Grass lawn or groundcover?

[srock]

I am curious to hear different perspectives on grass lawns vs a ground cover of something like clover. I am a fan of ground covers for the reasons that they are usually nicer on bare feet, require less maintenance and water, they naturally suppress weeds, and they even smell better! I like that they also provide a habitable environment for microbes and insects in the soil which creates richer and more moist soil. What are your thoughts on ground cover vs grass lawns?

 

[Beth_B]

There's a few threads about this (and welcome, BTW!)

I had a clover lawn once and loved it. I think heavily manicured and "weed"-free lawns have their place, but it's not my thing for sure. I'm with you on all your reasons for preferring a more "natural" lawn. A lot of my half-acre yard is left untended with native plants, plus perennial beds and vegetables. I do have the portion of my lawn mowed where the dogs go out and it's probably 50% grass of various types and the rest being wood violets, clover, etc. I've posted this photo before but I think it looks just fine for a lawn that is never watered (we get enough rain here in fact it is pouring as I type), and I've never used weed killer or fertilizer or anything else on it.

 

[ChanellG]

I have wanted to switch from a lawn to some kind of no-mow ground cover for years! Way back when moss was a popular choice, now people are doing all sorts of things. Asian jasmine is popular here as is dwarf mondo grass, but I guess there are too many choices, lol. It's a small lawn so I'm thinking of creating a sort of raised bed and landscaping it, but...

 

[Corzhens]

Our small lawn is planted with bermuda grass. But that pesky clover and another plant is killing the grass. That other plant, by the way, is the decorative peanut - resembles the peanut plant with the flower of a peanut. Anyway, so as not to be annoyed, we just let them co-exist. Now we have another grass called frog grass which is more sturdy.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

I have wanted to switch from a lawn to some kind of no-mow ground cover for years! Way back when moss was a popular choice, now people are doing all sorts of things. Asian jasmine is popular here as is dwarf mondo grass, but I guess there are too many choices, lol. It's a small lawn so I'm thinking of creating a sort of raised bed and landscaping it, but...

Have you looked a herbs for ground cover, there are so many that can be use for ground cover and smell good when you walk on them.

 

[ChanellG]

Have you looked a herbs for ground cover, there are so many that can be use for ground cover and smell good when you walk on them.

That's a lot of herbs! If I take out the grass and replace it with something alive (as opposed to gravel or some type of hardscaping) I will use Asian jasmine. It spreads quickly and blocks out weeds very effectively. It also flowers, which is lovely.

 

[purplepen88]

My husband is fanatical about our lawn. He hand weeds it almost every day. From a distance you can't see any clover but up close you can and it drives him crazy. Although our neighbour has deliberately put in clover in a spot where he is having trouble growing grass. He just gave up and put in the ground cover so that he would have something green on his lawn.

 

[InvasiveCreeper]

My vote would be for groundcover.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/outgrowing-the-traditional-grass-lawn/

 

[Pat]

I go with the ground cover also. I like the low to no care. We have a steep slope to the yard in the front and have to pay a guy to cut it, if it were my decision I would remove the grass and make it low to no care with ground cover and hardscape materials.

 

[Cereus]

Groundcover all the way. Better soil retention, health, no need to mow or weed and they're pretty. Plus they're good for all sorts of pollinators.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I'm personally not a fan of lawns. As I've probably mentioned on here before, it creates a "dead-zone" that was once a lush habitat. Somewhere along the timeline of history, humans began cutting back the native plants and grasses more than needed, and now everything has become a dead-zone lawn. I think, if you could find a native groundcover, that would be ideal.

I personally hope someday to live at a place where I can restore the yard to a native prairie with a winding trail around the yard.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

We had both a ground cover and a grass lawn in our garden in my parents house where I grew up. We had a gardener who is maintaining our garden with the help of my mother and father who are the ones taking care of our garden. When I got married and migrated to another country I am always missing our garden at home. If I had the chance to check if I had on my files pictures of our garden I will surely share in this forum. Right now I am just starting to navigate the different threads here because I had just made an account just right now and is a newbie in this forum.