First, I just wanted to put in a plug for pocket prairies and why this can be superior to a traditional garden.
If you do a dense planting of native plants, weeds will struggle to compete, and it’s actually the environment that many of these plants are adapted to. Many will flop over if they are all alone. This is also more beneficial for pollinators and other creatures because the end result is more flowers and species of plants than you would have otherwise.
In the spirit of ‘NoLawn’, this is the easiest way to accomplish no lawn. Make it prairie! I know countless prairies that look incredible with just removal of cedar trees and periodic disturbance, and you can have that piece of nature in your own front yard. It’s absolutely worth it, but, the city might come for you…
ACTUAL UPDATE: Basically, the Superintendent of Code Enforcement came out and we had a conversation about what I’m doing and why. They were very familiar with people like me, and he mainly just wanted me out of their hair (I think at least). So, they gave me a deal:
-The hellstrip needs to stay under 12” in height.
-I have to keep a 20” mulched area on the front of my side of the sidewalk.
-rocks need to be continuous.
-need a mulched strip on one side of the driveway.
-No mulched strips needed on crazy lady side, just continuous rock border
-No mulched strips needed on nice neighbor side, just continuous rock.
-I have 3 entire months to make this happen
-If code enforcement comes for me, if I did as he described, give him a call.
My other option was to lose like 60% of it based on the supervisors stance. I’d call it a win, if nothing else perhaps it could be considered necessary civil disobedience. Sometimes you just have to cause noise to get something reasonable. Maybe next time I buy a house it’ll not be in a city.
Anyways, hopefully that’s it ❀
The seed mix I used was specific to my region, from https://seedsource.com.
by Own-Trainer-6996
12 Comments
Congrats!
Please show us the after pics!
That’s all pretty reasonable. Personally I’d consider swapping the 20” mulched area for either lawn grass or a mowable sedge. You’ll be fighting weeds and volunteers there constantly otherwise.
My city has a whole guide for the ROW which makes it easy to know what’s allowed and what isn’t, and (after having the planting for awhile) I think having a buffer by the sidewalk is 100% necessary.
Wow I’d take that and run, huge W. Good for you for handling it so well!
If you dont already have it, get it in writing. Even just an email. You can reach the superintendent with an email saying, I just want to confirm that I understood what the requirements are and list everything that you already mentioned here. Good luck!
Edit: typos
I wonder how cray cray lady will take this?
Um….i have been wanting to convert my yard to Buffalo grass for a while. that thunder turf blend in that site sounds amazing. I might start with my back yard and go from there
Thanks for the update!
Love that site.
R/NoLawns Win!!!! Congrats, that’s an excellent outcome 👏
Your yard looks like mine! Sorry you have to deal with all these hurdles – Can’t wait to see yours bloom!
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/s/WI6HsLjC7j
You get all those requirements in writing, and hopefully signed-off by the super? Hopefully you can get in writing that it’s in perpetuity, so they don’t change the rules on you when the next super replaces this one. Just a CYA, for when crazy neighbor gets crazier.
Also, motion-sensor sprinklers and please print out and post that blurry picture of her so she knows if anything fishy happens to your yard, she is suspect #1.