No Lawns

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What is No Lawns?

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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founded 1 year ago

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A confession (slrpnk.net)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Guys, as the person who started no lawns on Reddit (and here) my yard is a disaster lol. I work outside all day and the last thing I want to do when I get home is yard work. That being said, I removed a bunch of invasives from my yard Monday and I'm working on a plan to tackle a corner of my yard the way I've always wanted to in NoLawns style with native plants. I'm always open to suggestions for the Chicago area!

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

Ohh I'll have to do some research on that that's awesome. My end goal (not my current short term goal) is for my front yard to be a beautiful collection of native plants with intentional looking flower beds with a path from the sidewalk to the door and a path from the driveway to the side gate.

I haven't thought far enough to know what type of path I want to do or anything like that yet. I currently have one flower bed left from the previous owner that I just cleared. I know I'm going to have more weeds before the season is over but I'm planning on starting some planting next spring.

I keep meaning to message the reddit mod group chat because the one lives very close to me and the other 2 actually have degrees in this stuff haha. I like that I started this and I'll the least qualified 😂

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

A great resource to get you started on native/pollinator plants is Xerces society. They have two plant guides for your area: https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists/monarch-nectar-plants-midwest and https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists/native-plants-for-pollinators-and-beneficial-insects-midwest. You can cross-reference these guides with the USDA Plants database (linked above) which has county-level data (zoom way in on the map) if you only want to plant species native to your county.

It can be difficult to find some native plant species at nurseries, in which case I source seeds online and plant those instead. Sometimes they don't work out (poor germination) but seeds are so much cheaper than buying plant starts so it's still more frugal even if half of the species you buy are unable to germinate. It's best to source seed as locally as possible (a company based in Chicagoland, or at least WI, IL, or IN).

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

You're wonderful, thank you!

Making a mental note to add this to the wiki too lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If you do, the full Xerces plant lists database (all US regions) is here https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists

And the plants database is here https://plants.usda.gov/home