Reduce Your Lawn Day returns on May 20 – a national invitation to rethink our outdoor spaces and reimagine them as thriving habitats. Whether you’re planting a small pollinator bed or rallying your block to convert a shared green space, this movement makes sustainable gardening feel accessible and highlights the power of collective action.
Last year, over 3,000 participants pledged to replace more than 10.5 million square feet of lawn with pollinator plants, meadows and low-water landscaping. This year’s goal? Inspire 10,000 pledges to take back turf for the planet.
Reduce Your Lawn Day is supported by over 25 organizations dedicated to sustainability, water conservation and pollinator-friendly landscapes – and the movement is still growing!
Less Lawn, More Flowers: 10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Lawn
Looking for yard ideas and garden design inspiration? Here are 10 simple planting projects to kick-start your sustainable yard transformation:
- Remove the grass along your driveway and plant an easy-to-grow native wildflower border.
- Surround your mailbox with perennials to brighten the neighborhood.
- Flip the strip! Replace the lawn between the sidewalk and the street with a mini-meadow or no-mow groundcovers.
- Carve out a flower bed to create a pollinator pit stop in your yard.
- Expand your existing flower beds by pushing out their boundaries and adding more low-growing flowers.
- Remove tough-to-trim grass along walkways and plant creeping groundcovers to create a pretty pathway.
- Build a raised bed near your house for an easy-to-access kitchen garden or cut flower garden.
- Replace the grass along your fence with a beautiful blooming border.
- Designate a corner of your yard “for the birds” with a pre-planned garden of native plants.
- Flank your front walkway with flower beds to boost your curb appeal.
Join the Movement
You can pledge to take part in Reduce Your Lawn Day on May 20. Downloadable yard signs are available to help spread the movement – because sustainability begins in your backyard.
American Meadows, a leading advocate for doing good through gardening, in collaboration with Kathy Jentz, author of “Groundcover Revolution,” proudly announced the inaugural Reduce Your Lawn Day on May 20, 2024. This new national day was planned as an annual event aiming to raise awareness and encourage participation in adopting eco-friendly yard solutions at any scale, promoting a shift away from traditional turf lawns.
Why reduce your lawn? Traditional turf lawns, prevalent over the last two centuries, lack biodiversity, fail to support pollinators and are often water-intensive. Reduce Your Lawn Day is “a day to step back and take stock of what you are growing in your landscape and make a conscious decision to reduce turfgrass areas,” said Jentz.
Rooted in the spirit of No Mow May, this initiative goes beyond simply refraining from mowing, instead providing better value-added alternatives.
