My front yard is intentionally planted with clover, dandelions, and other pollinator-friendly plants. I prefer this natural look over a traditional manicured lawn, but my neighbor maintains a more conventional yard with frequent mowing and pesticide use. We share a strip of grass along my house. While I do mow that area, I don’t want to use pesticides or remove plants that support bees and other wildlife. I’m currently letting the dandelions bloom briefly for pollinators before mowing. I want to be respectful and prevent my yard from encroaching on his, but I’m unsure how to balance our different approaches. Do I need to match his maintenance practices on that shared strip?
by GangstasPurradise
25 Comments
Don’t know if it’s the correct way but I let the flowers run their course then mow right before they go to seed to try and limit the spread
You guys are your own worst enemies… in landscape terms… hopefully you’re still good neighbors!
FWIW, dandelions are *not* pollinator friendly and can cause issues with malnutrition in bees.
There is nothing you can do to keep these plants from spreading.
Good fences make good neighbors. Your neighbor obviously still has a firmly entrenched 1950s lawn aesthetic and is probably competing with you to show all their boomer friends how nice and unblemished their lawn can be compared to your “weedy eyesore”. If you put up a fence as a visual barrier, then they won’t feel the need to compete with you anymore and you both could do what you wanted without worrying about it. They even might feel free to let a few flowers bloom when they aren’t so obsessed with literal virtue signaling.
It seems like your neighbour is not encroaching on your side and doing the wrong thing, so honestly just keep things as they are! At least you aren’t fighting about it!
I would ask your neighbour if he’d be ok with planting a hedge of native shrubs that can take wet feet along the boundary. You don’t say where you are but there’s likely a native plant society or conservation group that could advise you.
It’s great to avoid pesticides but dandelions are not actually that great for pollinators – depending on your area, sedges, native violets or wild strawberries would be great choices.
https://londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com/dandelions-are-not-all-that-bee-friendly/
Honestly, I’d replace this with some more intentional-looking native flowers and grasses, with mulch and some wood edging to clearly mark yours vs. theirs. It looks like you get plenty of sun and moisture if you’re not irrigating and your grass is this green, so you might as well offer up some good local stuff for the pollinators with this space. If your neighbor isn’t bugging you about it, that’s great, but it’s really hard to see a mostly grass (front?) yard covered in dandelions as anything but unkempt.
Negotiate a hedge in the shared strip of grass
I have the same situation and I just don’t worry about it. He bags all his grass clippings, rakes and bags all his leaves all throughout autumn and sprays everything that doesn’t look like a blade of grass. Meanwhile, I have all the bees, birds, and butterflies in my yard.
If I were you, I wouldn’t even address it. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Let him do what he wants to do.
What I did with my “putting greens are too messy” neighbor where the lawns come together is bevel the mowing height.
The 10 or so feet closest to his yard is cut shorter (4-5 inches) than the main part of the yard (unmowed or livhtly weed whacked).
how did you grow your side? did you till or anything or just sprinkle the seeds and it worked?
I don’t see the issue. He is already using herbicide, he will continue to use herbicide. If you are worried about insects using flowers close to his herbicide and dying, I’d convert your edge of the shared space into a pre-defined flower bed with plants that won’t creep. Adding more intention will help a lot.
If you’re friendly with your neighbor, and based on another comment, it seems like y’all are. Ask about putting up a fruit bearing hedge of some sort.
A while back, I was chatting with our neighbor and had made plans to pull out some invasive vines between our houses and put up blueberry bushes. That way, we’d keep a bit of privacy, while also getting to munch on some berries in the summer. Feel free to substitute blueberries for a local or native berry
This looks like a situation where a barrier of some kind could be a nice thing, perhaps a low stone border if you don’t want to go with a full fence. Edit: or, as others have suggested, a border row of plants.
Alternatively, you could guide the near portion of your lawn, perhaps the section that is tilted downhill towards his, to a compromise like clover. Turf lawn people are more accepting of clover getting mixed in their grass than just about anything else, but it still meets your goals of flowering groundcover. Clover also doesn’t spread quite as widely and freely as dandelions for obvious reasons.
I’d be putting up a patio fence for my “new dog”
This requires a demilitarized zone with a trench and barbed wire.
Keep the dandielions, they are cute and bring color to the area, color is best & should always be encouraged!
Dandelion wine.
My neighbor has been growing dandelions too.
When they reach the seed stage I use the leaf blower to keep it on his side.
I grow hollyhocks on my side, bees like them.
https://preview.redd.it/i84rggvfultg1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a8155e516102e43774adef4eff29a8b8c14935e
How about a mix of native wildflowers that provide seasonal flowers and seeds to feed insects and birds alike. Surround the strip with stones to provide a pretty border.
I might put down edging of some sort and frame like, I don’t want you to have to do more work because of my flowers.
The main thing I’d insist on is NO insecticides drifting onto your side. Some ideas on here for borders or hedges sound nice but his property is so barren I doubt he has the imagination to go along with them. I’d add more colors of wildflowers and enjoy your side.
We keep the boundary of our property mowed short. Then the inside of our property is pollinator friendly. Unfortunately my neighbor doesn’t like my yard at all. Def be grateful for a kind neighbor! And you sound empathetic yourself! Good job 👏
I’m amused thinking that in another sub your neighbour is most definitely posting his own advice seeking post lol.
Plant a flower garden along the edge of your own yard?