In the three weeks since I launched my latest project – a Lawnless Front Yards photo collection on Flickr – the response has been amazing, and so fun! Certainly compared to anything else I’ve done online, except this blog. Native-plant gardeners especially are excited to see images of the types of gardens that are beautiful and AND that further their environmental goals. Win-win.
And it confirms a lacking I’ve noticed in the promotion of lawn reduction and eco-friendly gardening more broadly. It’s that we’re shown images of single plants, rarely even groups of plants, and whole prairies or their equivalent on large tracts of land. Though possibly inspiring, that’s not helping people start a new garden they’ll love or make their existing garden look better – to them, to their neighbors, to the clipboard police.
Here’s what’s happened since launch
Winnepeg garden photos by Linda Dietrick.
- I posted requests for photos of “mostly native” front yards to a bunch of Facebook groups and got tons of comments, most with photos attached. These groups were the most responsive: Pollinator Friendly Gardens, Maryland Area Gardening for the Environmentally Conscious, Virginia Native Plant Society, and DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia) Native Plant Gardeners. I selected photos that show developed gardens (we want to inspire, right?) with the front of the house in view, and right now there are 58 photos in the “Mostly Natives” album. To my delight, my calls for photos were widely shared to other Native Plant and Master Gardener groups, like the Manitoba Master Gardener group, that contributed three terrific photos.
Clockwise from upper left: a design by Billy Goodnick in California, Jim Charlier’s Buffalo garden, and Andrew Bunting’s Swarthmore, Penn. garden.
- You might recognize some of the new contributors, like guest Ranter Billy Goodnick, who let me ransack his portfolio. I picked 8 of his photos, now part of the California album.
- Buffalo garden-tour organizer Jim Charlier (and designer of the GardenRant logo) contributed photos of his rather famous front yard, with helpful commentary. So now there’s a Buffalo album – because it’s Buffalo! (Hopefully, With Garden Walk coming up July 26-27, someone will snaps some more photos for the collection.)
- And this album includes the garden of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society horticulturist Andrew Bunting.
The Lincoln, Nebraska prairie front yard of Benjamin Vogt.
- Prairie designer and native-plant-world provocateur Benjamin Vogt also let me ransack his site, from which I chose a selection that includes a winter shot of his own front-yard prairie. (Kudos to Ben for this because four-season photos are SO helpful and SO rare.)
- The national native-plant organization Wild Ones is apparently WILD about LawnlessFrontYards because they asked me to write about it for their magazine.
- And at the urging of two very social-media savvy friends – Kathy Jentz and Pam Penick – I’ve launched LawnFreeFrontYards on Instagram – because ya gotta, apparently. I love finding stunning IG accounts to follow, and I even figured out how to share other people’s posts to stories. (I hope I’m doing it right but honestly I can’t tell, so lemme know if not.) And I’m told people will find my postings if I use tags, so I’m using them, but haven’t seen results yet.
- Google led me to the “No Lawn” Subreddit, where I found some great examples but I have no idea how to interact with the posters there. (I think my first attempt got some thumbs-down!) If you’re a Reddit user, can you advise on how to ask posters if I can use their photo? Reddit has tons of active groups I’ll also be exploring, like native plant gardening.
- Of course I’m eager to photograph more lawnless front yards myself. So when it cools off I’ll be looking for some while cycling through promising neighborhoods in DC, like Capitol Hill. And next Sunday I’ll look for them while I’m touring “Beautiful South Seattle” gardens, like that of my fellow Ranter Lorene Edwards Forkner! We’ve never met, except on Zoom. I’ll be in town for a family event.
- Any more ideas, anyone? Still looking for how to reach garden designers whom I don’t already know. The design groups on Facebook are surprisingly uninspiring.
Take-aways I hope for
For my article in the Wild Ones magazine I was asked to cover what impact the photos have. More will be revealed, but one that I hope for is people seeing that alternatives to lawns are mostly GARDENS, so knowledge of gardening must be acquired. And guess what – these lawn alternatives are actually more work than simply mowing their lawn! In the spirit of not BS innocent newbies.
I’ve seen pleas for help with lawn alternatives from gardeners who complain that their garden is a “hot mess” and no wonder – they need help with design! So I hope the mostly-eye-popping photos in the collection can provide that. I say skip the complicated webinars in Principles of Design. Just use a design you love as your guide, tweaking it with your referred plant types.
My final hoped-for take-away is that front yards with no lawn CAN look good enough to please the “clipboard police” and the neighbors. I suggest showing them the beautiful garden you’ll be copying.
I’m sure I’ll get grief, but here goes. I don’t find most gardens in this genre appealing- mostly to my eye they look like a hot mess that needs serious editing. I’m not someone who needs everything to be trim & tidy, but these gardens mostly look (& I’m guessing are) neglected -with exceptions, of course…
Well, not to your taste, okay, but neglected? The gardeners submitted the photos with pride! I chose these and rejected all the real hot messes and brand-new gardens that don’t look like much yet. But to your point, I want the collection to include more professionally designed gardens for people who want a more polished look.
Oh, I was unclear-not talking about these photos-apologies to these gardeners!!! I was talking about what I see, out walking , in the PNW…
One thing I noticed in the photo of Ben Vogt’s green yard is his neighbor’s traditionally manicured front lawn. It makes me wish more of these photos included a wider view of the surroundings, because one of *my* aesthetic preferences is continuity with those surroundings.
While I applaud its commitment to the cause, Vogt’s “prairie yard” strikes me as jarringly abrupt and out of place. A more gradual transition from the neighbors’ landscaping seems called for, but as far as I can tell that’s what missing in most of these projects.
Benjamin freely acknowledges that his prairie hasn’t influenced any of his neighbors to change their yards
I would love to see photos of a front yard where half is in shade and half in sun. That’s our situation, and I’m at a loss. Right now, it’s lawn and English ivy on both sides of the walkway. Yuck.
Hi Kristan,
This describes half of my front yard. A walkway comes up steps from the street to the front of the house. On the right is sunny. I took out the lawn and that section is now a Cottage Garden. To the left of the walk is a sizeable shaded area, thanks to an old Maple tree. I call that side the Texture Garden. I have a few Azaleas and Hydrangeas for structure and the rest is different Hostas, Heucheras, Ferns, spring ephemerals, and other shade plants. I hope this helps – I don’t have any pictures that capture all of this.
I’d really love some data on whether or not a well-designed garden (i.e. has maintenance in mind during its design and installation) is MORE work than a manicured lawn. I try to maintain both lawn and garden on my property (although not to the extent I’d like) and I have to say that the lawns need CONSTANT (weekly mowing and edging with a string trimmer) maintenance during the summer to look good while gardens do not. I thing the work required for lawns is constant, mindless inputs during the growing season. The work required for a garden varies with more needed at some times and less work needed at others during the growing season, but always requires some garden knowledge (which might be another problem, as suggested in the article).
I have the exact same question. My yard is small, but I still resent that I am obligated to mow it weekly. Yes, sometimes I spend more hours on my perennial beds or vegetable garden in a given week, but those weeks are inconsistent. I more flexibility for the type of work and the scheduling. This is especially true once the perennials become established and dense, requiring a lot less weeding and watering. I greatly appreciate doing as little as possible in the scorching heat of July and August.
What has held me back from converting my lawn is the amount of work involved to create a design, remove the lawn, modify the irrigation system, and plant the new design. My neighbors did it with impressive results, but it consumed their entire spring and early summer.
A well-done garden is more than a collection of plants and pathways, and more than food for pollinators. When we are in the mountains, the forest, the plains or a city park, and we see a view that captures us, the thing that attracts us is the pattern that has formed. Color may be part of it, but color is often just highlighting the pattern. A well-done garden is visual rhythm, an exercise in pattern-making. Most of these gardens still lack rhythm, although many traditional gardens also lack rhythm. And photographers aren’t always adept at capturing the rhythm of a garden. I do like the Billy Goodnick garden shown, and it looks like it will improve as it grows.
Thanks for following up with this topic, Susan. I love that you are excited about this project and I look forward to reading more about it, as well as seeing all of the photos!
Thanks so much for your encouraging words!