How to Replace Your Lawn to Benefit Local Wildlife Species

Green lawns may be appealing to certain members of society, but for the most part they’re diversity deserts that cause more harm to the local ecosystem than good.

Think about it. Your grass doesn’t feed wildlife, attract pollinators, and gives nothing back to the soil. There is no variety and it needs constant feeding and treating to keep it looking like we expect.

In this article, we’re going to tell you everything you need to take into consideration if you’d like to replace your lawn with species and accessories that benefit various wildlife species instead.

What’s the Obsession with Green Lawns, Anyway?

If you live in North America, you probably grow up seeing immaculately tended lawns in front of your neighbors’ houses. Many of us woke on Saturday mornings to the twin sounds of morning cartoons and people around the block mowing their lawns.

Neighbors bonded over tips on how to get the greenest spaces, free from dandelions and other unwanted pest plants that would mar their otherwise immaculate yards.

These weren’t places for children, animals, or any wild creatures to frolic. In fact, many of us were kept off the lawn not only because we might damage the grass, but because they were treated with such intense pesticides that we could have gotten ill.

You can only imagine the damage this has done to local ecosystems: both due to insect die-off from all those poisons and from the toxic runoff that oozed down into the water table.

Perfectly manicured green lawns like this only came into vogue in the 18th century, when wealthy landowners wanted to show off just how affluent they were.

They flaunted the fact that they could simply let all that land go to grass since they didn’t need it to grow crops or feed livestock. Immigrants brought that mindset to North America, and made a point of under-utilizing their land by growing grass on it instead of food.

As you can imagine, these manicured lawns are far from wildlife-friendly by any stretch of the imagination. Fortunately, since most people nowadays aren’t interested in flaunting ostentatious wealth, there’s a huge movement towards eco-friendly, pollinator-nourishing lawn covers instead.

In this article, we’re going to look at how to replace your lawn with different types of ground cover. Options and styles will differ depending on your locale, but all will offer immense benefits to local wildlife.

Look Up Zoning Ordinances to See if You Can Replace Your Lawn

Although you’d really like to replace your lawn with wildlife-friendly species, you need to contact your local government offices first to find out what the zoning bylaws are for residential gardens.

There are few things as disappointing as devoting a ton of time and effort to transforming a yard into a thriving wildlife refuge or food forest garden, only to be told by local city council dragons that what you’ve done is illegal and has to be lawn-ified again.

Generally, each city or town will have a Code Enforcement Officer who can be contacted with various zoning queries. They’ll be able to let you know which ordinances clarify how front gardens or yards can be used, and by extension, what is or isn’t allowed.

For example, if you live in a suburban area and you’re keen on installing a pond in your front yard as a water source for local animals, you’ll need to find out how deeply you’re allowed to dig before you potentially hit municipal pipes.

Talk to Your Neighbors

In addition to coming up against pushback from zoning ordinances, fretful neighbors can potentially put the kibosh on your goals to replace your lawn with more wildlife-friendly plants and habitats.

This is very likely if you have retentive neighbors who spend ages manicuring their lawns with tiny scissors and refuse to permit a single dandelion to thrive in their space.

Nature doesn’t exist in a bubble, and if various wild species flock to the gorgeous oasis you’re aiming to create on your property, they’ll also end up on your neighbors’ land. As such, they may be less keen than you are about snakes, raccoons, foxes, and other critters poking around their bungalows.

Have a chat with your neighbors, even if that simply involves a group chat on social media. Let them know what you’re thinking about: that your goal is to replace your lawn to benefit wildlife and encourage healthy pollinators.

Maybe you’ll even grow some edible and medicinal plants while you’re at it. In a best-case scenario, the majority of them will also be on board and you can transform your entire neighborhood into a wildlife-nurturing Eden.

Should you come across naysayers, you can strive for community harmony by finding a middle ground. You can still replace your lawn with wildlife-friendly species, but you can focus on nourishing pollinating insects and native birds, rather than enticing coyotes or badgers.

Alternatively, you can check out our guide on How and Why to Get Your Garden Certified as a Wildlife Habitat. Having this paperwork in order is likely to silence even the most belligerent lawn lover.

Learn About Locally Indigenous Species and Their Needs

You’re probably already familiar with many birds, insects, and small animals in your area, but that doesn’t mean that you know all of the critters that are indigenous to where you are.

For example, although house sparrows, starlings, and pigeons are common sights in many cities and suburbs, they’re introduced species rather than native ones. Similarly, many indigenous creatures may have wandered off elsewhere in search of substance and habitat since they’re unlikely to find either in sterile green lawns.

As you research the different species in your area, keep a journal and pen (or laptop) handy so you can take notes about their respective habitats, dietary needs, etc.

Indigenous animal and insect species will generally live symbiotically within certain habitat types, and create a “circle of life” feeding cycle with one another. These will differ by growing zone and region, but they will have all evolved in harmony with one another.

For example, let’s talk about the circle of life in a woodland in Minnesota. Native yellow coneflowers (Echinacea paradoxa) provide essential food for indigenous butterflies and bees.

Birds like goldfinches prey upon these insects’ caterpillars for sustenance, while ground squirrels and other small rodents eat the seed heads and then disperse them via their droppings.

Foxes then feed upon the rodents, and when any of the aforementioned species die, their bodies are consumed by carrion beetles and broken down into the soil.

From there, the cycle begins anew as the nutrients in the soil nourish the next generation of coneflowers, etc. ad infinitum.

As such, you’re aiming for plants and habitats that can support the following:

• Healthy soil
• Thriving beneficial insects
• Birds
• Small amphibians and reptiles
• Rodents and lagomorphs
• Natural predators

When you understand the symbiosis that happens between various species in your area, you can determine what to replace your lawn with in order to provide them with the best environment possible for life to flourish harmoniously.

Observe Your Land and Test Your Soil

Now that you’ve done oodles of research on local indigenous species of all shapes and flavors, it’s time to figure out what will thrive on your own property. This is where observation and soil testing come in handy.

You’ll also need to determine lightfall and water movement on your property, and also figure out the composition of the soil in various areas.

This is because the types of soil you have available to you will dictate the different microhabitats you can create on your land.

Different plants have various needs as far as soil, light, and water go, and species that thrive in your front yard may fall apart in the back garden. You don’t want to replace your lawn with plants that thrive in sandy soil, only to end up seeing them waterlogged because there’s too much clay in your yard.

Once you know the types of soil you have to work with, you can determine which native plants will thrive best in which sector. Alternatively, if your soil is incredibly depleted and can’t support many indigenous species, you can look into having the top foot replaced. This is another opportunity to chat with local city council members to see which options are available to you.

Research Plant Cultivars that are Native to Your Area

Why is it important to plant indigenous species when you replace your lawn? Quite simply because the wildlife that evolved in your area did so in tandem with the plants that grew all around them. These plants didn’t just provide essential habitats, but were also their exclusive food sources.

As such, if you’re aiming to replace your lawn to benefit wildlife, the best thing you can do for them is surround them with plants that their bodies recognize as food, medicine, and shelter on a cellular level.

While you’re researching indigenous species, make sure that you check out a wide variety of species in various shapes, sizes, height, and breadth. The plants you look up should include:

• Trees, to provide shelter and safety for various animals, as well as potential seeds, fruit, nuts, and insect species for insectivores to eat
• Bushes and shrubs, for the same reasons listed above
• Mid-height indigenous flowers and herbs that attract and feed pollinators
• Groundcovers

Ensure that You’re Providing All the Necessities: Food, Water, and Shelter

By now, you’ve hopefully done tons of research and can recite all the different wildlife species you’re aiming to entice to your property. You’ve taken all the steps to replace your lawn with indigenous cultivars, and you’re all set to watch indigenous critters come flocking to your property like you’re Snow White.

That’s very likely to happen, of course, but it’s going to take time.

Some species are very fast-growing, so if you’ve planted native grasses or ground covers, then you’re likely to see a fair bit of wildlife in your first year. Other species such as nut and berry trees and bushes or cacti take years to mature.

Similarly, perennial wildflower species like bee balm (Monarda spp.) or milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) will take three to four years to establish themselves: you may see one or two flowers the first year, but they won’t truly explode into action and spread around for a while yet.

As a result, the species that are nourished by these plants—and the critters that prey on them in turn—will slowly make an appearance over time. Until your land transforms into a magical wildlife habitat, you’ll need to provide these creatures with the things that they lack. For instance, you can create an insect hotel that has a hedgehog or toad habitat built into the bottom of it.

Since it’ll take years for plants to provide enough natural nourishment for various species, you can also offer things like hanging seed feeders with food that indigenous species enjoy. Ensure that there’s a source of clean water nearby, such as a well-maintained birdbath or water feature like a pond or waterfall.

You Don’t Have to Do Everything All At Once

You probably looked up this article because you’d like to replace your lawn with something that’s more beneficial to local wildlife, and now you’re feeling overwhelmed or pressured to dive into botany and argue with your local city council.

Don’t worry; you don’t need to dive in head over heels and do everything all at once.

In fact, you can make your wildlife-friendly lawn replacement as simple or complex as you like. Tailor your approach to suit your own energy and commitment levels, as well as which kinds of wildlife you’re most interested in benefitting.

If all of this seems far too daunting for you, keep things very low-key instead. Replace your lawn with creeping thyme or violets to feed bees and butterflies, and let that groundcover establish itself for a few years.

At that point, should you feel like branching out a little bit, add a small rock garden that incorporates indigenous flowers, maybe a little ceramic toad house.

Basically, do what you can with what you have to work with, and never feel pressured to over-perform. Anything you do to replace your lawn with healthy, indigenous groundcovers will naturally benefit the wildlife that’s native to your area.

Additional Tip: Keep Cats Out of the Garden

If you’re going through all the labor to replace your lawn to nurture local animals and insects, then one of the most important things you can do is to keep your cat(s) indoors.

This may sound strange to readers in the UK or mainland Europe, where housecats generally have unrestricted access to outdoor spaces, and it’s considered cruel to keep them indoors.

In reality, cats are introduced predators who wreak so much havoc on wild species that they should be prevented from further damage.

Studies show that not only do free-roaming cats annihilate billions of wild birds every year, they’re also responsible for the extinction of several bird species.

Please spay or neuter your cats, keep them indoors as much as possible, and help shelters to trap and rehome unowned cats you encounter in the wild. Taking these measures will help to make your land a more wildlife-friendly environment and will help wild spaces recover from unnatural predation.