A fter more than 30 years in their Druid Hills home, Kirk Larson and his wife, Susan Gantt, are finally happy with their lawn. “Our front yard was ugly, and we just sort of ignored it,” says Larson. “Now it’s spectacular.”

Instead of the typical uniform sea of clipped grass, the couple’s new lawn is what Larson likes to call a “meadow.” It’s filled with feathery pink muhly grass, Joe Pye weed, and native flowers that require little water, zero chemicals, and no gas-powered lawn equipment. “It looks more wild,” he says, “in a good way.”

The couple is part of a tide of climate-conscious homeowners around Atlanta who are trading perfectly manicured yards for more natural landscaping. That’s an encouraging development, because traditional lawns need significant resources and chemical inter

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