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!

  • fireweed@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m in the PNW so we don’t have a lot of overlap in native species, however I can recommend selfheal. Selfheal is a great ground cover that’s native to much of the US (including Cook Co). If you let it grow it gets to be about a foot high, but you can also mow it and it’ll stay more grass height. It produces little purple flowers and is evergreen in my area (but probably not yours). I haven’t had any luck getting it to self propagate or germinate from seeds I’ve spread in the yard, but the plants I’ve germinated in pots (super easy) and planted in the ground have established and are still doing great years later. In other words, you can grow in amongst grass ala clover, or let it grow as a standalone plant.

    But I guess that leads me to my main question, which is do you want to forego having a “lawn” entirely, or do you still want an area that can support foot traffic, but populated with lawn-substitute plants (eg native grasses and grass-companions like clover and selfheal)?

    • GreatWhiteBuffalo41@slrpnk.netOPM
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      3 months ago

      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 😂