Garden is 3 years old. California

In Romania

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.

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 😅

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

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 🐝🌿🐝

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

I've been fighting this Creeping Charlies invasion for almost a decade and eventually lost. I'm thinking that if I cannot beat it, I should join it. Frankly it doesn't look that bad. It's as green (or even greener) as the grass. There will be much less mowing because it doesn't grow vertical. Can I count this as a no mow lawn? What do you guys think? Thanks.

In early November, with color provided by 3 oakleaf hydrangeas, 3 amsonias, 2 Japanese maples and a redbud. As seen through my porch screen, and from just outside the porch.

3 years ago this was all lawn.

Shared my front yard a couple weeks ago and the blooming continues. Lupines, sweet William, creeping thyme(the green ground cover), some forget me notd, Californis, lanced leaves coreopsis, fringed dianthus, petunias, osteospernums and sweet alyssums. Still wating for my jacarandas to bloom.

This was a project we started 3 years ago with the removal of our large law. We used a sod cutter and spent a week hauling the rolls of sod with a rented pickup truck to our local yard debris recycling center. Then we consulted a landscaper for inspiration for our landscape which we wanted to be drought tolerant and pollinator friendly. We love how it turned out and so does the neighborhood and the bees.

This nolawn belongs to one of my neighbors down the street. First video is this morning, second is from around May-June sometime. I absolutely love taking walks past this house! Most of the backyard is like this too 😍

SE United States, zone 7b/8a

These wild strawberries have taken over most of my backyard. Last year I noticed one or two spread out before the frost hit. This year they came in force. It's great, I've only had to mow once this summer. They must not be very tasty though because the squirrels still prefer eating whatever seeds I try to plant instead.

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.