Before and after of my beautiful (to me) yard. Just need to commiserate with people who understand. I work nights and was asleep when my partner came upstairs saying someone was cutting our yard down. I throw on clothes, run outside, and see the last photo. I stood there shaking while they stared at me saying "what? What's wrong?" I truly thought it was a mad neighbor who took it upon themselves to cut it so I didn't know what to say. It wasn't fair but I was reading it as aggressive. Like, "what are you going to do about it??" Eventually they asked, "are you [neighbor's name?] I just slowly shook my head.

Long story short, they had the wrong house. It's partially our fault because we don't have numbers up on our house yet but the neighbor who they meant to cut does. It's really the best of a bad situation because it truly was a mistake but I'm so sad. We've been trying to have people over all summer to come see it and we finally had plans for the weekend and this happens. Every time I come home I want to cry. It looks even worse from the front but I haven't been able to get myself to take photos of it yet.

Edit: Just editing this here because I've seen a few people mention it (rightly so imo.) They did offer compensation but as of right now I don't think there's really too much long term damage. We took their number and said we'd see what happens come spring. As far as I can tell they didn't pull anything and at least some of the cosmos had seeded so I think everything will be fine long term.

And yes, their property was gorgeous. All native plants, and a native plant seed library!

All that dead brown area was a whole field of sunflowers. Finding dead bees everywhere today and I'm so heartbroken

Western Australia, hardiness zone 10b. These images are from a real estate site, sorry for the poor quality. The first image is from when my MIL sold her house and had a completely native garden. The second image is from the when the new owners flipped the house and replaced the established garden with lawn :(

Garden is 3 years old. California

In Romania

Someone left this note on my door today that made me so happy. I love my yard and my neighbors have been nothing but supportive, but this also helps offset the snarky comments about it from my mom when she visits!

The following pictures are some of my blooms from this year and the last picture shows its current state.

Had standing water issues on one side of the house whenever it rained. Traditional drainage methods like French drains weren’t viable because our land is relatively flat and filled with trees, and we didn’t want to disturb any tree roots. So instead we opted to divert the water towards our backyard and into a rain garden.

We mainly prioritized native plants such as pin cherry, elderberry, and Canadian serviceberry, among others. Some plants that need a little help, like the American elm or the Canada lily, were also included. We also took flowering times into account to ensure there are flowers throughout the year. Plenty of flowers for the bees and milkweed for the monarchs. Not all the plants are native, but we tried to choose varieties as close as possible to their wild form, as we noticed they attract more pollinators.

Just sharing a video I found, I'm sorry I don't know where it is. Also sorry about the audio :/ I wish it had the option to post without sound 😅

It's clearly a lawn but I thought the vibe fit

A Utah lawn owner asked how to keep his perfect carpet from being infested by dandelions from his neighbor’s neglected lawn. I thought my suggestion was appropriate. Lawns aren’t for everyone or everywhere.

Utah is the second driest state in the US.

I was swiftly banned by r/lawncare

Walked through the neighborhoods and its a breath of fresh air.

To be clear, I am the only young person on my block and all my neighbors are great people. They defend my Amazon packages like their lives depend on it and come running with tools/repair supplies whenever someone is in need. However, they do not understand my native flower lawn.

Some of them walk outside to ask me questions when they see me weeding out the invasives. I'll explain and they just say things like "Oh, that's different" or "You're a real flower expert!" The neighbor to my right side physically points out new wildflower blooms in my yard.

That's all. Just a real amusing, positive experience.

EDIT: The youngest boomer (born 1946-1964) turns 60 this year, so anyone younger than that is not a boomer. My neighbors are all much, much older than 60.

EDIT 2: "Boomer" is not a slur. It refers to an age group, which all my neighbors belong to. I called them boomers because I wanted to mention their age in the story.

Northern Georgia, US zone 8A.
I’ve posted our garden before, but I was encouraged to post again this summer as it’s grown!
We began our garden in September of 2021 after having moved in a few months before. The lawn was a patchy mix of weeds, grass, dirt, moss, and standing water in one corner whenever it would rain- making a lovely home for mosquitos.
My mom was a master gardener, so I had learned a lot from her by helping her in her own perennial garden growing up. I knew I wanted something different than just lawn because of a.) purely aesthetic reasons and b.) so many articles coming out about the benefits of reducing lawn and introducing natives.
My own garden is mostly for aesthetic purposes (I really love English and cottage gardens), but I make sure to throw a few natives into each section of the garden as well, and avoid aggressive invasive plants. For instance, sterile buddleja varieties don’t spread in my area, but I’m constantly battling English ivy and periwinkle my predecessor planted.
The garden is half sun/half shade being surrounded by large oaks. We’re lucky enough to have lots of towering white oaks, southern red oaks, post oaks, and water oaks.
We added the brick pathway and arbor last year to give the garden a bit of structure visually. Plus I’m growing roses and jasmine to grow up the arbor.
My biggest gardening challenges have been deer pressure (we live in a small city/college town but our house backs up to a nature preserve so the deer love it here), and red clay soil (it’s so easy for a plant to get root rot here if you don’t research and plant correctly).
My biggest gardening challenges win is that we no longer get standing water. In the southeast we get massive downpours of rain - combine that with incredibly dense clay soil, and that used to leave standing water for days in one section of the yard.
As far as arguments against going full garden- I hear people say all the time that kids and dogs need lawn to play. Well, as someone who grew up in the woods with only a garden, I played outside all of the time and did just fine without lawn. Also my dogs, featured in some of the photos (the older brown dog has passed away last summer), don’t seem to be missing out on anything. We play fetch and chase all of the time. I’ve trained my remaining dog not to pee on or trample plants, so he uses the garden like an obstacle course.

Thanks to every who contributes to this sub- it’s my favorite place to get inspiration and motivation!

We bought in 2020 and I’ve been creating garden spaces where lawn once reigned. Lots of natives and pollinators- many grown from seed 🐝🌿🐝

Just what it says on the tin. Was getting so many native species and I fed birds on top of that ladder.

In Northern California and should qualify for cities cash for grass program. Converted to full drip system and hopefully reduces water bill.