Tired of watering, mowing, and fighting to keep your lawn from turning brown in the summer? One landscaper scrapped the traditional grass in favor of an aquatic habitat with native plants.
In a quick video on Instagram, Brendon (@ecosystem_gardener) shows a dirty tarp with some rocks and buckets and says, "They told me to just put a lawn in." After a brief pause, the video cuts to his completed aquatic garden full of native plants.
As one comment noted, "Your work is almost poetic."
Brendon's channel is devoted to showcasing native Australian plants and aquatic gardens. He has cultivated quite an audience with over 145,000 followers.
Native plant yards and gardens are also encouraged by many locations. In the face of drought, the City of Phoenix and other communities in Arizona were incentivizing residents to exchange their water-intensive grass lawns for native plant yards.
Traditional lawns can be costly both in terms of time and resources. According to a recent survey, Americans spend an average of 8 hours every year mowing their lawns. Costs can also add up quickly. Between lawn care services, fertilizer, and water bills to keep the grass green, summer lawn care can be a strain on the wallet.
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Grass lawns also do not give much back to their ecosystem. Purely grass lawns are a monoculture, meaning they are made up of one type of plant. This leads to a lack of biodiversity as the grass does not offer much in terms of food or habitat to creatures in the region.
As Brendon states in the video description, "A native and aquatic habitat garden vastly outperforms a lawn for supporting local wildlife because it offers a rich diversity of food, shelter, and breeding sites."
Think of it this way: native plants have evolved over thousands of years to be optimized for the ecosystems they are native to. This means that other creatures have evolved alongside them, learning how to work with them for nutrition, shelter, and a myriad of other uses.
Brendon's native plant yard installation demonstrates that homeowners can have both a beautiful and environmentally friendly yard.
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One comment captured the sentiment well: "110% better than a boring lawn."
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