I have a house that’s set back from the street about 100 feet and the yard is 120 feet wide. I don’t water or fertilize but I still need to mow to keep it under control. Does anyone have any tips for a space that big that won’t require an enormous amount of maintenance? I’d love to use primarily native species but the only thing that really seems to take off is thistle.
The thing about invasive species is that they’re invasive. If you want to fill your yard with native species, you have to keep protecting those native species and removing invasive species before they get a foothold, for years, until the invasive weed seeds in the soil bank have run out and the native species are big and healthy enough to outcompete whatever invasive seeds blow in.
Any other advice people would give you depends on where your yard is. In desert climates sand or stone can be low maintenance. In wetter climates, there are low and slow growing native ground covers that can replace grass (I’ve heard good things about clover). In prairie states, seed your yard with prairie grasses and put up a fence with a sign saying “rewilded prairie do not mow” 😆
Try this search engine for native plants in your zip code.
