A Redditor put their friend's transformed lawn in Canada on display for the world to see.
The picture was posted on the popular Reddit community r/NoLawns, which currently has 172,00 members and counting. The subreddit celebrates "alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation," according to its description.
"This is a house in Toronto which is highly populated so the green space is small," the Redditor wrote.
Having a regular grass lawn has its advantages. It can help eliminate harmful gases, like carbon, from our air. This is especially true when we compare it to cement, which has no positive effects on the environment or the air.
Typical lawns can also harm the environment in various ways.
One issue is that lawns require a lot of water. It's estimated that each person would need around 200 gallons of clean drinking water daily to keep all the lawns in the lower 48 states of the U.S. healthy and well-watered.
Grass lawns also require other resources besides water, like fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides. These substances contain toxic chemicals that can end up in groundwater and runoff water, affecting humans and animals. Some of these chemicals are even linked to cancer.
Additionally, lawns need to be mowed frequently, and the mowers release gases that pollute the air and contribute to global warming.
There are numerous benefits associated with turning your grass lawn into a space with a garden for vegetables, islands for mixed shrubs or flowers, or something more.
The diversity can make your yard look more aesthetically pleasing and require less work than traditional lawns.
Growing your own food in a garden outside your home can benefit your health since canned and packaged foods have chemical contaminants that can leach into your store-bought food.
Having a garden with a variety of plants also helps remove more harmful planet-warming pollutants from the atmosphere than a grass lawn does.
Commenters weren't hesitant to praise the Redditor's photo of the unconventional lawn.
"Can we get a list of the plants?" one asked.
Another Redditor even gave it a score: "That looks very beautiful, 10/10."
"Peonies in the front yard! I'll bet it smells heavenly walking by," a third wrote.
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