Check Out This Re-Wilded Suburban Home in Lincoln, Nebraska

"Some people who see my mostly prairie backyard ask, ‘But where does your son play?’ To which I’ll respond, ‘Wherever he wants!’" says Benjamin Vogt, a landscape designer and writer who designed a re-wilded yard for his suburban tract home in Lincoln, Nebraska. "When kids have a wild landscape to explore, they become more creative, they're better able to work in groups, they score higher in testing. It’s always frustrating when I hear people believe kids need a lawn to play."

Vogt, who is slowly helping to re-prairie suburbia and establish native habitats through his activism and business, Monarch Gardens, first became leery of conventional lawns when he learned about the dwindling populations of insects, songbirds, and plant diversity that goes hand in hand with the multibillion-dollar turf-care industry. It was both a horticultural and professional epiphany.