Got a new place, thinking about letting the garden grow wild. Thoughts?

"Wild" sounds like an invitation for invasive species to take over. If you want an ecologically productive space, just letting it go isn't how to go about it. At least throw down some native flower and grass seed.

You can’t really see anything in this video..

Letting it grow wild? It already is. This “debate” keeps coming up. You can’t just let the yard go to shit or in this case get even shittier. Half of those weeds on the ground are non-native, invasive, and provide little to no benefits to pollinators since that’s what I assume you want to help.

If you want it to go wild, you need it to be intentional with taking out the invasive weeds and replacing with native to your area plants. Here’s the kicker, those plants usually don’t look good or have weak flowering. So don’t expect some picturesque meadow landscape.

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“Grow wild” to me reads as “I’m a monster”

Check into your local lawn or "rank vegetation" laws. If you live in a community with such laws, the government can mow your property and bill you for the cost. "Abandonment" is not a good lawn care strategy.

Letting it grow wild sounds good but you might want to get a good idea of what species you have and where they are.

Without management you may notice some species dominate, with that you'll have less diversity in the species and is generally not the best for supporting a wide range of pollinators, birds, etc. Once those species have dominated they can be hard to manage/reduce so it is always best to have a plan from the beginning.

I would chop and drop any unwanted weeds. See what comes up. Maybe add some wildflower seeds.

look at r/nolawns

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This type of "wild" yard is what gives a bad rep to folks that want a "wild" garden. At the beginning, making a "wild" garden will take effort, time, and maybe some planning as well.

This type of meadow looking yard isn't happening via abandonment. It will take effort.

If you want something low effort, get some clover seeds and overseed your grass every fall and spring in the hope that the clovers will take over in a few years.

I love my Yarden and it just gets better and better the more I leave it alone, new things pop in all the time 💚 The more plants in the grass the greener it is!

Plus, much of the "weeds" are edible or medicine plants

In a new place it's a good idea to take pics and notes throughout the year to see what comes up, where the sun travels and all that so you can plan for future additions

I figured I would have to weed out some of the dominant species. I have a big rabbit (German giant) and 3 chickens, I was thinking about making a mobile park I can move around every 2-3 days. I don't know if it's a good idea with the rabbit as it feeds on almost anything green, maybe i'll only let him have a go on selected patches with weeds. Also before everyone thinks I just want to neglect the hell out of my garden I'm only talking about the middle section of it, or maybe even only half of that. The left side which gets most of the sun will be a big greenhouse and vegetable plot, walking paths between the plot and the lawn, and on the right side of the lawn are already there. And in the front there's a nice pond.

I sowed clover and a flower mix that attracts bees before in my current garden with good success, I will look out for a seed mix of native plants to use as well. We want one big tree, probably wallnut, and a couple smaller ones.

We plan on getting a medium sized dog once the kids are old enough, that's also part of the reason I don't want a perfect lawn, as I know it's near impossible with a dog running around...