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Pro tip: My backyard looked totally different after 6 months of native plants
I decided to rip out all my grass in the side yard last spring and put in native plants instead. The before was just this boring patch of dirt and weeds that I had to mow every two weeks. After 6 months, the difference is crazy - I've got purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans everywhere, and I barely water them anymore. The main thing that changed was the soil health, I think, because I stopped tilling it and just let the roots do their thing. I spent maybe $80 on seeds from a local nursery near Decatur, and now I see butterflies and bees all day long. Anyone else swap out sod for natives and notice a big shift in how much work your yard takes?
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betty_perry243mo ago
Wait, did you actually stop tilling completely or just not till that one time? Because I made that mistake the first season where I thought "no till" meant just leaving my clay soil totally alone and it got super compacted. lol I had to add some compost and aerate gently around the roots to get things going. But yeah, the native plant switch is wild how fast the ecosystem bounces back once you stop fighting the dirt.
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abby_cooper3mo ago
Not really. My grandma's garden did fine without all this modern fuss.
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wendy_henderson213mo ago
Hang on, is compacted clay soil really that big of a deal if you're not trying to grow a full veggie patch? I mean like I get that it's annoying for roots but the whole ecosystem thing seems a little overblown. My grandma never did any of this no-till stuff and her yard was full of bugs and birds and stuff. So like is it really that serious or just a new trend?
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