Switching lawns for native plants — and edible beds — has never seemed so worth it.
"Out with the lawn, in with the natives," TikToker madeleine (@mad_forbes) wrote on a video that proudly displays all the work done to design and install a native garden and edible beds for clients in the neighborhood of Los Angeles.
@mad_forbes Native garden & edible bed install in Van Nuys✅ My clients ripped out their lawn over a year ago and were finally ready to get it planted this season! My client built the DIY edible beds and we mulched, planted, built the swale, and converted the sprinklers to drip lines and wove them throughout the landscape. There's lots of yarrow, red buckwheat, white monkeyflower, white sage, mallows, bush sunflower, fuchsia, penstemons, & a 'Ray Hartman' ceanothus that will provide shade over time. Designed by moi🍂 #fyp #losangeles #queer #queergardening #landscapersoftiktok #landscaper #landscaping #gardensoftiktok #gardening #canativeplants #ediblegarden #gardenersoftiktok ♬ snooze sped up - astrycuh
"My clients ripped out their lawn over a year ago and were finally ready to get it planted this season!" the poster explained.
And from the look of it — the garden is not finished yet — this was the best decision they could have made.
The TikTok user listed some of the actions that they took, and some of them can easily be reproduced.
For instance, they built a swale to help store rainwater, using "different rock sizes to allow for slow percolation of water into the soil." For more porosity and better drainage, they applied lots of gypsum "to help break up the compaction of the native clay soil."
Low water bills, here we come.
Among the plants selected, the TikToker cited yarrow, red buckwheat, white monkeyflower, white sage, mallows, bush sunflower, fuchsia, penstemons, and a "Ray Hartman" ceanothus, which they say will provide shade over time.
It won't just provide shade, though. The blue-purple flowers of the ceanothus attract masses of bees and other pollinators essential for flowering plants to reproduce, which ensures that agricultural crops can grow.
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If you were to switch from a grass lawn to a more natural option, which of these factors would be your primary motivation?
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Making it look better 🌱 According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 150 food crops in the country depend on pollinators, and those are worth more than $10 billion per year.
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"Obsessed with the swale design," one TikToker commented. And they are not the only one.
"I created a swale in my side yard with natives on the mounds in between," another said. "I have not needed to water them after the summer heat in August this year. It's amazing."
"Trying my best to bring the local ecology one native garden at a time," the original poster concluded.
No more time wasted mowing the lawn; it's time to let nature take its course — and know that even a partial lawn replacement can allow you to reap all these benefits.
Convinced? Check TCD's guide to rewild your yard here.
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