They Removed the Front Lawn and Let the Garden Grow Up the House
Patchy grass occupied most of this small front yard, squeezed between the sidewalk, front steps, house, and narrow path leading to the side gate. Brown sections had spread through the lawn, while the foundation offered no planting to connect the yard with the tall brick facade.
Rather than reseed the grass, the project removed the lawn from the equation. Mulched planting beds, a raised border against the house, river rock, shrubs, flowers, and a young magnolia took over the same footprint. The change left no section of turf to mow or repair.
Reddit user u/MapleButter shared the project in r/landscaping, documenting its growth from spring 2023 through summer 2024. The Hamilton, Ontario homeowner also noted that the house dates to 1870.
Patchy Grass Left Little to Work With
The original lawn was small enough that every bare section showed. Concrete already bordered three sides, with the front steps taking another chunk from the lot. Keeping grass here meant maintaining a narrow rectangle that contributed little beyond ground cover.
The black-painted foundation and white brick also stopped at an empty strip of grass. Nothing carried the strong black-and-white facade into the yard.
Sketch Replaced Lawn With Planting Zones
The first plan kept a patch of grass near the sidewalk but assigned much of the perimeter to planting. A long bed ran beneath the bay window, then turned toward the side path, with another strip marked for stone.
That rough drawing matters because the finished yard moved past even this idea. As planting expanded, the remaining lawn disappeared too.
Raised Bed Put Plants Against the Tall Facade
Gray block created an L-shaped raised bed beneath the front windows, lifting shrubs above sidewalk level and separating them from the lower garden. A strip of white river rock runs beside it toward the gate, giving runoff a route through an area that had once been grass.
The homeowner planted magnolia, spirea, boxwood, globe spruce, and creeping juniper during this stage. The young magnolia occupies the larger mulched bed in front, leaving space around its trunk for lower plants.
Flowers Filled the Open Mulch
By spring 2024, the open bed had begun filling with grasses, daylilies, bee balm, and salvia. Purple flower spikes, tufts of narrow foliage, and the magnolia blossoms created several heights without blocking the front windows.
The raised bed changed too. Shrubs had gained mass, while vines had begun spreading across the black foundation behind them. What had looked sparse after installation was starting to connect.
Boston Ivy Took the Garden Above Ground Level
The largest shift came from Boston ivy planted at the house. It spread across the foundation, climbed beside the bay window, and sent long stems toward the upper story. The garden now occupied both the yard and the facade.
That growth became the most debated part of the project. Commenters raised concerns about vines against brick, mortar, windows, moisture, and access for pests. The homeowner said the plant was Boston ivy and planned to control its height through trimming, including keeping it below window ledges.
Small Yard Became Dense Enough to Hide the Foundation
From the front steps, little remains of the open space visible in the first photo. Shrubs now overlap the raised bed, flowers line the sidewalk, and the magnolia has developed a broad canopy over the lower planting.
The ivy changes the scale most. Instead of reading as a garden placed in front of a tall house, the planting appears to continue up the building, tracing the black window trim and breaking across the white brick.
Front Lawn Disappeared From the View
The side-by-side view shows how much changed within the same narrow footprint. Grass once filled almost everything between the sidewalk and house. The mature version replaces it with soil, shrubs, flowers, stone, a tree, and a raised planting bed, while Boston ivy carries green growth far beyond the former lawn line.
Removing the turf did more than solve a patchy-grass problem. It gave the small lot enough planting area to build several layers, then used the house as the backdrop for the final one.
Image credits go to Reddit user u/MapleButter.