Lawn Alternatives For A Better Landscape
When it comes to your landscape, there are so many beautiful options to choose from, and yet somehow, the majority of us squander our landscape with grass. Grass is honestly a boring landscape option, for a multitude of reasons.
First of all, it doesn’t leave you with a lot of space to add character to your yard. It’s difficult and annoying to maintain.
It also takes up a lot of water, but doesn’t provide much for the environment in return.
All in all, there are so many better alternatives for your landscape that aren’t a lawn.
Groundcovers
A groundcover is a great way to cover up all that space grass normally would, but it won’t grow tall.
This means you won’t need to mow it down, and as an added bonus, it will be a lot more beautiful than grass is.
Groundcovers also smother out weeds, so they are an eco-friendly, low maintenance alternative to grass!
Depending on your location, a few great groundcover options are Japanese sweet flag, creeping herbs, Asian star jasmine, creeping Jenny, and Barberry cotoneaster.
A rock garden
Another really low maintenance alternative to grass, is a rock garden. When done well, you can have a beautiful, inexpensive rock garden that covers all of that space, adding texture and color to your yard.
If you don’t spend a lot of time in your front yard, a rock garden is a great landscape option for you!
You can do one that is mainly gravel, with a few interesting rock patterns and larger rocks to add visual interest.
Broaden your walkway
If you aren’t ready to completely rip out your garden, you could easily rip out some of it, and broaden any walkways you currently have.
Think of it as a sort of extended porch, or a patio for your front yard. Perfect for sitting outside to watch the sunset, or for kids to draw chalk masterpieces.
Ornamental grasses
Ornamental grasses are a great lawn alternative. They grow tall, and intentionally so.
You don’t ever have to mow them, they’re naturally pest resistant, they thrive in any type of soil or environment, and are so low maintenance it’s almost comical.
The only downside to ornamental grass is that they won’t tolerate any foot traffic, not that you’ll want to walk through these tall grasses anyway.
As long as you maintain a walkway in your landscape, ornamental grass is a great option for your yard!
Plant more trees and plants
Giving up your grass doesn’t have to mean giving up your green. You could tear up all your grass, add a lengthy walkway through your yard, and edge it up on either side with trees and beautiful plants.
This isn’t necessarily a low maintenance option but it is so much more beautiful than grass, and is better for the environment.
As an added bonus, any large trees that you plant will actually increase the value of your home, as well as add value to your neighborhood.
Trees greatly improve the air quality in your area!
Artificial turf
Of course, if you really don’t want to give up the look of your lawn, but you want something low maintenance and environmentally friendly, you could get your lawn replaced with artificial turf.
There are so many turf options available out there, so you can get something that looks natural, rather than that bright green fake stuff that you usually associate with turf.
The biggest downside to artificial turf is that it gets really hot in the sun, so you won’t want to be walking barefoot on your turf during the summer.
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Category: Home Improvements
