When your lawn is more in tune with the surrounding natural ecosystem, you may be fortunate enough to be visited by native animals.
The subreddit r/NoLawns is a page dedicated to transitioning away from monoculture lawns toward native plants, rain gardening, and other natural methods of maintaining your yard. In a recent post, a Reddit user shared a pic of their natural yard, which continues to welcome happy critters.
“We had a new visitor in our yard this early morning,” the user said. “We’ve seen rabbits, squirrels, birds, cats.. but this is our first possum!”
Photo Credit: Reddit
A commenter was able to identify the user’s location based on their native plants and the animal sighting, saying, “Sugarberry….catchweed bedstraw….opossum…. I’m gonna guess a fellow Texan.”
The original poster confirmed, replying, “You’re on to something.”
Rewilding your yard involves growing native species, including native plants, flowers, and grasses. By rewilding, you’ll notice the time and money spent on lawn maintenance will be greatly reduced, as local pollinators will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Plus, native plants are equipped to handle your local environment, which cuts down on the cost and waste associated with excessive watering or plant food.
Another native yard gardener was pleased to find that butterfly chrysalises had appeared near their wild lawn — providing full assurance that their garden was truly pollinator-friendly. Meanwhile, a gardening influencer shared how catering their garden to help out the surrounding ecosystem resulted in incredible results: a lush native garden.
Aside from adding native plants to your yard, you can step up your rewilding game by installing a native lawn featuring natural grass. Instead of using turf, consider planting local wildflowers or a native grass, which not only makes your yard unique but also helps save money on upkeep.
Commenters shared in the delight of the possum sighting, as well as the native plants.
One user said, “Wonderful to see the opossum love here.”
“You have a healthy little ecosystem in your yard!” another commenter added.
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