When Delta couple Patrick and Shaunti began renovating the front yard of their home near Boundary Bay, in Spring 2023, they decided to explore alternatives to a conventional bladed-grass lawn.
“Our thought was, ‘This isn't our space. This belongs to nature,’” Shaunti says of their yard. “Bladed grass — we just get to look at it, and it doesn't benefit nature and it's harmful to the environment,” especially because of the amount of watering it requires, which is subject to municipal restrictions between May and October.
So, they consulted with “just about every nursery from Vancouver to Chilliwack,” says Shaunti, and “literally every single one” recommended Ladner's West Coast Seeds, whose organic products include grass alternatives such as micro clover and drought-tolerant flowers.
Despite being an increasingly popular choice among homeowners, “lawn alternatives” are still largely unknown. But Patrick and Shaunti are hopeful that the success of their front yard will inspire others — in their neighbourhood and beyond — to follow their lead.
The couple refer to their yard as a “pollinator meadow,” which the City of Vancouver’s website defines as an “intentionally naturally managed [area]… that will produce a variety of blooms from common dandelions to native lupines to attract pollinator bees, butterflies, and birds.”
Pollinator meadows require a small fraction of the water a conventional lawn needs to flourish, in part because their roots aren’t exposed to the sun and, therefore, don’t dry out as easily. Consequently, Patrick and Shaunti received permission last summer from the City of Delta’s Bylaw Enforcement division to water their yard while Stage 2 watering restrictions (which prohibit conventional-lawn watering) were in effect. While their neighbours’ lawns were brown and crisp, Patrick and Shaunti’s meadow was green and thriving. This summer produced a similar contrast.
Perhaps inevitably, a bylaw officer came to their home recently in response to complaints submitted by anonymous citizens who assumed Patrick and Shaunti were defying watering restrictions.
“His first sentence was, ‘First of all, I want to congratulate you on your lawn. I love what you're doing,” Shaunti recalls. “‘I don't want to be here, but I have to be. I was sent here by Metro Vancouver.’”
But once the couple gave the officer a tour of their meadow and explained its contents, he was satisfied that they were abiding the law. “He said, ‘Technically, you could water every day if you want.’ I said, ‘That's the whole point: We don't want to.’”
While Patrick and Shaunti have experienced some personal benefits from replacing their conventional lawn — no more weekly mowing; no more aesthetic damage caused by raccoons, which are prone to digging up blade grass; praise from many of their neighbours — they experience greater joy from the benefits their meadow passes on to the environment.
“I can sit out front and see the little clovers wiggling, so I know there are bees [pollinating] from one place to the next,” says Shaunti. “There are butterflies. We have frogs living in there. It's a happy place for everyone.”
