In a popular post in the subreddit r/nolawns, one Redditor sparked excitement with their yard, most of which is covered in lush native plants.
"Can't wait for spring!!" the OP posts along with the picture. "Going to expand quite a bit this year, including making the pollinator garden 50% larger if I have enough energy. The goal is to reduce the lawn by another 800 sq ft or so this year."
The no lawn movement has been gaining momentum over the past few years. As the Reddit community explains in their about section, r/nolawns is a place for people to get inspiration for alternatives to "boring grassy lawns." The no lawn movement focuses on swapping out grass with native plants and pollinators and promoting conservation.
Grass lawns currently cover up to 50 million acres of land in the U.S. These lawns consume nearly three trillion gallons of water, 200 million gallons of gas for mowing, and 70 million pounds of pesticides each year. Big yikes for your water and landscaping bills, as none of these things come cheap.
Aside from consuming a lot of expensive resources for upkeep, traditional lawns also don't provide a lot of habitat for the pollinators that nourish our food supply and could otherwise call our yards home.
Instead, the no lawn movement focuses on exactly what this original poster is doing — replacing some of the grass in your yard with native plants, which help pollinators, provide varying habitats, and require less upkeep.
"We're on the cusp of a transition that will likely take place over the next 10 to 15 years, away from the conformity of mowed turf," Ed Osann with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. predicts. "We're not declaring war on turf or suggesting that we remove every square foot of it. But we want to encourage people to think about whether there are places in their yards that can be converted to allow for a more diverse and sustainable landscape."
Racking up over 2,000 upvotes, the community loved seeing the Redditor's amazing efforts.
"Wow, how gorgeous!!" one commenter writes. "Also, maybe I'm being petty, but your garden is much more beautiful than the lawn across the street."
"This is really beautiful! I love examples like this that I can use as inspiration." another writes.
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