She Tore Up Her Entire Front Lawn. Here's Exactly What She Planted Instead.

TikTok user @Cherishmd87 recently shared her brave decision with the gardening community on the platform, and it quite literally stopped me mid-mindless scrolling. The video starts off with footage of her front yard, and I thought, “Oh, what a pretty garden!” However, I then read the caption: "Last year I tore out the grass in my front yard.” Wait, what? I was immediately intrigued.

It’s something I’ve fantasized about for ages, but never got around to doing: tearing out the grass in my front yard and replacing it with a beautiful, gently sloping, deer-resistant flower garden. The result was genuinely stunning, and she has the kind of yard that certainly makes people slow their cars down.

If you're in need of some garden gloves before you get started, Target sells these adorable sunflower patterned ones made from canvas.

Here's exactly what she planted, and how to recreate the look yourself.

The Plant List

1. Nepeta

Nepeta is doing most of the visual heavy lifting here. Also known as catmint, it’s a frothy, lavender-blue perennial that spills out softly and smells absolutely wonderful. Deer hate it, pollinators love it, and it looks basically the same all summer. Essentially, it’s a dream plant.

2. Golden Mop False Cypress

This is the structural star of a whole garden. It’s a light, feathery, golden-yellow evergreen shrub that gives your yard year-round visual interest, including in winter. Golden mop false cypress works perfectly on a slight slope as it grows slowly and softly into a rounded mound.

3. Red Creeping Thyme

As its name suggests, creeping thyme creeps along between other plants which fills in gaps that would otherwise need weeding. Even better, it erupts into tiny, deep-pink flowers in the summer. It’s walkable, smells amazing when you brush past it, and it’s completely drought-tolerant once it’s established.

4. Hyssop

Hyssop is highly underrated, and it’s an herb-meets-ornamental plant that seriously earns its place. It has blueish-purple flowers with tall spikes, and stands upright, which adds vertical interest to your yard without looking too wild. Bonus: Bees are absolutely obsessed with it.

5. Salvia

Salvia is the workhorse of the deer-resistant world, as deer seriously hate it and it blooms for several months. The deep blues and purples match perfectly with nepeta and hyssop, which will give your front lawn turned garden a cohesive color story rather than a jumbled mess of random plants.

6. Calendula

This is where some warmth and cheer come in with pops of orange and yellow that will stop your yard from looking too cool in tone. Calendula is old-fashioned in the best way possible, easy to grow, and re-seeds all by itself, meaning you will get more every year without the work or extra cost.

7. Peonies

Peonies are truly show stoppers. When put toward the middle or the back of the border, the big, fluffy blooms can be seen from the street. They only flower for a few weeks in late spring, but like any good love story, those few weeks are absolutely worth it.

8. Lamb's Ear

When I was a kid, I loved touching lamb’s ear due to its velvety leaves, and you’ve probably seen it without knowing its name. In the TikTok video, it’s creeping along the front edges of the sidewalk, and that silvery tone ties together all the different green, purple, and orange hues.

How To Get The Same Look

The reason this front yard is such a showstopper isn’t just the plants, but the layering and the mulch.

Here's the basic formula:

• Tall, structural plants should sit toward the back and middle (false cypress, salvia, hyssop, peonies), low and spreading plants at the front (creeping thyme, lamb’s ear, and nepeta spilling over the edges), with a generous layer of mulch between everything.
• In this case, mulch is doing some serious work. It makes the planting look intentional, suppresses weeds, retains moisture, and gives the whole garden a clean, professionally designed feel.
• This Premium Gold Wood Mulch from Amazon is the perfect color if you're going for the same look.
• The slope from the sidewalk to the house helps enormously here. It means the plants sit naturally at different heights, giving the whole border real depth without all that complicated landscaping.

How To Tear Up Your Lawn?

Obviously, before you plant even one peony, you need to get rid of the grass. Exactly how you do this depends on how much time and money you want to spend.

A budget friendly option is called "lasagna gardening," and it's also the easiest. Lay a piece of cardboard straight over the grass, wet it down, pile compost and mulch on top and let the grass die underneath. The only downside is that it will take a few months, which isn't ideal if you're short on time or not very patient.

You can also rent a sod cutter at Home Depot for less than $100 a day. It slices cleanly under the grass and lifts in up in strips which will give you a clean slate to work with. If you garden is quite large, you can also rent a motorized sod cutter (which will seriously save your back).

Ditching Your Lawn Doesn’t Have to Mean Chaos

This front yard is proof that ditching your lawn doesn’t have to mean chaos or a garden that looks half-finished for several seasons. With the right combo of structural evergreens, tall perennials, some ground covers, and a good mulch, you can create something beautiful.

Plus, no more mowing. Ever. I really can’t stress that part enough.