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)
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I've basically been letting the grass in my back yard grow all spring. Cut some paths through so my small dogs could easily navigate and small patch for my senior dog.
Then I saw the foxtails I thought I had killed were back. I started cutting the grass so I could get better access to the foxtails and my allergies went crazy. Instant runny nose, eyes burning, etc.
This has really dampened my enthusiasm. (/rant
I'm sure that it can get better, allergies tend to be auto-immune and age relevant, since we know cat and dog hair exposure at below the age of 10 significantly reduces children's future risk for fur related allergies.
From my own experience, I've overcome minor nightshade allergies before through cold showers, runs and exposure through gardening work before and found that with enough consistent exposure, after the initial flare off, I definitely grew at least a short term resistance to it, enough to not respond again for another two to three whole years
First those nasturtiums are beautiful!!
I'd would be curious how others feel, but for me #nolawns is a long term goal or process and a part of that process is actually mowing.
I tried stopping mowing and I loved all the different flowers and grasses that grew. But we were quickly over run by a rat sized vole that loved the habitat. Then I also noticed I wasn't keeping up with topping or pulling all the different plants that I didn't want propagating (thistles and other invasives).
Anyway I think having lawn is on my path to nolawn. I can onnly take on so much space at a time, so I just keep converting areas to no lawn areas and I continue to mow the rest.
Yeah this topic was actually something we added to the Reddit wiki. Unfortunately grass just holds up well up traffic so I feel like most yards that have kids and pets will have at least some grass and I think that's fine. It's funny because it's called no lawns but it's more like, less lawn more natives. But that was a discovery we made song the way.
Yeah as with everything the idea more nuanced then it's slogan, "NoLawns!". I appreciate the NoLawns sentiment and simplicity of the slogan (for lack of a better word). I can see that maybe "Less Lawns, More Native Plants" isn't quite as catchy. :P
Haha yeah definitely less catchy
I agree with mowing. Due to the pollen and the foxtails mowing is better until I replace the grass. It will be a little while and I'm ok with that. There are a few areas I removed invasives and want to get some natives in there to stop the weeds.
Yeah it's definitely a process. I've been trying to expand all the places I have natives and plant more. Also I keep expanding our garden. But I've 1.5acres that was "lawn" when I started, so still lots of mowing for now.
If you suffer from it also while being around it, it might be time to get rid of it, sadly :( But if it is just when cutting it, wearing a ffp2 mask or similar makes a huge difference, or at leat it does for me (Also rolling around in it might not be a great idea XD). Other than that, just power throught the 2 weeks/ month the worst part lasts for I guess, at least the bees will keep you company :)
Ugh allergies!! Sorry to hear that OP. I saw your other comments as well, try to take on a little section of yard at a time instead of going all crazy. If you can figure out what your vision is for your yard, you can start with a little section here and there until it's all done.
I know they mentioned making more design guides for more places in the US but if you live in the US, wild ones had a couple design guides available.
Interestingly I took a pill this morning and was able to dig up some invasives without issue. Tomorrow I'm going to try lightly spraying with water to keep the pollen down and going at the tall grass.
I've got some plans for other areas of the yard however my wife said no plants until I finish a few things indoors. :(
Relatable. I'll put off the inside things to do outside stuff then when I reach a hard thing I go back to the inside work and leave the outside half finished 🤣
there are no-lawn alternatives to tall grass. My plan is mulch mostly for ease of movement surrounding pockets of native garden for the front, and edibles in the back.
Well... time to get rid of the grass then ;) You are at the right place for that I guess.
It's a work in progress.