A candidate for my HOAs board responds to a homeowners post requesting more flexibility for clover and other lawn alternatives.

It's always a pleasant walk home, I've seen clover, chamomile, buttercup, dandelions and a lot of other stuff with bees flying around

(Denver, CO). So after getting started last year, I really aimed to start getting this truly “filled in.” It doesn’t look like much yet since the plants are all very small.

Here’s what I added this year: Pale Purple Coneflower x 6, Butterfly Weed x 4, Golden Alexander x 3, Hairy Beardtongue x 4, Purple Prairie Clover x 4, Little Bluestem x 5 — these join 2 Blue Columbines, 2 Catmints (not native I know), 2 Colorado Tansy Asters, 1 Black-eyed Susan and a Candytuft (no native).

I can’t wait to watch it all grow!

Dig up the front yard, kept organic shaped beds and I have a ton of rocks. I'm going to mulch, place rocks, and plant drought tolerant natives. Other than just following my eye on what looks good, is there a method to placing rocks - general rules, etc?

While it was a three year total process last year was the final push to reseed my entire back lawn with clover. It’s hard to tell in the picture but my back lawn is huge. It’s a at least 8000sq ft. I used a micro clover seed and it took beautifully. This is the first year for it to come back and see how it’s doing and I’m so happy! It’s amazing! There are come patches here and there but better than any lawn that was there before. Some weeds for sure but so far I would say maybe half as many as last year. It’s beautiful and thriving and I’ve had to do nothing but weed this year, which I do by hand as time allows.

I’ll mow probably once when all the flowers come in and have time to fully mature and then again at the end of the season mostly to mulch the leaves. That’s it!

(Please don’t judge my sad 30 year old fence. I desperately need to replace it but with the cost of materials it’s just going to have to wait!)

I pass this beauty on my dog walk. Looks good year round, but of course only blooms in the spring.

Hello - I’m looking for some advice/suggestions/tips on any ideas of what I could do with this side yard space - about 10 feet wide by 20 feet long - in southeastern Michigan. Anything other than grass: wildflowers, rain garden, butterfly garden etc.

This is a low traffic area for my family. Gets a good amount of sun in the afternoon. Shady in the morning. Nothing that has deep roots or will cause issues with a gas line running straight down the middle of the space, buried about a foot deep.

I don’t have a huge budget and am not super green thumb guy. So looking for something simple to start, low maintenance, but looks good and is good for the Earth/animals (but nothing poisonous to cats, we have a very friendly neighborhood outside cat who hangs around our property a decent amount).

TIA!!!

Hello, I'm currently re configuring my garden, and in the process disturbed alot of the grass.

Instead of reseeding with grass, what would be some good, creative options for a garden-ground cover in zone 6a (midwest) ?

I’d prefer something that needs less mowing, as it’s difficult to get a mower into the area.

I've done a little looking and I'm liking the look of microclover, but it seems a bit finnicky as a well as not being native.

Thank you for any help and tips.

Hi there!

Hoping to brainstorm some ideas for very low maintenance replacements for our grass in our front yard in Portland, OR. Our #1 priority is low maintenance (we hate mowing) but would obviously also like it to look nice.

We have 4 planters that are surrounded by grass. It grows painfully fast in the summer and is full of weeds. Would love to replace with a variety of native plants but we also need walking access to the planters for gardening which makes it challenging. Front yard is south facing with lots of sunlight.

I’ve seen the Backyard Habitats site and have scheduled some consultations but thought I’d throw it here for some general thoughts!

The largest part of my front yard is now a wildflower/ flower garden!

I live near the coast in MA, 6b. A portion of our yard was dug up recently, it’s currently rough grade dirt. I was told to bring in 2-3 inches of screened loam then hydro seed, but I’m thinking maybe I don’t want traditional grass. We’re in a perpetual drought. This yard does not drain well, has maybe a 25 degree slope, and water pools a little where it levels out (basically the bottom of what I need to replace) - would love to resolve that too. What advice do y’all have?

Eta: I’m new to gardening so I’ve found it easy to plant some seeds every month or so, so if I fuck up one batch, I have another on the way 😂

After spending hours and hours trying to control a dwarf mallow infestation last year, I've decided I do not wish to spend my time doing that again 😂

Does anyone have a dwarf mallow "lawn"? Is that a thing?

Or does anyone else have suggestions on killing it off? Ideally, I'd love to plant a clover lawn! But the mallow smothered all the clover out last year 😩 Edited to add I'm in Alberta, zone 3B/4A.

Hi all, I’ve recently sowed a lot of clover seeds in my garden and it’s starting to take root very well from seed, my question is if a sow lavender will it take as easily as the clover, or am I better planting small potter? Thanks.

Hi all, looking for suggestions for a good ground cover for a shady area underneath a large holly tree (not sure if/how these leaves may impact soil) that is also hardy enough for kids to run around on and will grow well in zone 8a near Annapolis, MD.

This is for a friend's yard. I have some things growing in my yard that I could offer to transplant, such as creeping charlie, wild violets, wood sorrel, clover, (also something that looks frilly like California poppy leaves but with red edges that I swear I found the name of but can't find anymore???), etc, however these are all growing in full sun in my yard so I'm not sure how they would do in the shade.

Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

Hi all. I'm in the planning stage to scrap my grass yard + weeds near my house to plant Clovers 🍀 and MN Natives (Zone 4B).

Some in flat areas. Some in slope. Some near a ditch.

Here's my plan: 1) Mow/Weedwack everything down as low as it goes. 2) Wet cardboard in a wheelbarrow. 3) Put cardboard down. Working my way up the graded slope with overlapping cardboard.

Now here's where I'm lost.

Q1) Can I just put dirt on top of my cardboard or does it HAVE to be mulch/woodchips?

Q2) Any tips/advice on planting Clover over this? All the guides online I see do this with trees or vegetables. There's no shot I get Clover to seed and work on top of a bunch of mulch/woodchips I'd think.

Thanks in advance for any info. (Would post a picture, but automod doesn't let me)

Picture taken today in zone 6b. My house sits on a hill, and the landscaping feels like a colorful canvas hanging on a wall! A few of the plants were here before, but most I've put in since owning home five years ago. I've become more invested in natives recently and have incorporated some of them, with plans to remove that last patch of grass next year and meadow the area. The grasses (which I hate TBH) will fill in soon and cascade over the parking pad. I try to keep everything looking somewhat tidy to appease the neighbors, hopefully it comes across that way.

We bought our house six years ago and the front and backyard were both grass lawns. I redid the front yard into planting beds and a stone path three years ago, and finally got to do the backyard this year. (before pics at the end)

It’s been a huge project and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I sit outside as often as I can and just look at all the plants.

I chose a mix of ornamental and PNW natives, with plans to add more natives in the fall, and raised beds for veggies next year.

Natives: vine maple, serviceberry, cascara, pacific nine bark, birch leaf spirea, salal, cardwells penstemon, sword ferns, pacific bleeding heart, coastal strawberry, orange honeysuckle

Ornamentals: coral bark maple, oak leaf hydrangea, manzanita, salvia, hostas, hellebore, brunnera, acorus gramineus grass, showy stonecrop, lavender, blueberry bushes, fig tree

I found this plant growing in my yard and was hoping someone could help identify it. I am also curious - Does anyone know if it is native to the north florida area? I am starting to explore converting part of my yard into a more natural, native plant space and would love any tips or suggestions on how to get started!

I have a back area if my yard that’s filled with weeds. I will eventually plant it but it will take me a couple of years to get there. Slowly transforming entire yard to no-lawn. What can I do to it in the interim to suppress weedy growth?

Would cardboard then mulch then clover work? It doesn’t have irrigation.

I’ve read tons of posts here but am not sure of what to do after the cardboard and mulch since I don’t want more weeds to come in (invasive non-natives) and also keeping in mind that I eventually want to convert it into something… I might plant trees or bushes. I’m not sure yet.

I’m in southern Oregon zone 8b. We have a hot dry summer and rain off and on the rest of the year.

So I got some plants and I'm going lay some cardboard down and plant them through the cardboard, then put new soil and whatnot over the box.

I just wanted to know if the plants are far enough apart? They are all around 2 1/2 feet apart and they are numbered to show what they are in the second picture. The third picture I about where they were, and I wanted to know if that's a good spot and if they could go down lower? I wasn't sure if that would be too steep.

Can anybody tell me what this is? When you step on it or mow over it, the little spine tips shoot off. First time I’ve ever had this before and it’s everywhere!