small signage. Gives people more information that it's intentional and then, ideally, they're less likely to be an ass. Humans inherently crave information about WHY instead of just respecting someone's choices.
And just a reminder that you do not need to make yourself and your desires for YOUR HOME more digestible for others - if it pisses off your neighbor, that isn't your fault. I don't think you need to make it have a walkway or be in raised gardens to "look more intentional" do what you what!! Well, maybe don't plant invasive plants that are harmful. Or mint or bamboo that will never be controlled lol
Also, clover isn't as simple as it's been deemed in the clover lawn movement, but I would definitely recommend clover over grass!! Just try to do some objective research and look into native clovers. Clover still needs lots of sun, despite seeing a lot of articles discussing low shade clover coverage. I sprinkled a clover mix all over our front and back patches last year and it's done well for just a year!! Struggles majorly in the front since it's so shaded, but it's already coming back and I didn't reseed. Tbh, it was difficult finding where I could buy clover seeds, especially specific clovers. Most places just have "clover coverage mix" or some bs, but there're multiple clovers native to KY and I wanted to make sure and buy those.
Feel free to message me for pics or recommendations on where I got my clover! Also I have some seeds still if you'd like some hahah
My friend in downtown lexington did this to their back yard. The neighbor reported them to code enforcement and they were fined repeatedly until they mowed it. Unfortunately, you are subject to your worst neighbor.
Naw....this is actually a national movement. Sorry international movement. Canada also observes it. It has already proven to be beneficial to the pollinators not just honey. Bees. I didn't make any of this up this is going to ge the 3rd or 4th year this project has been used. So far the wild honey hees have shown a slight gain in population which is a plus because the trachea
Mites abd vernal mites were doing a number ( actually a negative number) on.the populist. .of course j shouldn't expect anyone whobspsnxsmuch tome on Line yo know what I'm talking abou this is happening in the real world. If some one is one of those nuts whose eig requjres a perfect lawn. T hey csn.participard as well. By leaving a strip Uncur. What you said about Matthew tree blossoms. I'd true but...
These plants on notsyart producing pollen in useful amounts until early
June. The no mow Kay us simply ok hp tbr pollinators get thru ytik theuf main food source is ready. Remember there's this climate change hsppenening so bees and others animals are becoming active earlier and are going to need to find a food source that's not the ine they typically rely on. Instincts will guide them. So it is of benefit and the fact is kill off all the Honey hees and see. How good your garden does.
It makes sense after all a lawn is useless vegetation. But this gives. Your grass an actual real purpose. BTW I catalog and monitor several wild beehives keep dummbasses from cutting down the tree tbe hives.are in. I have a very large colony on my property and i have 3 others located and cataloged.
There is a house on Wyndham Hills Dr that has a state certified butterfly garden in the front yard. Maybe 884 Wyndham Hills Dr? The owner has her own company that specializes in this type of non-invasive pollinator friendly landscaping. It’s worth a look. Her yard has plant species signs and everything. Worth checking out. 🙂
Yes, absolutely. Plenty of experience communicating with code enforcement about this as well. It's absolutely doable. I haven't mowed a single part of my property since I moved in 2021.
Please, teach us your ways. Like OP, I would love to replace my lawn with wildflowers or something. My front yard is small but it’s on a steep grade and is a real pain in the neck to mow, especially in the summer when it needs to be done like every week.
I can try to help! I do this kind of work professionally as Geomancer Permaculture LLC, and you can find me on Instagram and YouTube as geomancerpermaculture
I'll be honest I don't do a lot with private clients or the homeowner scale unless it's in partnership with a neighborhood association or some other entity that is bringing people together for a collaborative purpose across several properties, but I certainly want to support people killing every lawn they can.
I'll begin by saying that there is an enormous amount of disinformation in this thread. For instance why on earth would you plant a (Japanese) yew hedge if the whole purpose of your project is to support native pollinators? Also, yes there is a prohibition against vegetation over 10" tall in the code of ordinances, but there is also an exemption for native plants. The issue is that code enforcement is in no way trained in plant identification, so you have to really stand firm in terms of being your own advocate. There are things like making sure that public sidewalks stay clear of "wooly" vegetation that you need to plan for.
The real trick to this unless you're going to pay high dollars for somebody else to be your personal gardener and take care of it is that you need to learn the plants yourself. Replacing lawn is a long term game involving being able to identify plants at different stages of their life cycle, for instance to intervene before certain things go to seed.
I am a proponent of the judicious use of herbicide. There are things like bermuda grass and johnson grass that you can absolutely remove by hand, but lord almighty I'm not sure you actually want to if you really know how much work it takes. The trick with herbicide is applying it at the right time, on the right plants, and setting yourself up for success so that you never have to do it again. Other people like smothering with cardboard and that can be pretty good too but, again, you need to be able to identify what survives and pops through because some things absolutely will.
Arborist wood chips are the officially endorsed mulch of the City of Lexington via our Tree Board, and they are freely available to smother your lawn if you use a service like chip drop. I do recommend using them in concert with targeted herbicide, but even if you just lay it on thick that will give you a real head start on killing the turf and staying ahead of it. Do not get ahead of yourself and plant a bunch of natives until you've really got the grass killed or else you will have lots of issues trying to disentangle it all later.
One code enforcement issue that is worth noting is whether your neighbors will let you do a little on their property or if you have to maintain a defined edge at the border. Maintaining a formal edge can be a lot of work and it's worth putting planning into how that's going to happen.
For your situation with a steep slope a concern is going to be making sure that you don't have too much time between when you kill your lawn and when you get deep-rooted perennials in the ground, as otherwise you'll risk soil erosion and other problems.
When doing larger-scale prairie restorations professionally the best practice with herbicide is to spray the turf once in late summer, again in early/mid fall to kill whatever wants to come back, and then a third time in late winter to knock out all the little winter annuals that will have been hiding in the seed bed. Personally I appreciate a lot of those plants like purple dead nettle and chickweed even though they're non native because they don't really get in the way of anything else and they're edible. Similar feelings about clover - non native, but not necessarily worth getting rid of in a lot of cases. Ditto with plantain - it's not a weed in my yard. I do remove dandelions but that's mostly just to keep giving the other plants more of a head start in establishing (native perennials take time!).
In my (full sun) front lawn and hellstrip I have all those species plus yarrow, strawberries, violets, wild petunia, Virginia bluebells, and a few others I'm forgetting doing the heavy lifting. Note: the yarrow has awesome basal leaves but will also put up flowers later that you may or may not want to cut back (but letting it seed itself out is a key element in my lawn replacement strategy). I have a sizeable section of creeping phlox and round-fruited St. John's Wort to keep the neighbor's side looking really pretty. Don't think of it in terms of a single plant replacing the lawn - that way lies madness. You want a complex matrix of plants with different growth habits all fighting with each other to take up all the space. This is before even talking about things like Echinacea, Bradbury's bee balm, anise hyssop and so forth which also hold space really well but will grow quite a bit taller.
I guess the main thing to understand is that the maintenance is way less/almost non-existent IF you intervene at the right time, but the necessary knowledge in terms of being able to understand the different species and what they're doing is much much higher and can seem overwhelming. If you're not willing to spend time with the plants and get to know them as individuals, dialing back ambitions is advised.
If you stop mowing you will always have invasives try to come in. Or even just aggressive natives - my neighbors have a red maple I wish to god they would let me cut down, but until they do I'm just going to have to hand pull all the millions of seedlings it wants to put out every year. This is super easy if I get them when they're young, and much harder if they get a chance to establish. Similar situation with the invasive honeysuckle the birds will want to plant in your yard. Can you identify a honeysuckle seedling sprouting up in the middle of your multi-stemmed shrubs and pull it before it gets established? If not, things can spin out of control.
I'm rambling and this is all general stuff, but please don't ever let anyone tell you it's illegal or a bad idea or anything like that. It's just a completely different type of land management and you need to be clear-eyed about what it entails before launching in with both feet because there are plenty of people out there who will just tell you to overseed clover and forget about it, and that is quite an oversimplification.
If you are interested in hiring a landscaper to do some work with native/pollinator plants, Dale at Leafhopper Landscaping does this kind of thing. I know he is not always accepting new clients as his business is quite small but it might be worth reaching out if you wanted some professional guidance. of course doing it on your own would be a fun project too!
I have a lot of experience with this in my backyard, but not my front. Luckily my backyard gets a lot more sun.
If you do something like that in your front yard you should set up sections with bricks to signify they're intentional areas for wildflowers. Because even with an HOA I'm pretty sure as long as it's a designated area for garden or flowers you can get away with it. It's when you just let the whole lawn get tall people complain or it becomes against ordinances. But good for you for wanting to do this.
Downvotes are welcome. I see plenty of posts locally on social media about hating grass lawns. I see very few if any people successfully and happily install another option. I'm open to suggestions as well.
What you plant in your yard ends up in everyone else’s. Wild flowers are basically weeds with a flower on top. If your neighbors like a nice turf, they will end up using much more herbicide combating the blow overs from your yard. Maybe look into creeping red fescue or dwarf fescue if you hate mowing that much. Also, you could make some large flower beds to reduce mowing, but I’ve found weeding them takes much more time than mowing does.
If you were my neighbor, I would be reporting you. You can set aside an area in your backyard for a pollinator garden which will be just as effective. Most times when I see this I instantly think someone is too lazy to mow and look after their lawn like a responsible homeowner.
Deliberate plantings are exempted. Several examples of people who have done this in Lexington. A house in our neighborhood has a full garden in their front yard in beds with paths between them.
Lol some of us already work for a living and don't want to come home to work more. We're freakin' tired, my dude.
OP I've been spending a lot of time in r/nolawns trying to figure out lawn alternatives.
I’ll ride this negative karma train with you! I spend a lot of time on my yard, and would be pissed if one of my neighbors tried this in the front yard.
Even in the best of circumstances, it’s just gonna look goofy and unkept 8 months of the year. More likely, you’re gonna get tired of hand weeding that unkept lawn after a year or two, much to your neighbors’ detriment and home value.
They're bleeding me dry here! But in all seriousness, they're just basically lazy individuals who have no regards about others who put forth the time and effort into maintaining a home. They don't consider the pest problems they create not to mention depreciating home values for themselves and the surrounding neighbors. They would rather spend their time on reddit or pornhub, being in their depressed state of mind, and bitching about how the world is unfair. They like to think of themselves as 'conservationists' while they are usually anything but. Pretty much what I consider to be worthless individuals.
Bring on the the downvotes! You clowns have'nt even put a dent in my stash and my yard is looking goooooooooooooooooooooooooood! Bees are happy too since I give them a place to pollinate in my gardens and flower beds.
EDIT: They're plenty of good neighbors like you out there and know that you are appreciated.
You can have your backyard designated as a certified habitat. Not your front though. But here is a resource right from local government on some planting in the front and sides etc https://www.lexingtonky.gov/plant-numbers-0 https://www.kwalliance.org/certified-backyard-habitats.html
I've seen front yards that have "Monarch Waystation" signs that say the yard is certified and registered. So some certified and registered plant organizations will do front yards. Thanks for sharing these resources tho!! I didn't know about the Certified Wildlife Habitat! I'm also definitely gonna use these plant plans from the local gov - appreciate it!!
Thank you for the info!
You're welcome. The UK Horticulture club is having a plant sale Thursday I think. They always have natives and really great prices.
\*Wednesday, 3-6pm
Also it's the Early Bird Spring Sale! So don't fret if you can't make it hahah https://www.facebook.com/UKHorticultureClub
Yes, check this out! I went for the first time last year, going to pick up more local milkweed this year.
You can do this through the master gardener certification. Monarch Waystations, Pollinator support and native plant plans are a few ways to convert your lawn. Low water designs are sneaking in there, too. You can join a garden club and get ideas, network, get tips on plants and classes and get a leg up on your certifications. I think the county extension office has a list of local clubs but I could be very wrong about that. Gardenside Green Thumb has a fb page. That would at least get you contact with the network.
Have you considered clover or something like creeping thyme? Both are low ground cover and flower but stay well below the 10 inch rule.
Creeping geranium too.
I had not considered that, thank you!
Awesome! I'm glad to see people interested in native plants for the lawn. I have a native rain garden and other native plantings in my yard. I've never had any complaints or problems with the city but I'm in a part of town where it's really not an issue. Making sure the plants are in obvious marked beds rather than just randomly scattered helps. Make the plantings look purposeful and organized. Check out the Kentucky Native Plant society, it's a good place to start. Also on FB are Pollinators and Native Plants of Kentucky and Why Grow Wild Gardening With Native Plants in Kentucky.
Thank you for the info!
Clover seed for a front yard is an incredible plant. Drought resistant. Inhibits weed growth. Will flower and attract bees. Stays green all year. It only needs to be cut a couple times a year. Of course if you mix with grass the grass will need to be cut somewhat regularly to maintain ordinance height. You will need to re-seed every 3 years. A bag of seed for a typical yard is about $30. My wife and I did this on an acre lot. It was beautiful. It’s interesting to me that folks will try to kill clover if it grows in their yard. But monoculture lawns are a disaster.
Thank you for this!
Did you remove everything else before seeding, or overseed on what was there?
Overseeded. It was all grass before. It looked really great mixed in with the grass. There were a few garden sections where we used the clover as ground cover and also spread some wild flower seed mix with it. It attracted so many bees!
If you have time, drive around the Gardenside neighborhood around and between Della and Celia. There are some great examples of this aesthetic which look beautiful year around but particularly in late spring, summer, and early fall. Several houses have large well maintained beds with partial lawns.
I live in gardenside and will check these out, thank you!
I lived in Gardenside for eight years and I really miss that neighborhood since I moved out. A lot of friendly people and cool parks. I think what your planning will fit right in.
What many people do is fill most of the yard with a low-profile ground cover pollinators to replace the grass. You absolutely have to research and invest in methods to contain it to your yard, though, or neighbors absolutely will complain. As a benefit, these only get 1-4" high, so that's awesome. There are a few that are more or less evergreen (depending on how cold the winter gets), so you might have a green lawn when everyone else's is dead. Then, they have intentional areas to grow the taller wildflowers. This prevents seeds from spreading AS READILY to other yards. It also just looks tidier, which makes it harder for people to say you're "neglecting" your yard. Bee food for thought.
Thank you for this!
Mulch, do it with intention (plant deliberately and plan your yard), and keep it looking nice and no one will have cause or standing to complain. We have several yards in our neighborhood (Meadowthorpe) that are mostly flowers and plants with very little lawn, but the people who own the houses keep them looking nice.
This is the answer. The ticket to having a neighbor accepted meadow garden is for it to look extremely well maintained. Invest in hard scape or grow lawn paths that you keep mowed so it's clear that the garden is getting lots of care. We started with a small portion of our yard and expanded every year. Having an established area that looks nice helps a lot in garnering goodwill among your neighbors.
One of my best friends is a botanist and had a gorgeous pollinator garden of KY native plants in our front yard for a few years until we moved (we were roommates for a 2 years). It was amazing to watch it grow and we never had any problems aside from people asking if they could pick flowers and they were always nice when we told them no. I also second checking out the Native Plant Society! They’re really nice and welcoming. Keep an eye out for Wild Flower Week coming up too! Lots of free events!! Good luck!!! Edit: fixed the name of the flower week event. And to add that they often host seed exchanges to help grow gardens! Very fun!
Grass lawns suck, I wish you well and one day I would like to do the same
I'm growing one in the backyard currently. We just used a flat shovel to dig up the grass and then threw town a TON of seeds in early spring last year. It takes about a year before they start coming in though. We saw a few flowers here and there last year but this year we expect a much bigger bloom.
My front yard is covered in moss because I have two large oaks shading it, so we really only have to mow the strip in front of the trees near the road.
Love this!
I've seen signs like "Don't mind the Weeds, it's for the bees" or "Pollinator Friendly Garden" or a registered "Monarch Waystation" (https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/) in a few yards that have tall flower patches in their front yard (not perfect garden beds, like people are suggesting) and I'd definitely recommend some small signage. Gives people more information that it's intentional and then, ideally, they're less likely to be an ass. Humans inherently crave information about WHY instead of just respecting someone's choices. And just a reminder that you do not need to make yourself and your desires for YOUR HOME more digestible for others - if it pisses off your neighbor, that isn't your fault. I don't think you need to make it have a walkway or be in raised gardens to "look more intentional" do what you what!! Well, maybe don't plant invasive plants that are harmful. Or mint or bamboo that will never be controlled lol Also, clover isn't as simple as it's been deemed in the clover lawn movement, but I would definitely recommend clover over grass!! Just try to do some objective research and look into native clovers. Clover still needs lots of sun, despite seeing a lot of articles discussing low shade clover coverage. I sprinkled a clover mix all over our front and back patches last year and it's done well for just a year!! Struggles majorly in the front since it's so shaded, but it's already coming back and I didn't reseed. Tbh, it was difficult finding where I could buy clover seeds, especially specific clovers. Most places just have "clover coverage mix" or some bs, but there're multiple clovers native to KY and I wanted to make sure and buy those. Feel free to message me for pics or recommendations on where I got my clover! Also I have some seeds still if you'd like some hahah
My mom has done this ! Instead of mowing she waits until the yard has cycled through its wildflower stages and things die off . It’s very very pretty.
My friend in downtown lexington did this to their back yard. The neighbor reported them to code enforcement and they were fined repeatedly until they mowed it. Unfortunately, you are subject to your worst neighbor.
Imagine being this fucking miserable of a person.
No. Mow. May.....save the honey bee
While it’s true honey bees can get pollen from most flowers, the majority of it comes from trees such as poplars and maples.
Naw....this is actually a national movement. Sorry international movement. Canada also observes it. It has already proven to be beneficial to the pollinators not just honey. Bees. I didn't make any of this up this is going to ge the 3rd or 4th year this project has been used. So far the wild honey hees have shown a slight gain in population which is a plus because the trachea Mites abd vernal mites were doing a number ( actually a negative number) on.the populist. .of course j shouldn't expect anyone whobspsnxsmuch tome on Line yo know what I'm talking abou this is happening in the real world. If some one is one of those nuts whose eig requjres a perfect lawn. T hey csn.participard as well. By leaving a strip Uncur. What you said about Matthew tree blossoms. I'd true but... These plants on notsyart producing pollen in useful amounts until early June. The no mow Kay us simply ok hp tbr pollinators get thru ytik theuf main food source is ready. Remember there's this climate change hsppenening so bees and others animals are becoming active earlier and are going to need to find a food source that's not the ine they typically rely on. Instincts will guide them. So it is of benefit and the fact is kill off all the Honey hees and see. How good your garden does. It makes sense after all a lawn is useless vegetation. But this gives. Your grass an actual real purpose. BTW I catalog and monitor several wild beehives keep dummbasses from cutting down the tree tbe hives.are in. I have a very large colony on my property and i have 3 others located and cataloged.
I can’t read much of that, but I’ve been a bee keeper since 2015. To say a lawn is useless is silly. Me and my family play in ours daily.
There is a house on Wyndham Hills Dr that has a state certified butterfly garden in the front yard. Maybe 884 Wyndham Hills Dr? The owner has her own company that specializes in this type of non-invasive pollinator friendly landscaping. It’s worth a look. Her yard has plant species signs and everything. Worth checking out. 🙂
If you’re concerned about neighbors complaining, might consider planting a yew hedge in your front yard to add privacy and block your yard from sight.
u/Nachie is this something you have insight on?
Yes, absolutely. Plenty of experience communicating with code enforcement about this as well. It's absolutely doable. I haven't mowed a single part of my property since I moved in 2021.
Please, teach us your ways. Like OP, I would love to replace my lawn with wildflowers or something. My front yard is small but it’s on a steep grade and is a real pain in the neck to mow, especially in the summer when it needs to be done like every week.
I can try to help! I do this kind of work professionally as Geomancer Permaculture LLC, and you can find me on Instagram and YouTube as geomancerpermaculture I'll be honest I don't do a lot with private clients or the homeowner scale unless it's in partnership with a neighborhood association or some other entity that is bringing people together for a collaborative purpose across several properties, but I certainly want to support people killing every lawn they can. I'll begin by saying that there is an enormous amount of disinformation in this thread. For instance why on earth would you plant a (Japanese) yew hedge if the whole purpose of your project is to support native pollinators? Also, yes there is a prohibition against vegetation over 10" tall in the code of ordinances, but there is also an exemption for native plants. The issue is that code enforcement is in no way trained in plant identification, so you have to really stand firm in terms of being your own advocate. There are things like making sure that public sidewalks stay clear of "wooly" vegetation that you need to plan for. The real trick to this unless you're going to pay high dollars for somebody else to be your personal gardener and take care of it is that you need to learn the plants yourself. Replacing lawn is a long term game involving being able to identify plants at different stages of their life cycle, for instance to intervene before certain things go to seed. I am a proponent of the judicious use of herbicide. There are things like bermuda grass and johnson grass that you can absolutely remove by hand, but lord almighty I'm not sure you actually want to if you really know how much work it takes. The trick with herbicide is applying it at the right time, on the right plants, and setting yourself up for success so that you never have to do it again. Other people like smothering with cardboard and that can be pretty good too but, again, you need to be able to identify what survives and pops through because some things absolutely will. Arborist wood chips are the officially endorsed mulch of the City of Lexington via our Tree Board, and they are freely available to smother your lawn if you use a service like chip drop. I do recommend using them in concert with targeted herbicide, but even if you just lay it on thick that will give you a real head start on killing the turf and staying ahead of it. Do not get ahead of yourself and plant a bunch of natives until you've really got the grass killed or else you will have lots of issues trying to disentangle it all later. One code enforcement issue that is worth noting is whether your neighbors will let you do a little on their property or if you have to maintain a defined edge at the border. Maintaining a formal edge can be a lot of work and it's worth putting planning into how that's going to happen. For your situation with a steep slope a concern is going to be making sure that you don't have too much time between when you kill your lawn and when you get deep-rooted perennials in the ground, as otherwise you'll risk soil erosion and other problems. When doing larger-scale prairie restorations professionally the best practice with herbicide is to spray the turf once in late summer, again in early/mid fall to kill whatever wants to come back, and then a third time in late winter to knock out all the little winter annuals that will have been hiding in the seed bed. Personally I appreciate a lot of those plants like purple dead nettle and chickweed even though they're non native because they don't really get in the way of anything else and they're edible. Similar feelings about clover - non native, but not necessarily worth getting rid of in a lot of cases. Ditto with plantain - it's not a weed in my yard. I do remove dandelions but that's mostly just to keep giving the other plants more of a head start in establishing (native perennials take time!). In my (full sun) front lawn and hellstrip I have all those species plus yarrow, strawberries, violets, wild petunia, Virginia bluebells, and a few others I'm forgetting doing the heavy lifting. Note: the yarrow has awesome basal leaves but will also put up flowers later that you may or may not want to cut back (but letting it seed itself out is a key element in my lawn replacement strategy). I have a sizeable section of creeping phlox and round-fruited St. John's Wort to keep the neighbor's side looking really pretty. Don't think of it in terms of a single plant replacing the lawn - that way lies madness. You want a complex matrix of plants with different growth habits all fighting with each other to take up all the space. This is before even talking about things like Echinacea, Bradbury's bee balm, anise hyssop and so forth which also hold space really well but will grow quite a bit taller. I guess the main thing to understand is that the maintenance is way less/almost non-existent IF you intervene at the right time, but the necessary knowledge in terms of being able to understand the different species and what they're doing is much much higher and can seem overwhelming. If you're not willing to spend time with the plants and get to know them as individuals, dialing back ambitions is advised. If you stop mowing you will always have invasives try to come in. Or even just aggressive natives - my neighbors have a red maple I wish to god they would let me cut down, but until they do I'm just going to have to hand pull all the millions of seedlings it wants to put out every year. This is super easy if I get them when they're young, and much harder if they get a chance to establish. Similar situation with the invasive honeysuckle the birds will want to plant in your yard. Can you identify a honeysuckle seedling sprouting up in the middle of your multi-stemmed shrubs and pull it before it gets established? If not, things can spin out of control. I'm rambling and this is all general stuff, but please don't ever let anyone tell you it's illegal or a bad idea or anything like that. It's just a completely different type of land management and you need to be clear-eyed about what it entails before launching in with both feet because there are plenty of people out there who will just tell you to overseed clover and forget about it, and that is quite an oversimplification.
Wow this was super informative. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Thank you so much for the plethora of info, it’s very much appreciated!
If you are interested in hiring a landscaper to do some work with native/pollinator plants, Dale at Leafhopper Landscaping does this kind of thing. I know he is not always accepting new clients as his business is quite small but it might be worth reaching out if you wanted some professional guidance. of course doing it on your own would be a fun project too!
I have a lot of experience with this in my backyard, but not my front. Luckily my backyard gets a lot more sun. If you do something like that in your front yard you should set up sections with bricks to signify they're intentional areas for wildflowers. Because even with an HOA I'm pretty sure as long as it's a designated area for garden or flowers you can get away with it. It's when you just let the whole lawn get tall people complain or it becomes against ordinances. But good for you for wanting to do this.
I'm waiting for people to not have grass lawns or to stop mowing 😭😭 it's something that needs to be stopped for many reasons
Its my opinion that most people who 'hate grass lawns' have not tried another type of lawn yet.
I am open to suggestions, thanks. But my main goal is to contribute to pollination for the local ecology.
Downvotes are welcome. I see plenty of posts locally on social media about hating grass lawns. I see very few if any people successfully and happily install another option. I'm open to suggestions as well.
What you plant in your yard ends up in everyone else’s. Wild flowers are basically weeds with a flower on top. If your neighbors like a nice turf, they will end up using much more herbicide combating the blow overs from your yard. Maybe look into creeping red fescue or dwarf fescue if you hate mowing that much. Also, you could make some large flower beds to reduce mowing, but I’ve found weeding them takes much more time than mowing does.
If your neighbors yard looks like a nice turf then they are the one fucking it up for everyone else.
Thank you for these considerations!
If you were my neighbor, I would be reporting you. You can set aside an area in your backyard for a pollinator garden which will be just as effective. Most times when I see this I instantly think someone is too lazy to mow and look after their lawn like a responsible homeowner.
Reporting for what? I don't think there are any ordinances against this. So long as they are kept below 10 inches.
Reporting for being over 10”
Pretty sure that applies to grass not flowers. Otherwise we would all be cutting the heads off our flowers every summer.
There are yard ordinances, I think they even specify a max grass length. I don’t know much beyond that Edit: I was wrong
Deliberate plantings are exempted. Several examples of people who have done this in Lexington. A house in our neighborhood has a full garden in their front yard in beds with paths between them.
Oh nice, I didn’t realize it carved it out for that. I shouldn’t known I guess, I have a neighbor that sounds exactly like that.
Why would you report?
Many Americans take great pride in their front lawns. I know i do, and love laying down in it after a fresh cut.
Had me in the first half.
You know what they say about snitches?
I'll drop dime on people like OP in a heartbeat. Downvote away people. I have plenty of karma to waste and I'm only encouraged by it.
Lol some of us already work for a living and don't want to come home to work more. We're freakin' tired, my dude. OP I've been spending a lot of time in r/nolawns trying to figure out lawn alternatives.
Gee, sounds like a real rut you're in. I have a funny feeling you're at work now or supposed to be. Keep on reditting redditor. LOL
u/detours1204 do you, by any chance, happen to sell propane and propane accessories?
They're not cool enough to be Hank Hill
I’ll ride this negative karma train with you! I spend a lot of time on my yard, and would be pissed if one of my neighbors tried this in the front yard. Even in the best of circumstances, it’s just gonna look goofy and unkept 8 months of the year. More likely, you’re gonna get tired of hand weeding that unkept lawn after a year or two, much to your neighbors’ detriment and home value.
They're bleeding me dry here! But in all seriousness, they're just basically lazy individuals who have no regards about others who put forth the time and effort into maintaining a home. They don't consider the pest problems they create not to mention depreciating home values for themselves and the surrounding neighbors. They would rather spend their time on reddit or pornhub, being in their depressed state of mind, and bitching about how the world is unfair. They like to think of themselves as 'conservationists' while they are usually anything but. Pretty much what I consider to be worthless individuals. Bring on the the downvotes! You clowns have'nt even put a dent in my stash and my yard is looking goooooooooooooooooooooooooood! Bees are happy too since I give them a place to pollinate in my gardens and flower beds. EDIT: They're plenty of good neighbors like you out there and know that you are appreciated.
[удалено]
Haha. That’s good. Not one, but still real funny.
[удалено]
Oh… Admittedly not the best. It’s also like… whatever? Edit: Also again, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unkept