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Sure, there will be as many ways as there are outcomes you might want.

Before we talk about any plantcraft we ask where we are, what the land is like, and what we want to achieve here. So I’ll sort of fill that in a bit on your behalf and that might give you some ideas.

I’m just going to randomly presume that you’re in the New England region of the USA for no other reasons than 1. Lyme babyyyy and 2. It’s where I’m from, so lol. We’ll presume you have a quarter acre of unbroken turf with no landscaping or features, in American suburbia, but near enough to undeveloped woods that ticks have a fairly unbroken habitat and complete their lifestyle appropriately. We’ll presume that they are definitely present and frequently foray into the housing development. And we’ll presume that your outcome and intentions are basically: “I want to feel like this space DOES MORE for the environment, specifically by reducing the need for inputs and maintenance, and increasing the biodiversity on this property; but I’m not able to change my entire way of life, which is set up mostly how I want it already.”

If you live in the NE region, then the ticks you mostly live with are the American deer and dog tick. and the bad news about those buddies and my presumed vision of your situation is that you should be practicing rigorous tick checks in everyday life anyway! even if your yard is a sterile moonscape 😌🙃 because they are endemic, insidious and on the rise due to climate change; and in your situation it’s not unreasonable to expect them even if you keep a lawn suitable for competitive croquet, and hose it down with permethrin. So step one is to practice tick safety regularly anyway: for yourself in the shower when you shower, and for your dog when you’re sitting on the couch.

Secondly, it sounds kind of like you and your dog go out in the yard off-leash, or want to, so it could be a good idea to fence the property or just a defined play area on it. because a) dogs are dogs, and b) limiting deer access is a gentle way to limit the food cycle.

Okay so what next? Here are some ideas that will all give different outcomes.

1.) barrier off a small pleasant grassy area for you and your dog to play in; keep it quite close-cut. You have your area and the ticks have theirs.

2.) barrier off the least desirable corner of the property , ideally near an existing tree, and score a small piece of turf with a sharp tool; drop in some purchased native wildflower seeds. let the turf grow out, go to flower, and seed. When it goes golden let it stand there. Add a stack of logs and erect a “bug hotel”, of some description, which won’t do much for bugs but will tie the look together. Put up a wooden sign reading THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR NATURE. You have your area and the ricks have theirs (other way around.) this sounds insane and instagrammish but if you live in a suburb, HOA area, with others, etc then you’ll be surprised how much the Explanatory Sign changes the way people feel about it. Also, saves you having to radically redesign anything. You made a Nature Bit, and that can be a complete sentence or the beginning of a journey. Maybe over the years you can add a water source for wildlife, more plantings, and generally observe how it all evolves.

1. Practice No Mow May and Let it Bloom June. Just don’t mow the lawn in May and June. Do more by doing less. These initiatives started in the UK, but have had great results when trialled in America - learn more here: https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/ https://href.li/?https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/ and if it’s just for two months, why not make it a personal science project? Journal the number of ticks you pick off your dog on your tick check - it’ll be kinda interesting to know anyway, wouldn’t it? Are you restricting your life for fear of a problem that ends up not being reflected in the data? - and count how many butterflies you see. Also: really easy branding on this one, easy to explain to the neighborhood, easy to put up a sign or post links on Nextdoor, quite easy to get buy-in from neighbors. Now there’s an idea. Having a continuous coordinated butterfly-friendly grass habitat across several properties in May and June is more impactful than having a shitty half-considered plan in one. Plus, you’d be dodging the dry hot part of the year that’s most attractive to ticks.

2. Keep pet Guinea hens. Haven’t you always wanted pet Guinea hens? They’re small, empty-brained dinosaurs that scream like they’re being skinned, act like you’re going to eat them whole, and have no redeeming properties except for eating deer ticks and dropping pretty feathers for crafts. They will invent 65 new ways to kill themselves just to make you feel guilty. What? You just said you didn’t want ticks, you didn’t tell me you HATED BIRDS -

3. Keep the lawn, dig a few large holes in it, and drop in a loose grid of baby fruit trees. Most of them are not native to the USA, they’re definitely not wild, but they’re part of creating a different kind of Space: shaded, cool, covered, offering blossom to insects and (soon) shelter to animals, encouraging mosses and lichens, not impacting ticks or your dog much one way or the other, not really wanting any work from you, and being generally considered Improvement to the Neighborhood. And you’ll see the benefit while you’re still living in the house, which you won’t normally with Big Proper Trees (which will probably be cut down by the next owner, where fruit trees are considered strangely lovable and have long lifespans). You can mow if you like (don’t strim the trunks!) or not, plant flowers in the grass beneath or not, prune them for fruit bearing… or not. If over time you find that you’re loving the trees and how they change the whole vibe, surprise - you’ve gotten a head start on a big journey towards a yard that feeds you and nature. And while they may not be native, there are few critters that say no to a plant raised for blossom and sugary fruit; the wasps alone will grasp you by the collar and murmur gratitude in your ear. Next year you might fill in some shrubs, or take your experience from raising apple trees (surprise, they’re usually the easiest trees to raise - plug and play trees, basically) to other, more difficult prospects. Maybe you’ll have levelled up so far that you’ll be ready to take on some big challenges. Black walnut…? Anyway 5b) trees live on a different time scale to us, so if you crave having more of them, I’d suggest starting with keeping one or two adorable entry-level ones, pay attention to them, and see how you get on.

4. Call up the local cooperative extension, find your local Facebook eco group, and get in touch with your local community for what they’re doing (and do they have any free plants.) it may well turn out that you have no taste or energy for doing much with your own lawn, but you end up spending every weekend in a local national park tending to the reintroduction of rare orchids. Who knows. Also, they might have free plants. Anyway, advice from people who know the land, not me.

5. Journal and pay attention to the land you have, and what your local nature preserves look like, through the seasons. YOU generate YOUR OWN ideas about what you want your home to look like. Slot the bits together and call it your own plan. Also, read “Reading the Forested Landscape,” because it changed my life as a child and im projecting on you.

6. Flip the turf over, replant with clover or something that meets your needs, and call it a day. Eh, bees like clover, it doesn’t grow high enough for ticks and it gets on surprisingly well with dogs. See also any other groundcover, but make sure it’s good for dogs - you have a duty to the dependent animal you already have, it doesn’t matter if you get internet points or not.

7. Hire a local nature-centred landscape designer for a consultation. This is literally exactly what my neighbor does for a living, and you’d be surprised — it isn’t just RICH PEOPLE who hire him. They will come over, squint at the angle of the sun, and reinterpret everything.

8. Don’t trust anyone who tries to answer the question with a list of plants that you should just go out and buy, unless they are a local person who knows your land, such as the landscaper from number 9 or the professor from 6, or someone similar.

9. Stay cute at all times. Ticks hate that. (Your picture was not posted)

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timemachineyeah https://timemachineyeah.tumblr.com/post/701662013593665536/we-have-proved-there-is-an-association-between :

timemachineyeah https://timemachineyeah.tumblr.com/post/701659377207263232/i-think-the-thing-that-drives-me-the-most-batshit :

I think the thing that drives me the most batshit about the medical fatphobia conversation is that the burden of proof feels so exactly backwards. Just from an obvious best practices standpoint???

Things like intentional malnourishment, intentionally incapacitating vital organs through surgery, denial of potentially lifesaving medical care until those things are done, etc.

Those are all pretty extreme. The kinds of things it feels like a “first do no harm” system should have a lot of solid evidence for before recommending or implementing them.

But they’re so bog standard and accepted and everyone from doctors to your own family will look at you like you’re a flat-earther when you suggest maybe we shouldn’t be defaulting to that.

“We have proved there is an association between larger bodies and certain illnesses!”

Okay, have you proved the fat caused the illnesses?

“No.”

Have you proved people have better long term outcomes from losing weight?

“We can’t.”

Right. And why is that again?

“Well to measure that, we’d have to compare the health outcomes of three populations - thin people, fat people, and fat people who became thin through weight loss.”

So do that.

“But there actually are not enough people who became thin through weight loss and kept it off for us to do a long term study on how that impacts their health. The sample size is too small.”

So you can’t prove that changing fat people to thin people would change their health outcomes to those of thin people.

Because you can’t prove that fat people can become thin in the first place.

But you’re still telling them to do that as your primary prescription.

Even when the recommended and unproven methods to do so are potentially very dangerous.

“Yeah, but”

What if as a doctor I found out pale people get skin cancer more often than darker skin people, so to prevent skin cancer, started recommending tanning to my palest patients? Would that be good health care?

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not what we’re doing.” Isn’t it though???

I’m dropping the bit. I’m losing my shit. I get so used to living in bizarro land but sometimes I just want to shake everyone. Calories are bad science! They are nearly meaningless! The BMI is bad science! It’s nearly meaningless! The presumptions made in weight loss studies are so bad!!! And we’ve known this for decades!!! And we just keep!!! Ruining lives!!! Why are we so invested in this clearly unfounded ideology about bodies??? (Your picture was not posted)