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Kill Your Lawn -- The Why and How to Converting Lawn to Meadow Garden

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While being a relatively recent phenomenon, especially in the United States, lawn has come to dominate urban landscapes as being the default landscape mode. It's simple to maintain (fertilize, water, mow, repeat) but it's resource intensive, polluting, costly for businesses, and has few if any ecosystem services benefit to the human and wild communities.
In this massive lecture with designer and author Benjamin Vogt, we'll cover everything on the why and how to unlawn America using native plant communities. From the history of lawns to converting lawn to natural gardens, from how to design a space sustainably and artfully to strategies for working with HOAs and municipal code inspectors. The practical garden designing with the philosophical and scientific and legal -- yeah, it's going to be wild.
Are you ready to reprairie suburbia?
Monarch Gardens (monarchgard.com) is a prairie-inspired design firm. It is managed by Benjamin Vogt, author of A NEW GARDEN ETHIC: CULTIVATING DEFIANT COMPASSION FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, as well as PRAIRIE UP: AN INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL GARDEN DESIGN. Benjamin's work has been featured in The American Gardener, Dwell, Fine Gardening, The Guardian, Horticulture, Midwest Living, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as a variety of books including American Roots. He is a sought-after speaker on landscape ethics and natural design for wildlife, combining passionate activism and practical advice to rethink pretty and foster reconciliation ecology in a time of mass extinction.
Explore our 18 online classes: www.monarchgard.com/classes.html
Sign up for a design workshop: monarchgardens.teachable.com/...
Get the bestselling books: www.monarchgard.com/books.html

Опубликовано:

9 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 49

@marky3131 Год назад

Really well done. Your views on coaching folks to meet your neighbors (Or HOA’s) halfway is a very important point. We want to draw people into the native plant world. Not scare them away

@bvogt Год назад

Appreciate your watching and commenting. We're getting there.

@jennyjohnson5428 Месяц назад

Great video. Thank you for this wealth of information & your time.

@alanfunk8192 Год назад

Thanks for posting here on RU-vid, was unable to register for the live presentation. This was very informative presentation.

@sarahdiaz4904 Год назад

Excellent info! I recently converted almost 1/2 my lawn to mostly native plants using plugs and shrubs this past fall. I will try and incorporate some sedges or cared for green mulch!

@lynneann9166 11 месяцев назад

This was awesome. Thank you so much.

@hakdov6496 6 месяцев назад

really good stuff!

@threeriversforge1997 Год назад

Great talk. Had to admit that I got a chuckle out f the map at the 10:04 mark when I realized that they changed America and didn't even tell me! Always wanted to visit Arizona, but I guess I missed my chance. 😂

@lovinfl07 Год назад

In NE there is a native nursery just south of Lincoln. Very good and helpful

@bvogt 11 месяцев назад

In NE there's also a native plant garden design firm. Ahem. ;)

@bill8985 3 месяца назад

I just got this pushed to me - and just so great. Will share all around. Great info and ideas

@bvogt 3 месяца назад

Thanks, Bill!

@BartmanMi 6 месяцев назад

Great info! Im going to do this with my front lawn. Transformed the back yard from monoculture to wild life garden (including a wild life pond) based on the channel of Joel Ashton (Brittain). He is also very inspirational. My yard is brimming with life! (Ordered your book!)

@bvogt 6 месяцев назад

Glad to be of help! Prairie up!

@Sandra-tn2yb Год назад

Thanks for all the info, I love your work! We have a lot of lawn on our property that I want to get rid of. I want to start with an area of about 600 sq ft., using three grasses for the base matrix. I was wondering if you mix the different grasses throughout the whole area or if you plant them in drifts and masses, too. Thanks!

@bvogt Год назад

Both. It depends on the site. And maybe one grass is a matrix and one is an ornamental mass / drift.

@margaretrobinson9705 Год назад

This was a wealth of information, thanks! I especially appreciated your advice on shady areas. I’ve got two mature Norway maples in my front yard that produce deep shade. I understand that Norway maples are non-native to the US and native species struggle to compete (heck, even lawn grass has a difficult time) with their aggressive root growth and deep shade. In the vein of “planting like with like,” would you still recommend the carex sedges and wild geranium mentioned here for planting under Norway maples? Or should I look intentionally for species that are level 3 on the sociability scale so that they might be more successful? Big thanks!

@bvogt Год назад

I'd look for regional woodland species that are adapted to those growing conditions you cite. So yes, sedge are a good starting point.

@alliehamilton-calhoun162 Год назад

The ad that came up for me before the video was for a riding lawn mower 'you'll be proud to own'. Actually, _every_ ad throughout the video was telling me how to achieve a beautiful turf grass lawn. Sheesh. I have killed 3/4 of my front yard now! Any time a fox or opossum or raccoon shows up in the neighborhood, they all assume it's my fault because my yard 'attracted' the unwanted pest. Neighbors really are the worst antagonists when it comes to restoring native habitat on one's own property. I dont gripe at them for the drunken pot parties or showing off the sub for which the back seat of their car had to be removed, or the dog defecating in my yard. Neighbors suck. One day, though, I hope to have a photo of my yard in one of Prof. Doug Tallamy's presentations, like there is of your yard! It's beautiful! (insert wistful sigh here)

@lanialost1320 Год назад

That ad is so unsuitable! Loved reading your comment! You have the sympathy of many of us like-minded yard restorers. It was worth every gruelling minute getting rid of 3/4 of my lawn! I have wood chip paths, gravel paths, small areas of lawn (one of which I leave unmowed with my electric push mower), mostly native perennials/shrubs mixed among a few ornamentals, but not the invasive kind such as Japanese barberry/honeysuckle. I love all the wildlife that roams through our yard -- including the raccoons/foxes/bunnies/coyotes/chipmunks/hawks, etc -- they're as welcome as the teeming insects, myriad bee varieties, wasps, toads that love the wood and rock piles I've created, and the tree trunks and large rocks that frame my beds. Rise above your uncouth ignorant "neighbors" who should know better. We have similar bums living around us, and it's a lonely life doing what I do. But I know have an 8' tall 3-year old native American elderberry bush with masses of flowers ready to produce berries for the birds, and masses of gorgeous native -- species, not cultivars -- perennials such as quinine, Rosa virginiana with its fragrant blooms, coneflowers, monardas, Cornus racemosa, anise hyssop, Lupinis perennis, annual red salvias for the hummers, and just got a Lonicera sempervirens started as well, etc etc. Love my ornamental hollyhocks and Gaura though!

@alliehamilton-calhoun162 Год назад

@lanialost1320 will you please be my neighbor?! The people next door ( I love how cities cram houses so close together to rake in more of that property tax money) let their husky roam all over my yard. It's a big dog & it knocks the caterpillars off of their host plants, which angers me to no end. I shooed it out of my garden & its owner came out and started screaming and cussing at me. I overheard her an hour later telling her husband that she was going to f*ck me over. Sure enough, two days later, I received a notice from the city's _weed police_ . I'm going to be heartbroken if I'm forced to destroy my beautiful pollinator habitat. To the average person, it's a mess of tall, overgrown weeds. They won't care that each plant is either a butterfly host plant or a nectar source.

@SCJDW Год назад

I'm planning on starting my project over my septic drain field. I was going to use the spray method then put over a layer of topsoil because I was worried about the existing soil depth. Is that really a concern I should worry about? Or are flower and grass roots safe for a septic field? I'm in the SC Lowcountry. Typically sandy where I'm at. Certainly can't use the auger. Unfortunately.

@bvogt Год назад

Look locally for providers, but an example would be the septic field seed mixes that Prairie Moon and Prairie Nursery carry. I would not add more soil atop the pipes -- my general understanding is the pipes were placed there by pros who put them at the proper depth. Also, topsoil may make things too rich. Match plants to site -- never change the site for the plants (I think this line is in the lecture).

@SCJDW Год назад

@@bvogt thank you so much. And bonus, saves me a few $$.

@sunnyday7843 Год назад

What about fire danger ? I know someone who had their wildflowers mowed down when they were on vacation by a neighbor who was saying it was a fire danger .

@bvogt Год назад

Depends on where you live, right? More fire danger in the West than the northeast. Always plant and design according to your ecoregion. Someday, when we live on a prairie, we will have 20-30' fire breaks around the house. And we won't have forests -- which burn hotter and longer with more embers than grasslands.

@hebetuded Год назад

Might be opening a can of worms, but do you have any product recommendations for the 'spray kill' approach for removing lawn?

@bvogt Год назад

Glyphosate. Always worms.

@hebetuded Год назад

@@bvogt anything with glyphosate in the ingredients? And do you mean to add worms?

@bvogt Год назад

@@hebetuded You said "can of worms" and I confirmed. ;) A glyphosate-based product. There are lots of brand names and formulations. Do your research about what you want to use.

@hebetuded Год назад

@@bvogt 😂😂

@29238734943 Год назад

@Monarch Gardens LLC, are there not other options besides glyphosate? Something that doesn't mess with human hormones so profoundly, and ideally degrades after not too long?

@kiafreeman8778 Год назад

What plants are short and love to be peed on, pooped on, and walked on? You recommend using such plants on a hellstrip, but after much research, I have not been able to identify any.

@bvogt Год назад

Not much will respond favorably to defecation and frequent walking. Not even lawn (although for the latter you may be stuck with lawn -- best to try to reduce the overall amount of lawn / monoculture you have).

@kiafreeman8778 Год назад

@@bvogt Thanks! Now I know I wasn't missing some plants!!!

@charlesheasman8473 9 месяцев назад

An input from Ireland: congratulations on calling out the ridiculous situation with suburban lawns in the USA. 100% agree with what you have to say about that and good luck with your campaign; we have a less severe but similar situation in this country. But from here we must differ. It became obvious during the course of the video that you are not so much into garden rewilding, but landscaping - albeit with a nod to the former. The clincher was at 1:07: "What's in the weed seed bank? You don't know. Could be some native plants -- likely aggressive seeders -- definitely going to be aggressive exotics". This is altogether so wrong. We have, and still are, establishing natural meadows here. Unlike you we do NOT use plastic or glyphosate (even once) but rely on the Cut and Lift method to reduce soil fertility to suppress grass growth and give the natural seedbank a chance. It works. Restoring nature is not about planting what you personally see fit but allowing an ecosystem to revert to what it always did before we interfered. Sorry to sound confrontational but it had to be said.

@bvogt 9 месяцев назад

There isn't a native seed bank in the highly altered urban and suburban environment. That's just a fact. So you really do have to put the plants back in. And you DO have to have a nod to design otherwise, trust me, neighbors will report the weed inspectors to you in a heartbeat. It's important to find a middle ground, at least here.

@Kneenibble 2 месяца назад

It's totally different situation in North America, Charles. If I "cut and lift" any part of a lawn here, the invasive cool-season rhizomatous European grasses would have no problem bouncing back, plus the variety of other opportunistic non-native plants that have come and taken over the urban landscapes in recent history. You need to think a lot harder to understand how badly endangered the native Prairie ecosystem here has become. You don't sound confrontational, just ignorant.

@CampingforCool41 Год назад

Makes me sick when I see places with giant lawns that aren’t even being used for any sort of recreation. How much time do people waste of their lives mowing.

@user-tj5ew9qy5s Год назад

I'm concerned about the lawn kill idea since glyphosphate could harm my cat if he goes out on the sprayed lawn. Any thoughts from you pet lovers??

@bvogt Год назад

It dries in under an hour -- but depends on humidity levels. I also caution folks to be conservative and wait several hours, if not the rest of the day. Read the product label and follow it.

@user-tj5ew9qy5s Год назад

@@bvogt Thank you!

@jonrosell3700 7 месяцев назад

Great talk, but really wish you hadn't advised planting tropical milkweed without advising people to check their native varieties. Planting non-native milkweed, specific to your region, is helping to spread disease among the monarchs.

@bvogt 7 месяцев назад

What? I don't advise planting tropical milkweed here or anywhere, ever. Native milkweed always.

@jonrosell3700 6 месяцев назад

Maybe I didn't hear you make the disclaimer, but the variety you showed may be native to your area, but is highly problematic here in CA where it is not native, but still commonly sold in nurseries as being benficial to monarchs, causing lots of confusion. Sorry, not trying to nitpick, there's just so much pseudo-info out there, as you know, that we have to be extra diligent when educating the public that the info may regionally specific. @@bvogt

@bvogt 6 месяцев назад

Everyone should plant to local ecoregion. I harp on this in EVERY class and lecture I give. I can't assume to know your site being thousands of miles away, but I CAN help you learn to garden locally, think locally, act locally, advocate locally. @@jonrosell3700

@1stdomco 9 месяцев назад

The origins of a lawn came from royalty while the peasants grew food. As far as a leaf blower idling for 10 minutes being worse than a pickup truck going 200 miles doesn't seem accurate to me. How do you know. Did you test it out yourself.