Homeowner shares photos after transforming messy property with innovative solution: 'This is so cool'

One homeowner saw an opportunity to transform a messy situation into a future plant haven — and may end up saving money on water bills as a result. 

In the subreddit r/NoLawns, a Redditor shared how someone else's water runoff was washing the topsoil on their property into the street. 

Their solution? A rain garden. 

"Picture 1 shows the start and Picture number 2 shows where the water ends up," they wrote. "A small pond forms and then slowly absorbs into the rings, where more plant life will be waiting in the future." 

"What a lovely solution," one Redditor said.

"This is amazing. I've got a similar situation and [have] been trying to figure out what to do with it," someone else added. 

Rewilding your yard — or even beginning the journey with something simple like clover — is already a surefire way to save both time and money on lawn care. Native plants, for example, don't need mowing or fertilizers. 

But contrary to what some people in a fictional future might believe, as alluded to by one commenter, electrolytes aren't what plants crave. 

While native plants require less water than non-natives because they are suited to local conditions, rain gardens can further maximize the environment's natural cycles and prevent yards from turning into unsightly, unusable swamps.  

As detailed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the gardens "help filter out pollutants in runoff," in addition to providing shelter for wildlife and food for vital pollinators — which one-third of the world's food crops rely on to survive.

"I'm not an expert, but I think that if you build it right and put the right kinds of plants in it will self-sustain," the OP added, responding to a question about periods of drought. 

"Ideally you want natives that can tolerate wet and dry conditions," another Redditor offered. 

"This is so cool. Thank you for doing it, for sharing!" someone else wrote.

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