Wildflowers as a Lawn?

[ExFlyBoy5]

We are considering converting our back lawn area to an area of wildflowers and was curious if anyone has done this and if so if they have any advice/pointers.

Currently, our back yard consists of about an area of fescue turf that is a pain to maintain. We live in an area that isn't too conducive to having a cool season grass so that means a lot of irrigation and seed/weed control that is time consuming and expensive. We also have a lot of wildlife that hangs out there (it backs up to a heavily wooded area) and tends to beat down the grass.

So, we thought that maybe converting to wildflowers would be a decent solution. The area is about 1/2 shaded with trees, so not sure how that might affect a "good spread" of wildflowers...we would like to avoid large areas of bare spots if possible.

It should also be noted that about 1/5 of the area stays VERY moist. There are a few reasons for this but it adds to the fescue challenge.

We have considered other grass types (Bermuda) but figured if we are going to convert, we should try and figure out something that is low maintenance.

Edit: I added a picture showing the area (in red) that I am looking to "modify"...the total area is about 25,000 square feet. The brown area along the back is a pretty decent hill where this years over seeding didn't take because of the excessive rainfall we had back in May and June. The second picture is what it looked like about a year ago...prior to the ice storm taking out so many trees.

 

[Jerry1]

I have a similar problem. Will be watching this thread. We live on an acre with the back yard being half of that. I live on sand and unless I water a lot, I can’t keep a lawn alive. On top of that, we have a lot of deer and rabbits and I’m ready to try something different. I was thinking of planting a bunch of trees and just let it go to a more natural environment but wildflowers seem like a good idea.

 

[Jerry1]

I have a similar problem. Will be watching this thread. We live on an acre with the back yard being half of that. I live on sand and unless I water a lot, I can’t keep a lawn alive. On top of that, we have a lot of deer and rabbits and I’m ready to try something different. I was thinking of planting a bunch of trees and just let it go to a more natural environment but wildflowers seem like a good idea.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have a similar problem. Will be watching this thread. We live on an acre with the back yard being half of that. I live on sand and unless I water a lot, I can’t keep a lawn alive. On top of that, we have a lot of deer and rabbits and I’m ready to try something different. I was thinking of planting a bunch of trees and just let it go to a more natural environment but wildflowers seem like a good idea.

Ugh...rabbits. So cute, right? Not this little bugger. Made his/her way from the back and was snacking in an unauthorized area!

That is another other issue...trees. That back was easier to deal with before the ice storm took out almost 1/2 the trees we had in the back. It was very expensive to have them removed and I am not thrilled with the idea of planting more trees.

 

[Aerides]

Since it's both moist and shaded, perhaps ferns would be a good choice? Many types tend to self-propagate like crazy. Perhaps ferns in the darkest dampest back area, and wildflowers toward the front? They aren't maintenance free though, and a lot of those wildflower seed packets are junk in my experience.

 

[Jerry1]

I like that - “snacking in an unauthorized area”. I’ve said to DW a number of times, if I could plant them an area where they could eat at will and leave the feast along, that would be the best situation. Unfortunately, they don’t get the concept of mine and theirs.

 

[Amethyst]

When we first bought a 3.5 acre lot and had a house built on it, the sheer immensity of the place bewildered us. The builder had put in a bit of grass seed around the house - maybe half an acre total. The rest was ex-farmer's field, rampant with honeysuckle, poison ivy and ragweed.

One notion we had was a "wildflower area." Husband tilled and raked about 1/2 acre and we seeded it with commercially-sold "wildflower meadow" mixes. The wildflowers did indeed sprout and ultimately flower - it was very pretty for one season. Then the original, ugly native vegetation reasserted itself and drove out the wildflowers.

We ended up putting the entire 3.5 acres in tall fescue. Modern lawn grasses, blended with clover, are bred to be highly assertive and invasive. Mowed regularly, they usually overwhelm other plants, except for certain weeds (e.g. violets) which enjoy the company of lawn grass.

We lived there nearly 30 years, planting hundreds of trees the first few years; when we left, the lot was almost wooded. In sunny spots, the fescue was doing great. Under the big trees, little grew, although the poison ivy continually reasserted itself and had to be dealt with every year.

So in my experience, wildflower meadows are great for one season.

 

[mountainsoft]

Most wildflowers are annuals, they'll grow one season and that's it (unless they reseed themselves). Flowers also tend to need a lot of sunlight.

There are a lot of ground covers that don't need mowing or maintaining. Check out https://www.stepables.com/ to find something that would work for your area.

We planted some corsican mint in the shady flower bed behind our house. It managed to escape the flower bed and across our sidewalk and now takes over a good chunk of our yard back there. Grass didn't really grow well there anyway, the mint always looks green, stays low, and smells great when you walk on it.

 

[YakGrl]

I would recommend lots of mulched areas and planting native shrubs and small trees that can go natural. Native ferns would be a good choice in shade areas. You can try a wildflower area in a sunny spot but it will need at least once a year cutting and can take some time to establish. It is best to use native and non-invasive plants.

 

[Ronstar]

Wildflowers are a great idea. I have some coneflowers and black eyed Susan’s on one spot.

We have a hill area of about 50’x50’ currently mulched and planted in dianthus. But the plants are dying off and I’d like to redo it. I’d like wildflowers but not sure if I have enough light.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Most wildflowers are annuals, they'll grow one season and that's it (unless they reseed themselves). Flowers also tend to need a lot of sunlight.

There are a lot of ground covers that don't need mowing or maintaining. Check out https://www.stepables.com/ to find something that would work for your area.

We planted some corsican mint in the shady flower bed behind our house. It managed to escape the flower bed and across our sidewalk and now takes over a good chunk of our yard back there. Grass didn't really grow well there anyway, the mint always looks green, stays low, and smells great when you walk on it.

Thanks for that link...that is the most extensive list of products I have seen to date.

As to ferns, we have A LOT of ferns and are part of most of our shaded beds. We have some that are in the back yard portion as well, but there is really more sun than shade so not too useful there. Plus, we already have 20+ flower beds and the last thing I want is yet ANOTHER flower bed to deal with Hence wanting to do a meadow type/low maintenance kind of solution. Reseeding each year isn't that big of a deal...depending on how much that might cost.

 

[pb4uski]

This reminded me of a house near where my son lives that is in a neighorhood with small lots (1/4-1/2 acres). One of his neighbors has converted their entire yard to a vegetable garden... good food and no mowing... but a lot more work than mowing!

 

[pjigar]

I live on an acreage. North Texas with clay soil. Rains OK for most of the year except summer. I have several district "landscapes" that have naturally evolved. I will mention a few that are relevant to OPs question.
Rolling prairie (with full sun): Mostly wild flowers with native grasses. We don't mow this area at all.
Around the house (with almost full sun): Mostly native grasses with some wild flowers. I mowed this area twice a year before we moved in. We mow every month now since we started living here. Almost all tall grasses (Johnson grass, etc.) and the wild flowers have gave a way to creeping native grasses that look a lot like turn grass.
Areas under dense trees (around/on the prairies): They generally go bare or gets taken over by poison ivy. I still haven't figured out what to do with these areas.


To answer your question: A lot of what you can do will be dictated by the amount of sun and rain. If you have good sun with decent rain then let the native grasses establish by regular mowing. Or if you don't want to mow at all then wild flowers are a good choice. If you have lots of trees then your options will be limited.

PS: We do not water any part of these natural landscapes.

 

[JoshTrent]

My suggestion would be to chat up someone at a local Nursery or Garden Shop. They'd have a good idea of what might work best for your area to meet your expectations.

My father has a plot in the Colorado Rockies - 2 Acres @ 9000' which is mostly scree/sand. He walks around throwing wildflower seed on the bare patches between the pines every year. I'm no botanist, but it seems to me that the bare areas just migrate each year. It gives him something to do, and he's not complaining.. so to each their own!

 

[travelover]

I sort of did this on my acre and a half in Michigan. What I did was to just quit mowing large portions of the back yard but kept mowed pathways so it could still be accessed easily. What I found was that plants that could thrive and survive soon dominated. I had more wildlife than with a mowed lawn, including butterflies and other interesting insects like hummingbird moths.

 

[Mark1]

I have been planting wildflowers for the last couple of years with some success and some failures. Due to the large number of invasive plants (weeds) on my property my newest strategy is to only plant one type of seed within any small area. If I plant mixes it is very difficult to figure out what is a wildflower and what is a volunteer weed that needs to be pulled. Therefore, this fall I will mark out small areas with wooden stakes and only plant one variety within each area. Some seeds will go in this fall if stratification is required, the balance will go in next spring as the finches love to eat my seeds all winter.

Remember some annuals will reseed themselves successfully. For example, I have had great success with the annual Rocky Mountain Bee Plants reseeding themself every year.

 

[Graybeard]

No idea where you live but I can tell you that wildflowers have very specific needs re soil ph, sun, no sun, damp soil, dry soil. I have tried to transplant wildflowers and it failed 100% of the time cuz these factors didn't exist where I planted them. Some wildflowers only grow in full sun, some like sun and shade and some only grow under trees where virtually no sun reaches the ground. So... depending upon where you are in the country, desert vs low land that is damp, rich forest soil, sandy, clay, you name it there are wildflowers that will live anywhere. The trick is knowing what ones will fit your location. If you want a cultivated flower that will grow in profusion, produce tons of seeds to reseed itself, grow from 12" to 5' try Comos. They come in pink, red and white.

ETA - I have identified about 60-65 wildflowers that grow on my property and I didn't seed any of them. I do collect the seeds from Milkweed pods and scatter them around, some of those seeds have taken.

 

[splitwdw]

Go to a Nature center or contact your local Agricultural Extension if you want to go native plant. If you don't want to replace the trees, depending on you climate zone you can plant native shrubs to fill in some of the empty space. There's nothing like a bunch of dead and dying wildflowers to gaze upon in late Summer. Or removing the tall dead grass in the Fall.

 

[Dtail]

Sounds like a decent idea. We have some wildflowers in our back yard (removed the ones in the front from the previous owner) and they do well. We do get lots of rain here.

 

[street]

Clover (dwarf white) is a good cover for yards and places you don't want to do yard work or do yard maintence.

Easy to grow and just takes care of itself and people plant it for their yards. Stays green no watering required and may have to mow a couple times a year if you want too.

 

[DayDreaming]

You can't really have a meadow of only wildflowers, you usually need a mix of native grasses and perennial forbs / wildflowers. Watch out for cheap wildflower meadow packets, they probably contain a lot of annuals that only look nice the first year. You want to go with perennials, even though they might take a couple of years before they flower.

This site has a good selection and good information under 'resources':
https://www.prairienursery.com/

I planted one of their meadow mixes years ago, but I have a huge deer problem here. Deer eat most of the wildflowers so I now have mostly native grasses. But some flowers survive and I do like how it looks. Meadows do require work, and need to be cut every year or so to prevent it from going back to woods, and removing anything invasive that creeps in.

 

[4legsgood]

I have just stopped mowing areas of my lawn at my cabin, mow the front so it looks civilized and mow a path to the lake. I think it looks good, especially when there are seed heads on the tall grass waving in the breeze. I get blackberry vines growing in it, which I have to dig out. It looks unkempt in the winter when the tall grass dies back, though that could be solved with a mow. In any case, it's less work, much more dynamic visually, and there's definitely more wildlife in the yard than when it was all mowed grass.

 

[friar1610]

So in my experience, wildflower meadows are great for one season.

That was my experience trying to create a wildflower meadow in Vermont.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The anti-lawn movement is popular here. Some have food gardens instead of front lawns. My long term plan is a succulent garden. Wild flowers sound lovely but for our climate I need something more drought resistant.

 

[Koolau]

So in my experience, wildflower meadows are great for one season.

My division of Megacorp planted a "prairie grass" field which was mostly flowers. It required a fair amount of maintenance and occasionally required a "prairie fire." If I'm making a point, it may be more effort that more traditional grounds. YMMV