A small garden earned big praise in a Reddit post that was 99% upvoted and had people applauding the poster's plant choices.
The post is on the r/NoLawns subreddit, which is "devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation," and it shows a photo of a patch of wildflowers under the heading "Grass no more."
Under the photo is the caption: "Took out the small patch of grass alongside my driveway to plant this wild flower garden. The grass remaining [is] my neighbour's so I can't [do] much about that!"
Amid the climate crisis, there has been a significant movement to remove grass lawns and replace them with wildflowers and native plant gardens like this.
Columbia Climate School reports that lawns take up an alarming 30 million to 40 million acres of land in the U.S., lawn mowers account for about 5% of the nation's air pollution, and more than 17 million gallons of fuel are spilled refilling lawn and garden equipment.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 9 billion gallons of water go toward landscaping irrigation in the U.S. daily, and runoff filled with the pesticides and fertilizers used to maintain grass lawns ends up in our drinking water, wetlands, and oceans.
Grass lawns are also monocultures — pieces of land that grow only one kind of vegetation — and the Tennessean reports that weed-free, flowerless lawns are death sentences for pollinators, whose populations are declining due to habitat loss and our planet's rising temperatures.
Wildflowers and native gardens, on the other hand, are beautiful and provide many benefits to the environment, including attracting pollinators like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and even bats, which are essential to healthy ecosystems.
Wildflowers are also native to certain areas, so growing them provides food and habitats for wildlife and supports local biodiversity. Native wildflowers also need far less water and fertilizer and zero pesticides, and they have deep roots that help prevent soil erosion and reduce runoff.
Thus the praise on the post.
"Beautiful how your plants are flourishing while your [neighbor's] grass dies," said one user.
"Oh! That looks so lovely … I want to share these with my mom. I want to see if she might warm to this idea for her own lawn … less landscaping upkeep and more pollination!" said another, to which the original poster proudly responded, "I love watching the bees visit!"
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