I don’t want this much ornamental grass, what do I do? Let nature take over a patch of it? Hire a landscape designer for a minimum of 10k? Please send help.
More info: I’ve stopped using -icides and I have a robot mower at 3.5”.
I have let a patch grow wild and added a couple apple trees and wildflowers. The city code enforcers want to mow it and fine me, but I don’t plan on letting them.
I’m kinda against fences because they feel pretty anti-social and I’m already only allowed to see people if I use a car. Then again, fences seem like the only way to combat these crazy deer.
I don’t want to design it myself because I want to believe that professional landscape designers do more than just plop stuff around on a whim.
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I don’t know exactly where you live but Praire Moon Nursery, my favorite midwest native plant store, has wonderful seed mixes. You can just cut low and overseed if you don’t want to do anything. They recommend mowing over for the first few years anyhow and should survive and thrive for periodic mowing.
If you want to go crazy I recommend building something on it but that is more work. You can even start with a native meadow and replace it with fruit trees etc. If this is what you want to do to create a Food Forest I recommend Gaia’s Garden for an intro into permaculture and maximize productivity for the land
TIL I should be a landscaper.
My two cents is plant fruit trees that will do well in your area. Or get goats. Or half and half.
Goats will eat everything and still look for more to eat.
Neighbors on both sides of us had goats when I was younger and their backyards were always dry, dirt deserts with only one particular flower they’d never touch because it was poison. Even trees weren’t spared as far as the goat could stand on its hind legs or could pull down.
Goats are absolute hell on vegetation. If you want to clear land, get goats.
Move pigs through first, then goats, then chickens
I also vote trees, and edible plants. Let it grow into an edible forest for future generations.
Put a fence around it and label it a local insect and wildlife habitat.
It’s low effort and you get self-righteous environmental points.
Unfortunately things are not that easy. At least in western europe, if you let a patch of land sit there for decades, it will eventually turn into a forest. While forests are nice, they are not necessarily the most biodiverse places.
Some regular destruction of plants (mowing, animals grazing, etc) is beneficial for biodiversity.
I would do this, specifically for pollinators (i.e. honeybees, hummingbirds, butterflies, bats). They co-habitate fairly well and vertebrate pollinators help keep insect pest populations under control.
A nice bonus would be to add a sizeable water feature to encourage dragonfly growth. Of course, this all depends on the geography.
- Grow weed
- ???
- What was I saying?
Eat it.
Buy goats and make them eat it.
Feed it to your mom.
Pick one.
Put some planters and a shed on it and grow stuff, and make a small house to escape from the world in, also mow the grass so the city isn’t breathing down your neck
Plant a food forest and let nature do the rest.
Raised beds for planting food, which surely will be cheaper than buying food. Right?
Why can’t you design the landscape? Corner blobs flowing into side blobs and then a smokeless fire pit on a brick or paver patio in the middle or a corner, pergola over top of you want. Slap a tree in the middle of the fattest parts of the blobs, bushes around those, and then link between those with flowers, then you put ornamental grasses where blobs meet, and finally a bunch of small flowers that you will have to buy every fucking year just so your bitch of an ex-wife and her retail manager boyfriend can enjoy the backyard that you put in blood, sweat, and tears to afford.
Could always get a chicken coop. Chickens are fun, they poop food and fertilizer that is great for nitrogen heavy greens and vegetables. I’d probably do chickens and a food garden. You wouldn’t really be able to do anything until next year, so you have time to save and do research. Start small though, having a half acre of crops can be a bit much to go all in on your first year.
How about a butterfly garden? That is low maintenance and the cost is fairly reasonable if you can’t find a local org that helps supply the seeds.
If she’s an ex-wife, why does she get to enjoy your yard?
Get a prenup.
watch some Monty Don videos, define some spaces.
- stop using weedkiller and insecticide – save a little money and save your own health
- add in inoculated clover seeds – “inoculated” adds in bacteria that makes the nitrogen more available to other plants – pick a clover that is relatively native to your area – up until WWII and the proliferation of modern weedkillers, healthy lawns were a mix of grass and clover
- leave the dandelions alone – ALL parts of a dandelion are edible – the leaves are a classic bitter green (goes really well with a dressing made from walnut oil, mustard, and balsamic vinegar) – roasted roots used to be a coffee substitute – early buds can be pickled as an alternative to capers – and yes, dandelion wine is actually a thing
- throw in lots of native flowers – attracts the pollinators that keep the rest of your garden going strong
- if you must mow, don’t mow shorter than 6 in / 15 cm – encourages stronger, more robust growth
- take up scything instead of mowing for personal exercise
He said acres. If it’s really acres then planting clover, dandelion and native wildflowers are completely irrelevant.
In a few years it will grow into impassible 4-6’ thornbushes. All other plants like clover and wildflowers will be smothered by the native growth.
Moving through annually with a high level brush cut will handle this.
Oh sure, I’ve rented Bush Hogs to get it under control. But I let it grow as much as possible to be wildlife friendly.
The OP saying let it grow and use a scythe must live in the city with a 10’ square patch of yard.
That doesn’t work with acres.
Agree to that
take up scything instead of mowing for personal exercise
Haha, damn Dad, buy us a lawnmower already!! 🤣
(Once, when I was 12,had to sycthe a field before we could use it. That’s hard work!)
Look into Miyawaki forests
My vote is for a pocket forest, if you have the means!
Letting neighbours cows feed on it
Letting YOUR cows feed on it
Letting MY mother-in-law feed on it
Udder disaster.
Letting “our” cows feed on it
Shit and piss on it
