Even if you do have grubs now is not the time to get excited about it. They are in a "dormant" life stage right now. You can spend all you want to kill them but they stopped feeding on your roots months ago. In other words, they will do no more damage. In the spring they will emerge as beetles and fly away. What matters is how many of the beetles swarm your porch light in the spring. If you get a bunch, then treat the lawn. Having said that, the treatment of milky spore is something that supposedly takes years to develop. This is almost like discussing magic with a bunch of people who really don't seem to know how the trick works. The folk lore states that milky spore must be applied every six months for years before it becomes effective. My opinion is that the beetles come and go as they please. What happened one year might not happen the next. Milky spore is a form of disease that causes the milky disease in the grubs. As was said above, if you don't have many grubs you won't know if your milky spore did anything or not. If you don't look for them, you won't know. It's all just hard to know. In any case, what happened to your neighbor is likely to have happened to you. How your yard took the attack probably depends more on your cultural practices than on anything you did or did not apply.

I live in the subburbs of a small city where everyone has the green green manicured lawns and everyone's keeping up with the Jones'. I once mentioned I'd like a more naturalized front yard like the one I had at my previous home and the neighbours told me straight out that it would "ruin the look of the neighbourhood". I really don't care what they think but at the time we had just moved here and I didn't want to start something with them upon just meeting them. To remedy this I made a 9' x 9' kidney shaped garden on my front lawn down near the sidewalk and each year by some strange occurance, that kidney shaped garden just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This hasn't escaped the notice of my bossy neighbours though... they didn't see my early morning digging in the garden and I skillfully smoothed the mulch over the enlarged portion so that it was not noticable but they still came to my house to ask if I had made the garden larger. *sigh*. Never the less, the kidney shape is more like 12' x 12' now and is taking up most of my postage sized piece of front lawn. We also have a sidewalk on our side of the street that cuts through our lawn and makes a grassy boullevard next to the street. I'd like to plant the boullevard but come to find the city only allows boullevard plantings that are in keeping with the desires of the city. You must petition the city for any single plant you want to place on a boullevard and the city is at liberty of veto'ing your requests. The greatest IRONY in all of this is that our subdivision is built INSIDE an old farm woodlot! Everyone in this neighborhood has woods in their backyards and to me it only makes sense to start replacing all the trees that were bulldozed down in order to make the streets and building lots. My next door neighbor's comment to me when I said I'd like to naturalize my front lawn was "Ewwwww! That would look awful!!! Trees belong in the WOODS!" I just shook my head and walked away. No offense to any true blondes reading this but I believe that my neighbor who said that was having one of the TRUELY GREAT BLONDE MOMENTS IN HISTORY. *double sigh* In all honesty, I don't want to be the neighbourhood pariah. I looked at the photo gallery at "Lose the Lawn" and still wonder how those people (gorgeous naturalized properties BTW) deal with their neighbours. I don't care really what they feel about naturalized "looks" of a property but I also don't want to make enemies with my neighbours either. I think by building the natural look slowly, I'm fueling the fire a bit less but it really is hard to keep everyone happy when you are trying to do a good thing like naturalizing your property when you live in a subburban setting where everyone else has the perfect cookie cutter lawns and ornamental shrubs. I guess one other problem I have is that my front lawn is attached directly to my neighbour's front lawn because our driveways are each on the far left and far right of both properties. It 'does' look odd to have an almost full grass lawn butting up against a more naturalized lawn. I'm curious how others create their naturalized front lawns despite the neighbours' views. Barb southern Ontario, CANADA

It seems to get still greener as it gets closer to the green cap just to the right of the yellow area (1st picture). Do you know what that green cap goes to? Could there be a low spot where it's greener? The tall grass circles in the last picture is "just" a grassy weed. I'm not up on northern lawn herbicides, so I'll let someone else help with that. You should not have to treat for grubs annually. Grubs are typically a problem in July and August, if they are going to be a problem. If you suspect you might have grubs, dig up one square foot of turf and inspect. If you see fewer than a dozen grubs, place the turf back and leave it alone. That is normal. If you have an uncountable mass of grubs, then you need to treat. But in a normal 10- year period you might have grubs once. Besides insecticides are really not good for the rest of the insects and microbes living in the soil. How are you watering? You seem to have done some reading on this forum, so you've probably read my thoughts on deep and infrequent watering.

I had a long response typed out to this and somehow, somewhere, it just vanished! Trying again..... You have options to removing a lawn without any chemicals. Which method you might choose will depend on how much effort you might care to devote to the project and how quickly you want the cleared area to be plantable. Dig out the lawn. Cheapest method but most labor intensive. Also one way to be assured to get the best results as you can (and should) be as thorough as possible. Takes as long as it takes for removal....you set the pace. Rent a sod cutter. Available at any equipment rental outlet and a relatively easy DIY project. Efficient and fast.......you will have a cleared, plantable area by the end of the day! Solarization. As has been previously stated, covering the entire area to be cleared of grass with plastic and leaving it in place will kill off the grass. But it will take 2-3 months, will probably require some follow up and your front garden will look like a bit like a construction zone or termite tenting in the interim. You want to use black plastic for this, not clear! Clear plastic is used in solarization to kill off pathogens via heat but needs to be done in midsummer when the most intense sunlight is available. And is less effective for killing plants....for the reasons floral mentioned. To kill off grass and other weeds, use black plastic. This prevents sunlight reaching them and prevents photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis, the plants are unable to nourish themselves and they will die. Not a fast process.....allow 2-3 months in summer; 4-6 weeks in winter. Smothering. Similar to covering with plastic, layering the area to be cleared with cardboard or layers of newspaper, wetting them thoroughly and then covering with a layer of compost or other mulch will smother the weeds/grasses and deprive them of both oxygen and sunlight and will prevent photosynthesis. Takes about 6 months for best efficacy but the process is fully biodegradable and you can plant in the interim by carefully cutting through the layers and inserting the plants. Will also improve the soil with the addition of the organic matter, so an added bonus! A few additional thoughts. If you leave parts of the lawn intact, make sure you leave adequate clearance around any plants so the grass does not immediately invade. Trying to prise grass roots out or separate from any plant roots they have invaded can be a time consuming and Herculean chore! Also, if the remaining grass/lawn is not mowed routinely, you run the risk of the front garden looking and becoming a giant weed patch! You could be subject to your neighbors' criticism :-) Both lawn and weed grasses are tenacious creatures and can have an ability to outcompete other, larger plants. If not fully removed first, they will come through any sort of groundcover and need to be carefully weeded out. Not all groundcovers will work equally as well and there is no such thing as an "all purpose" groundcover :-) They all have different growth habits and require different growing conditions. Your pachysandra for example wants shade only....it struggles and bleaches out in much sun. And finally, by removing the lawn, you are opting for a higher maintenance landscape. Almost anything you plant will require periodic maintenance to keep the property from turning feral and overgrown. Lawns tend to take some of the least amount of maintenance of any type pf planting, especially if you do not insist on it being pristine and weed free. Covering any open areas with rocks or gravel is also pretty low maintenance.....but not NO maintenance either!! And some terminology to help you through this process. A 'lawn' is a planted expanse of grass. And there are many types of lawn grass and where they are used for this purpose will depend on your location as to a suitable type. There are also many types of weed grasses. And you can also have a lawn that is comprised of something other than grass....like clover or thyme. 'Turf' is just another word for a lawn comprised of grasses. 'Sod' is the grass in its actively growing condition and this is what you can purchase in rolls to lay for an almost instant lawn. Or what you remove with the power equipment :-) Lawn grasses can also be planted from seeds and sometimes plugs or small starts. It depends on the type.