Lawn reduction and outright replacement are hugely popular topics in the eco-gardening world today, and even in mainstream media. And the most challenging place to get rid of lawns altogether are front yards – because of HOA (or co-op) rules, city ordinances or just the desire to get along with neighbors.

Yet, in the eco-gardening literature the so-called “solution” offered is usually to just plant a meadow, prairie or savannah. And if you’ve seen the savannah at the Arboretum’s Friendship House, you know they’re hard to get right, and not well suited to front yards. Alternatively, the advice is just to “plant natives,” with no mention of how to design them in a way that’s appropriate and allowed where you live.

So to help, I’ve started compiling examples of front yards with no lawn at all (or almost none) that manage to still look good! (At least me to me.) So far, I’ve collected 200+ of them here on Flickr.  And guess what – there’s a whole album of lawnless front yards in GHI (Greenbelt Homes co-op), currently with 25 photos. These are the 12 gardens, and one extra.

Of course I included the garden in the two photos above. Notice how much is added by COLOR – in paint, in pots, in rugs. So the yard is colorful even in winter!. This garden includes a path, a small pond, and carefully pruned trees.

This one won a cash award as “Best GHI Garden” a few years ago, and it just keeps getting better.

The gardener here (a professional) smartly uses succulents and tropicals, plus a roomy patio, for a stunning and very sociable front yard.Gardeners with shade may take solace in this low-maintenance solution.The cheerfulness of this front yard, along Ridge Road, is appreciated by passersby all day.Above and below, veg gardeners expertly maximize their sunny front yards for yield, and beauty too.

This one is the only yard for a one-bedroom.

This all-native garden is new and looked great its very first year, thanks to professional help. (I blogged about it here.) This design, with borders around a lawn, is a great way to start with lawn reduction, as the borders can gradually get wider, the lawn narrower or even replaced with a wood-chip path.

This corner lot is well divided into seating, mostly native borders, and veg-growing containers. A very European look, to my eyes.

Paths, patios and seating make the garden!This one is my own front yard, where I removed the poorly performing Arborvitae hedge and replaced it with native vines trained on wires. When I sit on the patio I’m up-close to lots of pollinators. In fact, here’s a video of the pollinators in this small space, with insect IDs by entomologist and neighbor Jay Evans.

The Secret to Success? Cues to Care

Cues to care as signals that the garden, despite having no lawn, IS cared for, not an abandoned property. It can even be inviting! I blogged about cues to care and bragged that my own front yard uses lots of them:

There’s hardscape (flagstone patio, and 11 poles to support vines), chairs, two bird baths, evergreens, shrubs, winding path (painted turquoise), short plants along the path, drifts of plants, color, ornaments (beads and metal wall hangings), and pots. Plus an umbrella.

One more – in Old Greenbelt, but not GHI

Wait! This last garden isn’t a co-op yard but it’s near GHI and not much larger than a GHI front yard. It’s also the garden of two horticultural professionals. I posted this photo to the r/nolawns subreddit and got 1,546 upvotes (Reddit’s version of “likes”) and 62 shares. And if you’re familiar with Reddit you can just imagine how much karma I earned for this one photo!

I’ve added this garden to the “Design Ideas from Here and There” album on the Lawnless Front Yard Flickr account. Know of any other successful front yards with no or minimal lawn? Please tell me in a comment or DM!