I bought this house 3 years ago with a HUGE front and back yard, a thirsty dying 60' Cottonwood tree dropping branches on the house, falling down railroad tie retaining walls, and a sinking concrete walkway.
I'll never be "done" (lots of bare spots to fill in or plants that didn't make it to replace), but my neighbors are finally congratulating me on my pollinator friendly, native plant, drought tolerant garden. Even the old man next door with the diagonal mower lines lawn said he "loves what I've done with it" which encouraged me to share!
We had professionals do the rock steps, but everything else was DIY from killing the grass to laying mulch, planting, edging, and the riverbed which is made from free stones I found on FB marketplace.
Most are planted perennials but the snap dragons are wild and I let ONE wild sunflower go to seed last year on accident and now I have a forest haha
by Krissie520
9 Comments
Colorado front range, hardiness zone 5b or 6a (I get different messages on that)
Explanation of pics in the post description, but happy to answer any additional questions.
Also shout out to local organization Resource Central, which sells native drought tolerant Garden-In-A-Box kits and has a program to give you some plants for free if you show you’re replacing your lawn with a garden. They gave me about 70 starter plants the first year.
Wohoooooooooooo
How did you get a cat to grow in your garden? (Pic #14)
Those steps! Great design for the garden.
Sorry the tree had to go but what is developing is really nice. Love the dry stream bed. Is it functional or a barrier between lawn and your native plant garden?
I got 1 sunflower plant from a seed packet. Sure I’m in southern California but it didn’t die or even stop flowering through winter. Tough plant. Birds better be loving the seed as it doesn’t exactly blend with the rest of the plants!
Holy smokes this is sweet!
Absolutely love this!
Gorgeous!
Also, there’s a lion out there!
Dumb question ! But did you leave the plastic down underneath ?? I’m assuming no , that you just used it to kill the grass lol but I’m curious as I’m interested ???
Why did you cut down that mature tree?