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Food Not Lawns: the official site for the international movement of folks who want to grow Food Not Lawns!
(www.foodnotlawns.com)
Trees Not Grass
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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No Lawns
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What is No Lawns?
A community devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation. Rain gardens, xeriscaping, strolling gardens, native plants, and much more! (from official Reddit r/NoLawns)
Have questions or don't know where to begin?
- You can check our website
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- NativePlantGardening - Mander
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I’m convinced that suburban gardening is just an elaborate way to spend tons of money and resources feeding the local squirrel and rat population.
Source: my tomatoes and peppers. Again. Just like last year. And the year before.
At least it helps some local animals!
Squirrels in suburbs are invasive and destructive because all of their natural predators have been driven away by suburban development.
This is common sense. Lawns of only grass are absolutely useless. Require ton of water, treatment, and chemicals to keep them looking nice.
You can’t eat the grass. Grow fruits, veggies and herbs.
"but my property value!" -s
Not to get super off-topic,....but who is Adam and why should i care that he eats ass?
You don't have to care, you just have to know. And now you do.
Honestly, I've tried gardening, and it is a ton of work and just not my cup of tea. I'd rather build, like, a big front porch that comes out to the street, and then have some vines on trellises, and maybe a tree or two.
If you ever want to try again, native plants for your region should be less effort. After all, they're what would have grown there with no human intervention anyway.
Some older family friends replaced their lawn with native plants because they don't need to be watered unless there's a drought, and take a really hands off approach with their garden now.
We need a law that prevents HOA’s from interfering in the growth of crops or native wild flowers.
We need a law that prevents HOA's
This would work too.
Maryland passed a bill doing just that:
Beautiful.
Literally!
Whaaaaaaat I didn't realize I accidentally joined the gang again when I cropped my "lawn." That's absolutely sick, hail satan, FNB forever. I will have to send them my photos.
My front yard is full of pumpkin vines rn
The bees love my foxglove (native to the area, but which I planted). I spent maybe a minute watching them and saw half a dozen bees of different species.
Lawns are pernicious beasts that keep trying to take back the spaces we try to carve out for garden and food.
It’s worse than hedge bindweed and I don’t know what to do about it.
Fucking bindweed. Don't pull it out--that just makes it regrow faster. You want to snip it.
Raised beds and frequent plucking of undesired shoots.
The last raised bed, cardboard and fir chips underneath, filled last summer, was so tight with grass at the edges, when I tried to pull the grass out by the base a giant section of dirt 6 inches deep came with it. Roughly 1/6 the soil need replacing after that one pull.
There has to be a better way.
Pull the grass after a good rain. Not when it's the consistency of cement.
You got an interesting grass species if it goes 6in deep. Most grass root systems are closer to the surface.
I'd say trim it until you get a decent rain like the other poster mentions.
Cardboard or tarp on top when the snow melts can reduce how much grows underneath before you start planting in spring/summer.
It’s a nasty species whatever it is. We have to burrow with our hands to pull out the roots. They appear to send runners, like mint or bamboo. We’re thinking of trying a sod cutter next.
We’re trying to keep the plastic to a minimum, though that’s likely a losing battle.
I just want to mention strawberries are a great thing to grow. They are equal to or greater in nutrition than bananas.
Also, if you have the right soil and light requirements for it, they will absolutely take over wherever you put them.
I grew vegetables in my backyard last summer. But the neighbors here really like to keep their cats outside and they shit and piss in my yard. Including in my vegetable garden.
We also had these 2 birds make a nest above our backdoor. Then they had babies and after 2 days, the nest was empty and blood was everywhere.
If anybody has ideas, please tell me because i don't know what to do anymore.
There is so... many... cats... and people in my neighborhood are very shitty people. So asking them kindly to keep their shitty cats inside is a no no.
I have tried putting spikes on my fence but they don't give a shit. They still climb over it.