The Native Lawn: We're One Year Old!
- Angela
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
The Native Lawn Experiment is now one whole year old so it's time to do a year in review, don't you think?

I must say, I'm actually quite proud of this one. I've lost very few plants. Most everything is thriving. I've seen relatively few weeds. There was almost no winter flopping under the snow. And at the moment, She's quite beautiful! Take a look:

To catch up on where we've come take a look at my other blog posts and then come back here:
For review, here are the plants in the lawn:
Antennaria plantaginifolia (Pussytoes)
Aquileia canadensis (Wild columbine – seeds) – did not germinate
Carex radiata (Star sedge)
Danthonia spicata (Poverty oat grass – seeds) – did not germinate
Fragaria virginiana (Wild strawberry)
Lobelia syphilitic (Great blue lobelia)
Muhlenbergia schreberi (Nimblewill – seeds from my lawn in the fall) – did not germinate
Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy beardtongue)
Phlox subulata (Moss phlox)
Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem)
Sisyrinchium angustifolium ‘Lucern’ (Blue-eyed grass)
Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie dropseed)
Viola odorata & V. pubescens (Sweet & yellow violets) - transplanted
A quick recap: I planted most of the plants in late May 2024, kept them well watered in spring and during summer drought. A few plants arrived a month later and I got those in as they showed up. Picked out the very few weeds I saw now and then. Took photos regularly. Then in late March I ran my lawn mower over everything with the deck set to 5". That is it. The total maintenance for the whole year.
Here's a photo carousel of the whole year:
Surprises:
The seeded plants didn't germinate at all. Weird. I have no explanation for that. I hoped the Danthonia would do better after the winter and show up this spring, but still nothing.
Japanese stiltgrass. Really. I've never seen it on my property before or even in my neighborhood. It's possible it came in on my husband's mountain bike, which would make sense since most of it was concentrated right on the edge of the sidewalk, but how it got scattered all over the whole site, I can't explain. It must have been in the compost?
The way everything absolutely thrived in this terrible soil, competing for water with the maple tree. I'm giving full credit to the Organic Mechanics Biochar Blend. And high quality plants from New Moon Nursery, North Creek Nursery, and Kind Earth Growers.
Wish I would haves:
Held back a bit on the Fragaria virginiana - those strawberry vines are doing a great job of filling in the gaps as they should, but they're also running roughshod over the Phlox and spilling over the sidewalk. I don't mind trimming them every week since I have to trim the lawn edges anyway, but it'd be nice to not have to.
Planted more Viola and Sisyrinchium angustifolium along the edges - in my native meadow I've planted some lovely Viola along the front and they've created a nice bedding edge. That would have helped to hold the strawberry inside. Nice neat edges make people feel more comfortable as they walk by on the sidewalk.
Mowed a little higher in year one. 5" for the mower deck was a bit too short for the warm season grasses - they got scalped a bit as the mower wheels were landing between plants rather than running across the top of them. In the next year or two that might be an appropriate height if the wheels are going across the top of plants, but I should have set it up higher to 7 or 8" for year one. The timing worked, though, as I got the mowing in a week or two before the Phlox began blooming.
Might dos:
Maybe I'll add the Erigeron pulchellus that I forgot to order, but honestly, there's enough going on in there already.
Maybe I'll start the Danthonia spicata in some trays later this summer and plug them in this fall, I did want a grassier look overall.
Maybe I'll pull out a bit of the Fragaria along the edges and move over some more Viola

Overall, I'd say this has been a very successful experiment so far. I hope the local community can use this native lawn as an example of what a lawn alternative can look like, other than a "bee lawn" or a no-mow fescue option. It also offers a range of plant options than anyone can pick and choose from to develop the look they want to achieve in their own space. For example, for a small space I'd recommend skipping the Little bluestem - it's a bit too tall. But if you have a massive lawn, groupings of a taller grass like that could add a lot of interest, especially in the winter.
I think I won't be changing much this year. Perhaps in year three I will experiment with mowing a portion of the lawn to see how it handles that kind of treatment. Sometimes people would like to have a no/low mow lawn, but then may have an event and need some overflow entertaining space and need a mowed area. It might be interesting to see how this version of a no/low lawn responds to mowing mid-season. But I'll wait and let the plants get more established before I try that.
What do you think of our experiment so far? Would you do it? Do you think the long-term trade off in time, gas/electricity to mow, irrigate, fertilize, apply herbicides, etc. could be worth the up front expense and ecological benefits of native plants?
This is a demonstration garden, so if you're local and want to come see it in person, contact me for the address, you are welcome anytime. If you're interested in installing something like this at your own home or business, let's talk!
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