New home came with large trees and lawn. What is best way for two people of limited means to help nature reclaim this lawn? Massive lawns are deeply engrained in the culture here, so little local support for our plan.
So far we have,
1) already tackled invasives, that's going well
2) planned a close shave of grass around trees in the fall so leaves/needles can create natural mulch
3) identified and are encouraging tree seedlings (thanks, squirrels)
4) have native sprouts and seeds set to go for this fall and next spring
What are our next steps?? It seems like a huge task and we'd appreciate some advice and suggestions!
by localpotato_232
13 Comments
It’ll help to give a region and an intent! Rewilding in South Carolina isn’t the same as rewilding in Oregon.
Are you trying to go back to forest? Prairie?
First post here, sorry. Michigan, Zone 6a
I would just carpet bomb a ton of seeds for all sorts of indigenous edible plants, then selectively mow trails around whatever decides to grow. Bonsai food forest style.
Hey, also in Southeast Michigan. I bought lots of seeds for Rudbeckia, Echinacea, “Indian Blanket Flowers, Coreopsis and placed them in an area I cleared and the majority of them grew on their own and required little to no maintenance (the flowers listed here are all native wildflowers).
The “cardboard box over the grass then compost soil on the top of the box” method worked pretty well for me as well.
I also let the “wild carrots” (Queen Anne’s lace) grow out as well.
Flowers will bring a ton of life to the area! Bees, butterflies etc. When I first bought my home 6 years ago there was barely anything in the lawn but now anytime I look outside there’s multiple butterflies, various trees and I need to watch where I step for the toads.
Also if you’re in a SOCRRA municipality you can buy fairly cheap compost from SPURT. Spurt uses our “yard waste” to create their compost.
EDIT: saw your question as to why let Queen Anne’s Lace grow. Yes it’s not “native” but the science behind native and invasive is not a black and white science. But with that being said. It’s a solid food source for the Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillar. I’ve seen many caterpillars on mine. I’ve also seen significantly more bees and pollinators hanging around the cluster of my Queen Anne’s Lace than my native wildflower patches. Your mileage may vary.
You have a lot of beautiful space! The approach I like is to kill grass by sheet mulching, and I do sections at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed.
I would start by sheet mulching or smother with tarp around trees with a large diameter that you can then plant in. But don’t smother the root flare of the tree. Google shady soft landings. Plant natives that tolerate shade. I have a local native plant nursery near me so my approach has been buying plugs and planting those in the sheet mulched areas. This does cost more than doing it by seed but it works for me.
https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html
If you want to save money…or you want to do a very large area… Kill grass by using herbicides or smother with tarp. Get a seed mix for your area. Prairie moon nursery has good native seed mixes.
Some suggestions to look into that I have found fruitful as my wife and I have begun to rewild an agricultural field in Nampa, Idaho. Perform soil samples to understand the growing conditions, read the book the Miyawaki Method, start assembling a list of native ground layers, grasses, flowers, shrubs, sub-canopy trees, and canopy tree varieties, look at resources from the Sugi Project, reach out to your local university extension office for resources and perhaps their plant nursery to purchase native trees and shrubs in bulk at cheaper prices, and contact your local natural resources conservation service office for pollinator and other cost-share programs and grant opportunities. Some planning and prep work will go a long way. Best of luck!
Prairie moon has some good resources on starting larger areas from seed, Michigan wildflower farm has nice seed mixes with local genotypes. If you’re doing natives you wont need much in terms of soil amendments
You should create some nice pathways. If I ever obtained so much land, I’d add trails so that I can exercise in my own yard.
Nice. Enjoy
Sheep.
Ernst Seeds is a great resource for bulk seed mixes and they have specific regional genotypes.
🌳 just stopping by to say congrats and it’s so beautiful 😍 people I know with acreage like this cut their own trails for hiking and XC skiing.
Hurray for you! I’m in South East Michigan too and I am one year into a 1.5 acre long skinny lot that backs into a nature preserve. I think a good place to start is to catalogue the natives that are already present to give you some clues as to what the land will support. Then to think about keystone species you can introduce- here’s [**a great resource**](https://homegrownnationalpark.org/keystone-plants/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18308034930&gbraid=0AAAAAo4dHtjySuVqiHtWO_9ayD-nNVpc2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqebEBhD9ARIsAFZMbfw50SFJtBLMpRGARHoMzwPfCJDiyJjseDeUGKUJEiAkZBvfFimRsPUaAuZgEALw_wcB) . Then look for a local native plant group like in Washtenaw County we have [**seeds to community**](https://homegrownnationalpark.org/keystone-plants/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18308034930&gbraid=0AAAAAo4dHtjySuVqiHtWO_9ayD-nNVpc2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqebEBhD9ARIsAFZMbfw50SFJtBLMpRGARHoMzwPfCJDiyJjseDeUGKUJEiAkZBvfFimRsPUaAuZgEALw_wcB)-. These local native plant groups are great sources of the ecotypes of your region. This past year I stopped mowing and raking leaves on the property for maybe the first time in 20 years. I just mowed paths in the grass. It was so exciting to see natives like stinging nettle, yarrow, pussy toes, golden rod, poke weed, wild strawberries, woodland violet – just show up once I stopped mowing! I’ve picked a few of those spots and started hand pulling grass just a bit at a time. Honestly I think letting the invasive lawn grass grow tall is weakening it. It’s easy to pull out when it’s long. I also used my moving boxes to kill a few sections of grass and put in a garden and some keystone native plants. My neighbors mow their grass to like half an inch constantly. One of them is a angry at me about my yard but they have a history of dumping trash on the back part of my property and are upset I won’t let them do that anymore. The other is fine with it and we are pretty friendly. I’ve used A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan by [Joshua G. Cohen](https://msupress.org/search-results-grid/?contributor=joshua-g-cohen), [Michael A. Kost](https://msupress.org/search-results-grid/?contributor=michael-a-kost), [Bradford S. Slaughter](https://msupress.org/search-results-grid/?contributor=bradford-s-slaughter) and [Dennis A. Albert](https://msupress.org/search-results-grid/?contributor=dennis-a-albert) as a guide. You can gather information about what your land may have been pre-colonization on the [**Michigan Natural Features Inventory Page**](https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/) and if you really have the restoration bug check out the [**MSU Conservation Stewards program**](https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/programs/conservation-stewards-program)**.** It’s a great way to meet people in your county who are interested in the same thing. Also the folks in these programs are a great source for swapping plants, seeds, and information.