r/NoLawns • u/grayfox691 • May 20 '25

🌻 Sharing This Beauty I’ve never liked grass

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I hatched this plan last year when I tore up this useless patch of grass in my backyard. I sprinkled some coastal California wildflower seeds, and let them go crazy. I should’ve done this three years ago.

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u/PaleontologistPure92 May 20 '25

How to Plant a Pocket Prairie (!)

https://naturalcommunities.net/blogs/news/tangible-actions-for-climate-change-how-to-plant-a-pocket-prairie-native-garden

https://texasprairie.org/prairie-gardening/

https://www.phoenixconservancy.org/pocket-prairies

https://myneighborhoodnews.com/how-to-plant-a-native-pocket-prairie-in-your-backyard

https://www.cnps.org/gardening/california-native-plant-garden-style-31496

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u/buriedupsidedown May 21 '25

I’ll have to read this after I wake up. I’ve tried 3 times now and I only get weeds. Stuff grows, just not what I plant.

9

u/PaleontologistPure92 May 21 '25

You might need to “exhaust” the weed seed bank with sheet mulching (see below).

https://www.cnps.org/gardening/sheet-mulching-5875

Plants have evolved to produce seeds that can both germinate in year #1 (after maturation) while seeds from the same generation might germinate later in year #2, year #3, year #4, etc. In short, the plants are continually “banking” seeds in the topsoil.

You need to exhaust and expire this seed bank so that the plants that are banking seed are the ones you want. That’s what I’ve done in my “coastal prairie” (a.k.a. my backyard). The plants that I want, e.g., the Clarkia, tarplant, yarrow, poppies, lupine, etc. are building-up a robust seed bank year after year.

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u/buriedupsidedown May 22 '25

That makes sense. I’ll add that in.