10 Lawn Alternatives to Try in Your Garden This Year

A well-manicured grass lawn complements a home and property, but it’s not for every home or every homeowner.

Lawn alternatives can replace traditional grass without grass’ maintenance duties, thirst for water, or need for frequent mowing. 

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Clover

White clover or microclover look like lawns, without many of traditional turfgrass’ downsides. Clover hugs the ground, rarely growing higher than two to eight inches. Because of this, many homeowners switch their lawns to clover lawns. 

Microclover has small leaves and few flowers, while white clover has larger leaves and many white flowers.

Pros and Cons

Mowing is infrequent, and no fertilization is required. Planting a clover lawn is as easy as sprinkling topsoil over an even distribution of seeds, followed by watering. If you’re not ready to give up the turf, clover can be overseeded into an existing turfgrass lawn.

Clover lawns don’t tolerate shade well, though. Clover stains clothing and it attracts stinging insects.

Care

• Pull weeds from clover by hand—avoid weed killers.
• Water clover deep and infrequently.
• Overseed with clover seeds in thin areas.

Moss

Bright green and effortless to maintain, a moss lawn vies with clover as being the lawn alternative that looks the most like actual turf.

Pros and Cons

A moss lawn never needs mowing. It always remains low to the ground, for the look of freshly cut grass. This dense plant spreads quickly and grows well on slopes and hillsides. Moss grows well in poor soil and doesn’t need fertilizers.

Moss prefers shady conditions, though, so growing moss in sunnier areas can be a challenge. Moss doesn’t stand up well to heavy foot traffic, nor does it grow well in high-alkaline soil.

Care

• Do not use weed killers—weed manually.
• Refresh dry moss with a mister or sprayer.
• Remove leaves to allow sunlight to reach the moss.

Ground Cover

A ground cover plant rapidly spreads to cover large expanses of ground. As a perennial plant, ground cover grows for at least two full seasons. Even when dormant, a perennial’s root systems remain alive, so the plant will grow again when conditions change.

The vast and diverse plant category of ground covers includes tough, fast-spreading creeping wire vine, drought-tolerant Blue Rug Juniper, and colorful flowering ground covers like iceplant and common periwinkle.

Pros and Cons

Most ground cover plants grow so dense that they block weeds. Most ground covers stick close to the ground, allowing other plants to take visual precedence. Ground covers tend to be fairly low-maintenance.

Ground cover plants around trees can lead to root girdling—where the cover essentially strangles the tree, threatening its health. Some ground covers look scrappy and dry when they go dormant.

Care

• Regularly trim ground cover plants around trees.
• Control weeds with a layer of mulch, depending on the type of plant.
• Thin out some types of ground covers to prevent diseases or insect infestation.

Buffalo Grass

Buffalo grass grows in dense, deeply rooted clumps about a foot in diameter and four to six inches high. This irregularly shaped grass needs little mowing or clipping and is an excellent lawn alternative for slopes.

Pros and Cons

Buffalo grass’ extreme-depth root system—up to six feet deep—tightly knits this grass to the ground. This makes buffalo grass an excellent choice for naturally controlling soil erosion. This warm-season grass stands up well to drought conditions.

Growing in self-contained clumps, buffalo grass won’t give you the look of a smooth, uninterrupted lawn.

Care

• Trim shady trees and bushes around buffalo grass to encourage sunlight to reach the grass.
• Fertilize with nitrogen in late spring and in July.
• Flood with one to two inches of water every two to four weeks in summer.

Artificial Grass

Artificial grass looks just like real grass, even down to its shaggy cut and blades of differing shapes and colors. It’s visually closer to the look of real grass than any other lawn alternative.

Pros and Cons

Artificial grass never needs watering, mowing, weeding, or fertilizing. Its color remains the same throughout all seasons. Long used a lawn alternative for sports fields, artificial grass is tough and durable. It’s also partially made from recycled materials like tires and carpeting.

Installing artificial grass is difficult. While you can do it yourself, it’s usually best to leave this project in the hands of qualified installers. Artificial grass becomes hotter than natural turf. Crumb rubber cushioning used under artificial grass may leach hazardous chemicals.

Care

• Remove organic materials to prevent weed growth.
• Water occasionally to prevent dust and pollen build-up.
• Remove light stains by scrubbing with warm water and mild detergent, followed by a clean water rinse.

Sedge

Sedge or Carex plants are perennials that spread well due to their rhizome root systems. Rhizomes are often associated with invasive plants like bamboo. With sedge plants, the rhizomes create a tough mat just below ground level that resists foot traffic.

Popular sedge plants include two-toned, coppery-brown Japanese sedge, as well as wispy brown New Zealand sedge.

Pros and Cons

With over 2,000 varieties, sedge plants provide various color choices. They are tough and they thrive in wet or dry soils.

Fluffy and often unruly, most sedges don’t approximate the look of a traditional lawn. Some types, like nountain sedge (Carex montana), remain fairly short—about six inches high.

Care

• Plant sedges close together to take advantage of their ground-covering ability.
• Maintain sedges in areas of partial sun or shade.
• Cut up to half the sedge’s height in early spring to thin it out.

Carpetgrass

Carpetglrass or blanket grass is a creeping perennial that can approximate the look of turfgrass when mowed frequently. As a slow-grower, carpetgrass can take a couple of seasons to fully replace a lawn area.

Pros and Cons

Like other lawn alternatives, carpetgrass is tough and hardy, forming a tight mat-like sub-layer. Carpetgrass works well in difficult conditions.

Carpetgrass requires frequent mowing, up to once a week in the summer. So, planting carpetgrass instead of traditional turfgrass won’t spare you from mowing.

Care

• Plant in moist but not wet soil.
• Mostly avoid fertilizer, though some nitrogen fertilizer can be added to establish the plant.
• Grow carpetgrass in full sun to moderate shade.

Sedum

Sedums are a favorite alternative to traditional turf lawns because they stay low. Up to 500 varieties of sedums exist. Popular species are white sedum, cascade stonecrop, blue spruce, and Japanese stonecrop.

Pros and Cons

The alternative name for sedums—stonecrop—is apt because sedums thrive in dry, rocky conditions. Most sedum varieties are deer-resistant.

Not all sedum varieties can stand up to foot traffic, especially flowering sedums like Angelina stonecrop.

Care

• Plant in full to partial sun.
• Water only if needed, and do so sparingly.
• Trim after flowering to maintain the plant’s overall shape.

Xeriscape

Xeriscape landscaping is a blend of organic and inorganic elements. A xeriscape yard employs dry-weather plants like cacti and succulents, along with inorganic touches like rocks, gravel, and dirt.

Pros and Cons

Xeriscapes eliminate the need for irrigation because self-sustaining plants can be added. No chemicals are necessary, and xeriscape plants rarely brown because they are highly drought-resistant.

Unless designed with care, xeriscapes can look bare and austere. The elements used in xeriscapes—cacti, rocks, shrubs—deter foot traffic.

Care

• Remove all turfgrass when converting to a xeriscape (cost: $2.50 to $5 per square foot).
• Consistently remove weeds.
• If water is necessary, water in the morning to slow evaporation.

Gravel

Pea gravel and crushed gravel are inorganic lawn alternatives, so they last a long time and require less maintenance than many other options.

Pea gravel comes in various colors including gray, cream, tan, gold, and white. Crushed gravel is angular and gray.

Pros and Cons

Installing pea gravel is simple and DIY-friendly. After receiving the bulk product, build an enclosure of pressure-treated wood, lay down landscape fabric, and gently rake out the gravel. Gravel is extremely foot-traffic-ready; you can even park vehicles on it.

Gravel is low maintenance, not zero maintenance. Despite the presence of landscape fabric, weeds will eventually develop. Pea gravel shifts and scatters. Crushed gravel remains in place better than pea gravel.

Care

• Replace missing gravel.
• Fill in depressions in the gravel.
• Weed the gravel.