Botanic Gardens Native Lawn

Sustainable Landscapes Trail at Cornell University

The Cornell Botanic Gardens Native Lawn project is a long-running research and demonstration initiative that replaces conventional turfgrass with a designed community of low-growing, regionally adapted native grasses and wildflowers to create a more sustainable, biodiversity-rich alternative to traditional lawns. Beginning around 2009, the project converted a non native, high-input lawn into a system that can tolerate foot traffic while requiring little to no irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, or hand weeding, and only one or two mowings per year—dramatically reducing maintenance costs and carbon emissions. The planting emphasizes species such as poverty oat grasses (Danthonia spp.) and other native forbs and sedges, aiming for at least 85% native plant cover to support pollinators and other wildlife while maintaining an acceptable lawn-like appearance. The site functions both as a public-facing landscape and a living laboratory, with ongoing “native lawn 2.0” experiments testing establishment methods, seed mixes, and even sod production to improve accessibility and scalability for broader adoption. Overall, the project demonstrates that native plant lawns can deliver comparable functionality to turf while providing major ecological benefits, including increased biodiversity, reduced pollution, and lower resource use.

For more information, please visit Cornell Botanic Gardens native lawn page here.

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