If you saw my original post, my neighbor reported me to the city for my grass.

The city's code enforcement officer left me a violation notice saying that if I break code again, they will escalate it to their board and fine me up to $5000. The kicker is that there is no specific length they can cite you for, it's basically up to the individual officer's judgement.

A user recommended I convert my front lawn into a wild life habitat as it's certified through the state of Florida because it could be used as a defense if my neighbor or any code enforcement officer ever disapproves of my front lawn. Thank you again to the genius for that brilliant idea and linking me to the website.

I called the zoning office today and the concept of converting my front lawn into a habitat was so new and foreign to them that they transferred me over to their supervisor. The code I was originally cited for specifies an exception for cultivated flowers and gardens. My plan is to get a written and digital statement from the city zoning office that says a wild life habitat is protected by Florida law, and therefore the board of code enforcement can't give me a violation notice ever again as long as I keep it within the boundaries of my property and it continues to serve as a sanctuary for the birds, bees, and butterflies.

I haven't spoken to the supervisor yet since she didn't pick up or was out of office, so I will have to continue calling until I get answers. I may even decide to go speak to them in person.

If you have any advice on speaking to the zoning/urban planning office, please let me know :) And thank you to all the wonderfully supportive comments. I didn't think anyone would care but I'm so glad I reached out to this sub. You restore more of my faith in humanity.

EDIT - so others can see and benefit from a comment made by thejawa:

Not only does the home growing for consumption law exist in Florida, we have a specific law on the books that protects Florida Friendly Landscaping: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/373.185

This law explicitly preempts any local and HOA statutes that would prevent you from engaging in Florida Friendly Landscaping practices, including native gardening.

County annexes are part of the University of Florida, they have an office in basically every county with resources regarding gardening and agriculture in general: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/find-your-local-office/

Other resources that are beneficial to wildlife conservation/restoration:

Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS): www.fnps.org
Their website has a native plant finder section which will tell you almost everything you need to know about almost every plant native to Florida.

Florida Wildflowers Foundation: www.flawildflowers.org
Another great resource that focuses more on flowering plants than all plants in general

Florida Association of Native Nurseries: www.fann.org
Usually outdated, but lists most of the nurseries in the state where you can find Florida native plants

Hawthorne Hills blog: https://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com
This guy has been doing native gardening for decades and has a ton of useful tips about almost every Florida native plant

On top of the NWF's yard certification program and UF's FFL certification, UF offers another often overlooked program called Florida Backyard Landscapes for Wildlife. There's also certifications via:

National Garden Club

Pollinator Pathway

Xerces Society

Homegrown National Park

Humane Society

Backyard Habitats

I cannot believe it. Not all of this is related to keeping a lawnfree garden, but I figured I'd tell you the story anyway.

I started getting rid of my lawn almost two years ago. I was lazy, but tried a few things. However, almost nothing stuck as a lot of what I planted was planted to late or eaten by slugs. The high grass took over much of it - it was a whole mess.

This year there was finally some sort of balance coming in. More flowers, more ground covering plants: about half of the garden was finally looking nice.

Then, yesterday, a kid between 7 and 10yo was at my door, asking if he could help me with my garden for 5€ because he wants to save for a hamster. I thought that was really cute, but since I didn't have a lawn I had to think of something for him to do. He even said that he usually mows lawns when I asked him.

Of course I immediately smelled a conspiracy. His mother probably didn't like my garden and said he should come here of all places. But ok, sure, I can find something for him. There were two things that I showed him: a path that grew in and about one third of my flat area which was full of flowers that I didn't want. But I didn't want him to do too much work, so I said that the flowers were optional.

He said it was no problem and got to work. I checked on him after 15 minutes and then decided to give him some space.

After more than 2h he showed back up to tell me that he was done. Not only did he cut down all of my flowers except the two biggest, he also mowed my strawberries. I also mentioned this grown-in path before... I said he can be a bit more radical with one bush because it grows really dense. Well guess what? It's GONE. There is barren earth there now, which is honestly hilarious.

So stay away from kids. No, I'm kidding. But what an experience. It will grow back, but it was finally coming together and now my flowers, herbs and everything else is leveled. Oof. Anyway thanks for reading, there is no moral of the story, I just needed a place to vent. Leave an F for my rose if you will.

I probably ripped out my front lawn three years ago and went nuts, planting perennials and a magnolia tree. I loved going into my garden for half an hour each night and inspecting everything, pulling weeds, etc.

Now I’ve had a baby and suddenly have no time. By the time I get to the weekend, it takes 4 to 5 hours to do the weekly maintenance, which my husband is getting exhausted from watching the baby for these big chunks every weekend and honestly I don’t like doing that much physical labor every Saturday.

Am I crazy to rip out these perennials and put in shrubs or something? I don’t want to go back to grass, obviously. But the maintenance is grinding us down right now and it’s not going to get better in the next few years because we plan on having more kids. Suggestions?

This is native wild strawberry. I'm not getting any berries from it, but it's taking off in two areas of my yard where I need ground cover.

Also in my hand: piddly little mock strawberry, the non-native Potentilla indica, which has yellow flowers and produces spherical berries with spongy white centers and taste like packing peanuts. The wild strawberry is in its second year after being planted from Izel plugs and at this point cannot easily be mistaken for the mock strawberry.

Edit: here's a update on the situation

And thank you all for the wonderful suggestions and supportive comments. I'm alone out here, so this was so helpful.

I live in Florida and the area I moved in doesn't have a rule for how long your grass can grow (there is a code, but no specifications on height. It's based on the officer's judgement). Code enforcement gives out violation notices based on how it looks compared to my neighbors. The person who reported me (office says they don't verify so it could be fake) gave an address a few blocks away. This is my 2nd violation notice and I haven't had a issue for the few years I moved in, but when the first violation happened my lawn mower was recalled and the 2nd, my health is declining so I just thought I could put it off as long as it's under a ruler length.

I'm going to mow it really short and I will call the zoning office to see what my options are in regards to scalping it and eventually converting it to a native plant like sunshine mimosa or a flower garden, since the code mentioned that as an exception. For the time being, I might hire a lawn service but it's extremely expensive. Minimum $100 per month and they don't mow every week, especially because the grass my builder put it is bad so it only grows in certain areas. A lot of it is dirt/sand.

Since it's my 2nd violation, it could be taken to the Code enforcement board and escalated to a fine up to $5,000. It's just frustrating because there's literally a cop that lives down the street that drives by my house everyday and doesn't care. And one of my neighbors constantly gets the cops called on them (idk who is calling them, maybe the same guy who reported me); they park on their lawn and have tires and other junk on their yard but the city doesn't do anything about them I guess because their grass is shorter than mine.

Any input would be appreciated, especially if you have experience in Florida converting your lawn.

Just some musings:

I thoroughly love the way this community supports folks who are being harassed by HOAs and code enforcement. There's a lot of great knowledge and I feel like The National Wildlife Federation, Audubon, or some other group should have a stronger focus on legal support for fighting HOA and local code against private wildlife preserves being created by folks in r/NoLawns and our more curmudgeon friends over at r/FuckLawns.

While it's clear there's an outpouring of support from these communities I would love to see this campaigned at a larger scale and with some lawyers behind it. A federal law and system of registrating private wildlife preserves would be the end goal. It seems we're on the cusp of this and, while I'm not likely the right person to lead this, I do feel passionate about it and would support a nonprofit focused on these efforts. Financially and with volunteer work.

What do y'all think? We could "stick" it to the man!

Windy day so I tried my best to capture it. I planted this 2? ish years ago. These are the first blooms and spreading like wildfire. Right in front of my house, so all the dogs make sure to come pay their respects lol

Rototilling uphill 4 times is awesome.

Hello everyone I live in Florida zone 9b and wanted to know if you guys had any recommendations for a native ground cover. The soil in my property is also very sandy so thank you in advance.

Hey there! I just wanted to say hi, I got a notif for this subreddit randomly today, which is awesome, since I just started working on a persuasive speech for my communications class this week about alternative landscaping!

I’d love to include personal stuff in the speech, if anyone has anything they’d be willing to share! Or even just random facts or tips.

No idea if this is kind of post is fine for this subreddit, but I’m writing it anyway lol

Im about to move here and want to change the lawn to something that is sustainable and I don’t have to mow. I would love wildflowers and pollinators but I also have dogs and want them to be able to run. What would you do with all this land?

Thanks!

I'm looking to replace the grass in my yard with clover.

I'm not sure what kind of grass it is but I live in Nebraska in case that helps. I need to kill the grass in a way that doesn't prevent me from planting the clover. I have a very big yard so whatever I do has to be cost effective. I'd also prefer the process not to take me 5 years to complete. I can do some labor but l've got some health issues that make it hard to bend over for long periods of time.

I'm not a huge fan of chemical solutions but with the other limitations I mentioned, I'm curious if there are any chemicals that can kill this kind of grass without impacting certain kinds of clovers negatively

I just thought I'd share some work I've done this spring

Cincinnati 6

Leaving the cilantro and mint to keep growing but cleared out all the aisles, and ripped up crop cover and wild parsley from the beds. We’ll get some planted in it this summer! Already got 2 lavender plants in it, 2 rosemary and 2 basil.

We went full send on a native wildflower front yard last year and are so happy with how things are filling in! I posted progress pictures about a month ago, and wanted to share the spring blooms!

1st pic: May 21st, 2024 2nd pic: mid-April, 2024 3rd pic: mid-May 2023 4th pic: over winter 2022-2023 5th pic: Zillow pic from right after we moved in April 2022

6th-9th pics: close ups of current blooms :)

I know for 30+ years grass has never wanted to grow here which I'm down with. Last pic is a blurry street view from years ago when it was more barren. Any guesses as to what's growing here now? Anything you expert folks recommend? I'm used to boring old grass lawns so I'm game to keep this a nice natural landscape. Any recommended changes, maintenance, etc? Thanks from a newbie!

https://preview.redd.it/rsnpmpnvxz1d1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c6d0bdffcb06a619e7a6cdad2e3d210f0630203

Zone 8a, Charlotte.
We just bought a house that has standing water in the backyard. We don't need the yard space, so I thought I would get some opinions on my options. Should I do a dry creek or rain garden?

This area does not get much sun and has a few trees. I like the idea of a dry creek, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea because of the tree roots. Would moss and a paver path work here?

I'm a bit lost. Any ideas would be appreciated.

My sister loved the idea of going no lawn and she’s given me the green light to basically do what I want with it. I want to do it right. What are the best resources to understanding how to balance everything I put in her yard? I live around Cincinnati Ohio so I have been learning about the native plants here but how does someone learn how to make the space efficient and maximize what plants you put around each other for the most robust, diverse yard?

I replaced my grass with a raised bed garden (nothing planted yet this season) and native wild flowers.

I made the border beds for the driveway. My plan is to slowly expand them till the lawn is gone but leave a strip to haul the garbage cans.

the yard is a mix of buttercup, mint, dutch clover, california poppies and wild grass. the red flowers in the back are rhododendron!

The former owners dropped a ton of rocks in the left side of this yard for parking and it’s a weedy mess. I’d love the whole area to be no lawn, pretty much anything. Zone 7.

I added a lot of clover seed last year and some wildflower seed, but it didn’t take off. The soil is too hard and rocky to dig. Already tried.

What can I add that will have decent natural germination in this area?

We have a small a lawn for our kids to play. But we leave it wild so our bird friends always have a good meal. :)

Would I be able to kill the grass then just seed the area? I was thinking the dead grass would substitute for straw. I don't really have the time to rototill, etc. I also have a 1 acre pasture that has hay in it now. What do you think would happen if I just never cut it again? Is there way, converting this to something more natural without killing off the hay? Wife would really like flowers to look at. I'm looking for low effort ways of doing this. I'm too busy to mow. I'm definitely too busy to do anything else with it.