I've been breaking my back over something closer to the bottom image for about 10 years. It's not less work. It's real easy to just drown a yard in water, crossbow, and fertilizer and mow once a week. I don't want to do that, so that's why I put the effort in.

Much prettier and I love birds, but on what planet is the bottom one less work? Every one of those plants requires maintenance.

Definitely not less work if you want it looking like that lol

I love native alternatives to lawns, but OP, I feel like it'd be more environmentally friendly if you didn't trap the birds who visit your yard inside white void spheres. Please let them out. They don't deserve this fate.

Bottom is really good. But some of the plants are too close to the path

Amount of work depends on if you're trying to live in a naturally hostile environment (a desert) or a more temperate climate.

Live in one of those "rural suburbs" (line of houses surrounded by fields) in Louisiana.

Was smokin a bowl outside last night. Saw the mosquito truck come down the road, spraying a fog of insecticides to keep the population down and all I can think is "if we didn't flatten everything for miles around with empty lawns and mono crops, we'd still have enough dragonflies to eat the mosquitoes instead of spraying chemicals into our air that kill the dragonflies too"

I'd rather some more of it be human food, but maybe that's out back. I'm slowly turning areas around the house I just bought into native stuff and food. It is, however, a constant battle against kudzu strangling and bamboo encroaching. I generally avoid having anything that tall and unkept (as some areas look to be) due to venomous snakes that can bite when surprised :/

Less work? 🤣

I had a garden with wild flowers, it was planted by the previous owner. An horticulturist.

It was beautiful but required a lot of work. Way more than mowing a couple of days a week.

I still tried to keep up, though.

HOAs are responsible for this. Fuck HOAs. All my homies hate HOAs.

Hey, maybe I like getting sweaty and triggering my allergies with cut grass every weekend. Did you ever think I might like being miserable?

I hated cutting my parents' lawn so much as a teen. Absolutely awful experience.

I started having the guy who mows my grass leave one small back section of the property untouched so I could hopefully attract more native birds and insects. It's a part of my yard that I don't go into and neither do my dogs, so I figured it was as good a spot as any for the experiment. After a couple months, it worked to bring in birds. I have a pair of bluejays with a nest in my tree. I hadn't seen bluejays anywhere around before now, and I've lived in my house for 3 years.

I prob have something similiar to bottom pic, and I would say it is much easier to maintain than a grasslawndessert. I have some garden paths and spots that I trim down, and cut down bushes when they get to big once a year, but never use a lawnmower or bother about weeds. Mosquitos are less now that I have more birds, a tawny owl is living in a hollow tree close to my compost and takes care of rodents. Dug a pond and got lots of frogs that also eats insects.

I'm from the sticks. For me, a carpet of grass is a nice luxury once in a while, as a treat.

This post brought to you by the anti Robin gang.

Gotta watch out for Lyme disease though. 😢

I would use the lawn mower width for a path and border on the property line. Of course and I would sprinkle a shit ton of clover seed on the path to mow less.

Yay more animals for my dog to terrorize! /s

I live on the side of a hill so we have lots of wild plants, trees, shrubs, etc. So many birds and little creatures here. Occasionally a bobcat will stroll through. Owls, cranes, and quails are fun to see. There are mountain lions in the area but thankfully we have not seen any on our cameras. I love the ecosystem around my house. The sound of the coyotes howling in the night or the birds starting to chirp as the sun starts to rise...so blissful.

Ducking HOA Nazis will not allow.

Totally true! 👍 So much prettier! 🥰

Tick city

Bonus not having to mow the lawn.