Can you prioritize? That is, maintain the wildflower garden in front of the house, but reduce the garden elsewhere?

NP - This is timely for me. We just moved in and the previous owners were amazing gardners with no children (and thus more time for their hobbies, I guess). I'm terrified to stop maintaining the wildflower garden in front of the house, as everyone on the street loves it.

I wish all you folks removing flower beds would come add them to my house lol. We have zero and I won't have time to put them in this year ALl I want is beautiful beds!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Except that there are plants that actually provide a benefit to wildlife, which lettuce and certainly grass don't. And that grass, in order to look good, requires the use of chemicals that end up in the watersheds, while gardens can reduce runoff and don't require those chemicals. Just saying, otherwise I agree with you that OP should just do what makes her enjoy and not dread her outdoor space.

No it doesn't, unless you define "looking good" as "golf course perfection". But if you do, then you probably spray all of the other plants in your yard, too.

PP here, I agree with you on the lawn and have a very polycultural lawn myself that I think looks fine. I don't think the that is the majority opinion though, and I don't think that using lawn chemicals usually means spraying everything else, unless they are growing roses or other disease prone plants. Most shrubs and perennials don't need spraying at all.

I don't even spray roses, in the DC area. Over the years, it has become 'survival of the fittest'. The only roses left in my yard are the ones that thrive without spraying. I don't have any Knockouts either.

PP you're responding to here, and I don't spray my roses either. I only have those that are disease resistant.

Yes, I've removed beds. When we moved in - the prior owners had really let the beds go and I'm not that much of a gardener. Plus, the style of the landscaping is a bit out of date. For example, the giant circle bed in the middle of the front yard. We took them out and I'm glad we did. Much easier to maintain. We kept the beds that boarder the house and a few other key beds

But then again - I have a lawn that has plenty of clover, wild violets, and a mix of grasses & crab grass. I'm happy with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Except that there are plants that actually provide a benefit to wildlife, which lettuce and certainly grass don't. And that grass, in order to look good, requires the use of chemicals that end up in the watersheds, while gardens can reduce runoff and don't require those chemicals. Just saying, otherwise I agree with you that OP should just do what makes her enjoy and not dread her outdoor space.

No it doesn't, unless you define "looking good" as "golf course perfection". But if you do, then you probably spray all of the other plants in your yard, too.

PP here, I agree with you on the lawn and have a very polycultural lawn myself that I think looks fine. I don't think the that is the majority opinion though, and I don't think that using lawn chemicals usually means spraying everything else, unless they are growing roses or other disease prone plants. Most shrubs and perennials don't need spraying at all.

I don't even spray roses, in the DC area. Over the years, it has become 'survival of the fittest'. The only roses left in my yard are the ones that thrive without spraying. I don't have any Knockouts either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Except that there are plants that actually provide a benefit to wildlife, which lettuce and certainly grass don't. And that grass, in order to look good, requires the use of chemicals that end up in the watersheds, while gardens can reduce runoff and don't require those chemicals. Just saying, otherwise I agree with you that OP should just do what makes her enjoy and not dread her outdoor space.

No it doesn't, unless you define "looking good" as "golf course perfection". But if you do, then you probably spray all of the other plants in your yard, too.

PP here, I agree with you on the lawn and have a very polycultural lawn myself that I think looks fine. I don't think the that is the majority opinion though, and I don't think that using lawn chemicals usually means spraying everything else, unless they are growing roses or other disease prone plants. Most shrubs and perennials don't need spraying at all.

Anonymous wrote:OP here....Thanks!!

One of the trees I want to get rid of is looking very bad -- the nearby trees have grown blocking the sunlight. The other two trees were planted too close to house.

Now I've to figure out when would be a good time to remove these beds and plant grass (along side the driveway). And, if I can fairly easily dig up these shrubs (boxwood and barberry, I think) -- I think these shrubs were planted maybe 5 years ago.

Remove them now, if you want to!

If you can't dig up the shrubs, and you don't want to pay for somebody else to do it, you can also lop them off to the ground and then keep removing any new growth. That will kill them, and then they will be easier to dig up.

I, personally, would not mourn the loss of boxwood or barberry.

Anonymous wrote:

Except that there are plants that actually provide a benefit to wildlife, which lettuce and certainly grass don't. And that grass, in order to look good, requires the use of chemicals that end up in the watersheds, while gardens can reduce runoff and don't require those chemicals. Just saying, otherwise I agree with you that OP should just do what makes her enjoy and not dread her outdoor space.

No it doesn't, unless you define "looking good" as "golf course perfection". But if you do, then you probably spray all of the other plants in your yard, too.

We have almost doubled the size of our backyard by removing weirdly shaped beds. It took some time and occasionally a daffodil pops up in the lawn but the yard makes so much more sense now.

OP, I have removed flower beds!

Moved into an older home with a once beautiful, but severely overgrown flower garden at either side of our front walk and door. The flowers were so neglected that walking up to our front door meant stepping over and through plants and dodging bees.

The first day in our new house, DH borrowed a rototiller and returned the beds to dirt. Immediate improvement.

We now have a gorgeous wildflower garden. Most everything I planted were perennials and along with a great ground cover (golden stonecrop), the garden is mulch and pretty much maintenance free.