kill your lawn.

[mopinko]

my 1st yt.
please hit subscribe, spread the word.
kill your lawn. save the human.

[Ocelot II]

1. I did that about 10 years ago.

No lawn - just flowers, shrubs, trees, mostly native plants. Many of my neighbors have done likewise. The neighborhood looks pretty good!

[mopinko]

2. it's funny.

i started the farm 10 yrs ago, but i've lived in my house for 35 years. my lawn slowly disappeared at about 20, it was gone. the rest of the block has slowly followed suit. most of the front yards on my side of the street are only half grass, and on the other side of the block, most all have at least some foundation plantings.
1 day last year the former alderman, who lives down the street, was walking by w his new wife.
he- so this is the block where no one lies grass.
me- and it's all my fault.

[PortTack]

3. 2/3 perennials, shrubs, rock around the foundation and vegetable garden. Each yr I add something

Else. For me it takes planning. Have made mistakes with trees getting too big for the area, and shrubs that reproduce via rhizomes…ugh. No fun taking those out but..if I don’t then everything else gets choked out

[2naSalit]

8. I converted a two house lot...

In Idaho when I was in school. It had lots of shrubs and some bulbs, the ones the squirrels approved of, and a massive wild rose bush. I tilled 80% of it to get rid of the grass and made it into an outdoor garden with several patios. The place was surrounded by tall, shady trees. It resembled Miss Havisham's garden when I moved in, some kids thought it was a haunted cabin! When it was cleaned up, I had it on the neighborhood historic walk brochure.

It was my first landscaping project and was great therapy while I was in grad school. Funny how working the earth has a beneficial effect on one's mental health. Same with hanging out with species other than humans.

[mopinko]

9. there's evidence for that.

and that there are microbes in the soil that make us happy.
the kids on my block think of it as a park. they know there are fireflies there when they are nowhere else in the hood.

i am in the process of getting cams going. imma look at footage, and measure how much time ppl spend on my sidewalk. they put their phones down, they turn their heads, even if they dont slow down. but many stop a minute to watch the butterflies and birds.
the city knows the value of this place. there are a plenty of vacant lots that got turned into 'pocket parks'. no swings or slide, but there's chairs and benches.

[Tetrachloride]

4. my mother and I planted or rescued several hundred seedlings

Drought, field mice, heavy grass, and deer were the problems.

walnuts are easy but if you plant too many , the soil chemistry will be more arsenic.

if you can transplant entire big rootballs of 6 inch hickories, they might long term live. my brother and i almost killed ourselves with the size of the rootball.

Black cherry is easy to transplant but do it where the shade is balanced.

i mainly had white pine, spruce seedlings. i rescued oaks, pines and hickories.

I allowed box elders to live in a few areas.m

American elms and Siberian elms and birches for fun.

Sedum can be mighty effective and transplantable

[mopinko]

6. i want pecans,

i had a couple of pawnee pecans that went in late and i lost them.
i'm trying to convince the city to let me plant them on the parkway. they at least need to add them to the list of acceptable trees. turkish hazelnuts is on the list, but only in the parks.
i wouldnt be the 1st person to just plant something and dare them to notice. i own 4 parcels, about 120' of sidewalk. there's supposed be a tree every 25'. i have zero. for several years, through a citizen driven process, there has been money to 'repair the canopy, esp on the arterial streets'.i live on an arterial street. the rest of this street is just as bad. we've had 3 major wind storms this century so far. before that? everyone knew tornadoes didnt hit big cities. all 3 hit this hood, right off the lake. i lost small trees in the 1st and 3rd, one that was already dead and didnt know it. they yammer about having to 'take care of them' but they dont do a lot of that. they mostly just cut them dow when they die.

i'd also like to convince them to stop grinding stumps and just inoculate them w shrooms. i dont want to go all mad max, but whatever happens there'll be food here til we completely screw the environment. that should be a goal for the city, too.

[Tetrachloride]

7. Hybrid poplar for starter trees if not close

to buildings.

Plant other trees in between, such as black cherries.

i have not never seen a pecan tree. looking forward to learning.

once upon a time, i had world class apples. unspeakable loss.

[mopinko]

10. i have a tulip poplar, but i need food.

tho you can eat the blossoms, there's no room for shade trees here.
pecans are tall upright trees. not that wide.

[Tetrachloride]

5. Buckthorn is a major enemy of Wisconsin forests

[mopinko]

11. that's why you need goats.

i may get a couple of cashmere goat, but i need an outbuilding 1st. and that's not high on the list.

[hunter]

12. We took out our lawn more than twenty years ago...

... and many of the neighbors thought we were freaks.

The city and the water company are now actively encouraging people to remove their lawns.

Most of the lawns in our neighborhood are gone now or turned brown.

Partly it's because water costs more now. People don't want to spend a few hundred dollars a month keeping their lawns green.

[mopinko]

13. the lawns around here are only green a few months a year unless

you pamper them. water isnt an issue here, w lake mich. if i overwater, that water is back in the lake in an hour. i'm less than a mile from the lake and uphill a few ft.

but the chlorine is left behind, and it's still a burden on the system. levels have dropped before and they'll drop again. we've had a few yrs of drought since i started this, and a couple years ago it was at a modern low. like most waterfronts, there a buildings too close to the water. we lost most of a small park and had to do emergency erosion controls to save an apt building next to that park. park is still closed even tho water level rebounded the next yr. washed out all the sidewalks.

if that spread down the lakefront, it's an absolutely disaster. million dollar condo wont be allowed to wash away. but lake shore drive is gone. it's never should have been put where it was. it's a joy to take that drive, ferrealz. 1 of the best parts of this city. but it's a barrier to our otherwise free and clear lake front and ppl die trying to cross it to the lake die pretty much every year.