Ditch the lawnmower, lower your water bill, and explore a variety of plants and gathering spots. Lawns are ideal as active play areas for people and pets, as well as circulation paths through the landscape. Thanks to their uniform color and texture, lawns often serve as a place for the eye to rest within an area of high visual intensity. However, lawns can be depleted of water resources and require regular mowing, fertilizing, weeding and aeration. Most home landscapes are colorful, attractive, and offer many opportunities to create sustainable options.
Are you interested in reducing the amount of lawn you need to maintain?
Here are a few ways to help you look at the landscape with fresh eyes and move beyond the lawn. Get rid of lawns that are struggling to survive. Place your lawn in deep shade or on a dry slope. It’s also a good idea to keep your lawn away from burning pavement, for example, the typical “hell lane” between the sidewalk and the street, or the narrow space between one driveway and another.
Remove unruly grass. Aim for narrow side yards, areas around trees and shrubs, and spaces smaller than 12 feet by 12 feet. Mowing, trimming, fertilizing and watering these small, awkward areas is difficult and time-consuming work. Remove lawn areas that are not used for active play or recreation. Front yards are prime candidates for this treatment. It’s usually a small space that can be a beautiful showcase even without grass.
The style of your lawn less landscape should reflect the architecture of your home. Replace your small lawn with a low-maintenance perennial ground cover. Small spaces and hard-to-reach spaces are best done with low-maintenance solutions. Once established, ground cover clumps are simple and soothing.
Choosing the right plants can save you time and money by eliminating lawn mowing, reducing water consumption and significantly reducing the need for fertilizer. Choose plants that have interest in multiple seasons, whether it’s flowers, colorful foliage or winter texture. Some ground covers can withstand light foot traffic. Creeping lilyturf, shown here, is grassy and evergreen. Depending on the growing conditions in your garden, you can choose additional periwinkle, creeping thyme or summer buds.
More plants for pathways replace your lawn with larger ornamental plants for visual impact and increased biodiversity. For larger spaces, you can use a mix of perennials, shrubs, trees and grasses without planting lawn. This type of landscape modification solves the monoculture problems inherent in lawns. Increasing plant diversity welcomes birds, butterflies and other wildlife and generally creates a more normal ecosystem. A large lawn is a visual desert.
Replacing these with a greater variety of plants creates a feast for the eye that creates interest and encourages interaction with the landscape. Color, texture, form, scent – all the garden elements we cherish can transform a boring lawn into a beautiful outdoor space. This is certainly large-scale gardening that requires planning and maintenance, but choosing the right plants can be an enjoyable and sustainable lawn alternative.
A walkway or stepping stone path, as shown in this photo, can help organize larger spaces and encourage exploration. Make your landscaping more productive by replacing your lawn with
edible plants. Since grass is not edible, how about replacing it with vegetables, herbs, and fruits? Lawns that struggle to survive in hot, sunny areas may be ideal for food production. Think beyond the 4×4 box and consider terraces and other structural improvements to add visual weight and year round interest to your garden. Enhance your current lifestyle by replacing your lawn with a gathering place.
Don’t use your lawn for active games and play?
Take advantage of both sun and shade and create a variety of outdoor spaces in your landscape that are quiet, intimate, and large enough for the whole group to enjoy. The lush vegetation, the sound of splashing water and the warmth of dancing flames are always welcome. A comfortable gathering space is probably the least maintenance and water-saving option for enjoying the outdoors while your lawn is replaced.
The lawn is gone! If you’re looking for alternative inspiration for a low-maintenance, sustainable, and attractive yard. (Add Company Name) is a great resource for detailed information on low grass landscaping, including how to remove existing grass. We can also suggest plants suitable for your area.
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Todd Wilhelm2024-10-01Had sod installed at my house in Amherst. Job done very quickly and well. Highly recommended. Will be using them again for spring 2025 project.Md Mia2024-09-27RDK Tree Service removed a large maple by the power lines. It was definitely not a easy job. They did the job safely and did it rather quickly. I will definitely recommend them for your tree services.Bike Lover2024-09-27Residing in Buffalo NY, and needed to remove a large tree in the backyard and front yard. The crew did a fantastic job with removing it along with the stump. We are so impressed. Thank you RDK!selvachandran saravanan2024-09-25Did a job here in my rental property in Amherst of removing two 60-70ft pine trees with stump removal and prepped an area for parking. RDK Landscaping is the one you should go to with your tree and landscaping/hardscaping needs. They are just the best overall!!jackary Rootis2024-09-24I highly recommend them. Great crew, Super easy to work with. They’re doing a great job out here in East Amherst. Not only did I use them, but my neighbor and their son did as well and we couldn’t be happier.DIANE Abram: Toot-Toot Daycare2024-09-21I hope these pictures speak for itself. I had called couple of companies to my property in Northampton, Buffalo, but only RDK Landscaping had come out so quick to give a quote for a project we started and couldn’t finish. They were so quick, efficient and had completed the project in about 2 days. They did a beautiful job, and answered all my questions throughout the entire process. I am so very thrilled about the results and could not recommend more! They are doing wonderful projects.Dan Duggan2024-09-19RDK Landscaping did an amazing job! We had 8 dead ash trees at our property in Clarence that needed to be taken down given their proximity to the house and garage, in addition to two trees close to the power lines. I was very impressed with how quickly Roy and his team responded, came out to the property and got the job done. I would highly recommend them!Andres Martinez2024-09-14Everybody at RDK Landscaping was a pleasure to deal with, we had a big project with them to clear up some really overgrown gardens beds around our garage, they went above and beyond making our space useable again. Once the project was complete they made sure to clean everything up and even cleared some weeds we had on our driveway that we hadn’t even mention to them. Can’t recommend them enough and will be calling them first for any future landscaping projects.Esther Guess2024-09-12The guys were quick and effective at getting all that ivy down. Great work!