You’re going to have ticks in the native area too, especially the marginal zones. They love those. Ticks are native, unfortunately. Remediating your land for native insects’ benefit will actually be better for ticks than having an acre of 2" turf grass, but that’s just because short lawns are totally ecologically dead.

When I was more uninformed I was more of a purist. The more I’ve done on my own property, and the more I’ve consulted with experts, the more I’ve learned that it’s actually a balance between human needs and ecology. Now I’m sort of in the “if planting turf grass by your house is what you need to be on board with the rest of it, fine.”

We can’t promise people ticks will go away, more like teach people the critical value of native insects. Keep tall grass away from your house, sure, but think about walkways instead of acres of lawn for the rest of it. People plant lawns and call Mosquito Joe to fog it all so “their children can play” but consider your children living in a world with no bugs at all. That’s the trade off. IMO it’s a lot more scary than ticks, and I fucking hate ticks.

For a lawn or yard you don’t have to go all the way to a forest to have a stablish ecosystem. Perennials can do a lot.

this weekend we chiseled off the grass sod out of our backyard in preparation for planting native perennial species. it’s all clay back there so it’s going to take some soil prep.

Huh, my back yard is a gradient of 1-4

I’ll stop at shrubs. Seems like a fair balance