Dream Big Now! 🌟

And why paths are a better alternative than "native lawn alternatives"

Edouard Manet’s garden dream: lunch on the grass (source: Musee d’Orsay). Not a prickly cactus in sight!

Dear Yardener,

Woohoo! Congratulations! Almost a third of you, dear readers, have enough native vegetation in your yards to support breeding birds — “two third for the birds.” And another half of you are well on your way, with 30 to 70 percent native vegetation.

Wherever you are on your ecological landscaping journey, I’m guessing many of you are eyeing native species to plant when the weather warms. So am I. But today, I’d like to encourage you to join me in dreaming bigger: Ask yourself, what will draw you, your friends, and family out into your yard to spend more time there? According to research on restorative landscapes, the answer is not specific plants.

What’s your dream?

The secrets of a yard where you want to spend time are what I call paths and destinations — places to walk and things to do there (including sitting or napping). Last year, for example, Pete and I added a shed with a gym area that opens into our garden. This year, I’m considering making a shady seating area in the middle of our meadow by planting four small trees. Zoe is dreaming of a yoga platform on the woody hillside she sees from her living room window.

Designer Bunny Williams’s dream made real: A classical pool house of rustic logs (source: An Affair with a House)

Need inspiration? Join Zoe and my workshop tonight, Design Your Yard: Quick and Easy Yard Layouts. In the highly interactive 90 minute workshop, we’ll guide you in imagining and then sketching paths and destinations for a yard where you’ll want to linger. There’s still time to join us live from 5:30 to 7 tonight; just click the button below to upgrade to a paid subscription ($30 per year) and we’ll send you the login information.

Dear Heather, The town recently redid our sidewalks and subsequently ripped up the hellstrip, which just had grass. It’s now bare and ripe for planting. I want to keep it short and tidy and was thinking of Pennsylvania sedge and maybe a shorter blooming plant interspersed? It’s a full/part sun area. Any tips? — Rosa, Connecticut

Your dream is a contrasting verge? Love it! As a former student of ours, you already designed a yard with all the human-centered attributes of a restorative landscape, replacing most of your lawn with native plants. So, when you say you want something short and tidy, I imagine you want something very different from the native meadow in your front yard. A short, tidy verge also communicates intentionality to neighbors.

Unfortunately, grass-like Pennsylvania sedge isn’t salt tolerant, so it’s a no-go for road-side plantings in New England. Poverty oat grass, a major component of Cornell’s lawn alternative demonstration garden, is salt tolerant; however, I’m concerned the patchy look of a tufted grass with low-growing flowers won’t contrast enough with your meadow. Here are more options:

• Create contrast by massing a single salt-tolerant species with attractive foliage. My top recommendations are shrub cultivars that stay under two feet: Gro-Low fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low’) and evergreen Massachusetts bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 'Massachusetts').

• Forget about contrasting the hellstrip. Just continue your front yard meadow across the sidewalk. The mix of species may shift, with salt-tolerant species dominating the hellstrip, but such variations are natural in a meadow. There’s still enough time for seeds to stratify outside if you sow them now. And I suggest overseeding with black-eyed Susans to ensure blooms this summer. (Learn more about hellstrip plantings and see a “Wow!” example in Tiny + Wild: Small Garden Solutions.)

• Or – heresy! – seed your hellstrip with an ecological exotic turf. After all, your yard will still be far more than two thirds natives. And non-native fescues, unlike most cold-season turf grasses, tolerate salt and require only occasional mowing; see, for example, the mixes from Prairie Moon and Prairie Nursery.

Massachusetts bearberry, Gro-Low fragrant sumac, and — at the Minnesota governor's house — salt tolerant, no-mow fescues (sources: ashlandsaveswater.org, torontogardens.com, University of Minnesota)

— Heather

Why, How, Wow!

Why?

Can you believe I recommended exotic turfgrass to Rosa? When it comes to designing yards, I’m a fan of leaving established turfgrass for paths and destinations in areas where it thrives without chemicals or irrigation. In fact, I’m frustrated with simplistic approaches to “lawn alternatives.” Sure, replacing turfgrass with low-growing natives will increase biodiversity, but — by itself — it’s not a recipe for a delightful yard where people want to spend time. (Cornell Botanic Garden’s native lawn demonstration area includes prickly pear cactus, for Pete’s sake! Try picnicking on that, why don’t you?)

Even Doug Tallamy, the entomologist leading the charge to replace lawn with native plants, commends turfgrass for paths:

I don’t think it’s likely (nor do I suggest) that we will ever abandon the lawn as a landscaping tool. Turfgrass species are perfect for areas where we walk, for example, because they can withstand moderately heavy foot traffic. But transitioning from landscapes in which wall-to-wall turfgrass is the default, to landscapes that thoughtfully use lawn as pathways through savannahs of spreading native trees, native forbs, and warm-season wild grasses is now entirely within our grasp and presents a new way to demonstrate our creative abilities. — Nature’s Best Hope

Native “lawn alternatives” add only one or two of the research-based attributes that make people feel restored by a landscape. Sure, they stimulate the senses more than mown turf yards, adding movement, color, scent, sounds, texture. But they don’t make people feel more secure or give them ways to move easily through the landscape or contribute ways to engage with the yard or furnish places for rest and relaxation. In other words, you can do better.

A typical, turf-dominated yard. Unless you’re 4 years old, there’s not much to draw you into it, is there? (source: @docleaves on Instagram)

How

People tell me they fear replacing lawn will make their yards less usable; however, adding paths and destinations — and planting everywhere else — actually draws people into a yard. Too much choice is overwhelming; the infinite possibilities of an open lawn are often viewed from the safety of a patio.

The image below shows the first stage of transforming a turf yard yard: being intentional about how you’re going to use and move through the space. The owner of this DIY garden created turf and cobblestone paths, including a loop so they can walk around, not just up and back. For destinations, she added a shed, several seating areas, and a fountain.

Adding paths and destinations (source: @docleaves on Instagram)

Wow!

Here is another image of the same yard, now fully established. Can you see what I mean about how the paths and destinations draw you into the yard in a way the turf did not? Also, notice how the tall, dense plantings actually make the yard feel bigger instead of smaller. By using tall plants to hide the wall, the owner “blurred the boundaries,” as landscape designers say. In fact, it now looks as if the trees in the yard behind are part of the same property, what’s called “borrowed landscape.”

Paths — and mystery and beauty — make this a yard where you want to spend time (source: @docleaves on Instagram)

Topical: LA Fires

I’ve received several questions related to the Los Angeles fires. If you’re concerned you’re in a fire prone area, please read Firescaping to Protect Your Family from Wildfires. Los Angeles area residents concerned about soil contamination, see this information on phytoremediation.