When in doubt, pull it out. This gardener had a sinking feeling that they spotted an invasive plant in their beloved natural lawn.
"I have white clover and random plants as a back yard. Just found creeping buttercup, and I have questions," they posted.
The user had made the eco- and budget-friendly choice to upgrade to a natural lawn by planting a native clover for ground cover instead of grass, writing: "When we bought the house, the backyard was literally just rock and weeds. We pulled up all the rocks and planted white clover, which formed a thick carpet. We love it! Not only that, but random things started growing — strawberries, violets, forget-me-nots, and even a large fern. We didn't plan any of those things. We love the wild look."
Rewilding a yard can be a fun project for this reason; as plants grow in, identifying them can bring happy surprises. However, occasionally, unpleasant additions may take root. "This year, I found a new plant. I used a plant ID app, and it says creeping buttercup, which is invasive. I'm sad because I do love yellow flowers. I feel bad uprooting it," they said.
They asked the Reddit community for advice: "How bad is this? Is it going to outcompete and kill my clover lawn? I don't want it to be ALL buttercups. How poisonous is it? Do I need to wear gloves if I do pull it up? Will it kill my strawberries, violets, forget-me-nots, and fern?"
The r/NoLawns subreddit jumped in to help, offering meaningful and easy solutions to this problem. "In my experience, it's not too hard to pull, but definitely worth pulling before it gets out of hand. Get all the roots if you can. I don't know anything about it being poisonous," one gardener said. They even offered suggestions for native plants with yellow flowers that would be a good replacement.
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"Invasives invade and displace natives and that invasion collapses habitat that then causes species to go extinct," another commenter noted. "You may not see the shutdown of the cycle in your small area of habitat because the paradox of the speed at which it happens rarely matches the speed of your life."
So, buttercup flowers may seem like a small hassle at first, but any invasive species can have outsized consequences on its ecosystem. Native plants have critical relationships with local pollinators such as birds, bees and butterflies; disrupting that can affect all parts of the food chain.
You can rewild your lawn with a couple of easy steps, and maintenance is much less demanding than it is with monoculture grass. Native plants require less water, less mowing and weeding, and less resources such as mulch and fertilizer than other kinds of gardens.
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Mowing the lawn 🏡 
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