I bet you all share my appreciation for gardeners willing to put their garden – no matter how new or still developing – on tour.  For free or for a good cause.

So I thank the gardeners near me who recently opened their front yards – all with at least 50% native plants – for visitors.  I was eager to see if any could be added to these mostly native front yards with no lawn. As for this first one – definitely! 


No lawn, all beds, with a wide woodchip path across the space. And as seen on August 30, sun-loving native perennials were still at their peak here in suburban Maryland, Zone 7B.

Here’s one of the owners speaking to the visitors.  Note the sidewalk is pretty clear – the most obvious sign that the native-plant or even “wild” gardener is considerate of neighbors. In our town clear sidewalks mandated, though not well enforced.

Monarch caterpillar spotted on their milkweed.

This is the first “dog stick library” I’ve ever seen! I’d love to see dogs responding to it. (Do they?) 

On my walks around the nearby lake, I often take a detour just to check out this garden. This was my first chance to meet the gardeners, a friendly young couple.

A block away is a larger, corner yard that’s very much in transition. (I sympathize with people who’d SO love to go lawn-free but their large lots make it a monumental endeavor.)

This is the view from their front door, where I appreciate a nice brick walkway and potted zinnias! (Btw, I have a zinnia report coming soon.)

And another large corner lot demonstrates a good way to start – by creating islands, and expanding existing ones.

And what NOT to do

This last garden, about 30 minutes away by Beltway, is a year-old, lawn-free, all-native-plant front garden that I was invited to visit. The owner had seen an article I wrote for Wild Ones Magazine, along with my location, and wanted to show me the results. 

Now it isn’t easy to give private gardens bad reviews, especially knowing the gardener might see the review. But in this case if they do, they’ll see exactly what I said in person. Yeah, I was honest.  You might say blunt, even.First, the sidewalk is obstructed, the tip-off to either not caring about the neighbors or having moved away. In the background, you see pristine yards and unobstructed sidewalks typical in the neighborhood.

Notice that the next-door neighbor cleanly mowed right up to the property line.A view of the lawn-free, all-native front yard from the sidewalk. 

Approaching the front door, I couldn’t take my eyes off the hellstrip of unmowed turfgrass.

What to say? I just couldn’t lie. As I told the gardener, this is a perfect example of what the native plant movement is encouraging gardeners NOT to do – because it presents native-plant gardens as messy, and the gardener/activist as thumbing their noses at the neighborhood.  Instead, enlightened nativists are promoting front yards that employ “cues to care” so that the neighbors aren’t put off and may even try a native plant or two. (See the various cues to care used in these 270+ well-designed front yards with no lawn.)

Speaking of cues to care, I just found “cues to care” advice from no less than the National Wildlife Federation, and here are the cues relevant to this example:

Keep plants from obstructing sidewalks.
Make sure any tall plants, shrubs, or overhanging tree branches are cut back to keep sidewalks usable by your neighbors. Using fences or borders can also help to keep plants from spilling into pathways.

Maintain any turfgrass.
If you have turfgrass in your landscape, it is important to maintain it with regular mowing. We recommend using an electric or hand-powered mower set to a height of three inches.

Maintain neighborhood aesthetics.
Design your landscape to mesh with the style of other gardens in your area, especially your front yard. If you plant native species, you’ll provide wildlife with great habitat even if it doesn’t have a “wild” look.

(Kudos to the NWF for this, which I hope they promote widely because I see so many online native-plant activists seemingly bragging about giving the middle finger to neighbors with more traditional gardens. It’s disheartening.)