I need to get something in the ground before Winter and I'm not sure what to do right now. I have an area that's about 60x60 (half most sun, half most shade) that was planted with expenive Buffalograss plugs this Spring. It was not done well and crabgrass and others are still popping up in areas that have not been completely damaged by later construction vehicles which have compacted and rutted the sunny half of the yard. The area is also under a mature White Oak.

So, I need to grade, smooth, and deal with the messed up sunny half especially, and integrate the shady half with whatever I do with the rest of this section of my front/side yard. My original intention with the Buffalo was to have a low maintenance area that would be uniform and be able to handle occasional gardening traffic, i.e. me and a wheelbarrow, and provide a lawn look without the usual maintenance. The rest of my front yards (it's split into three sections) are being converted into front yard gardens/ woodland look since it is under two mature White Oaks and we have a very large back yard for a lawn area.

I saved aside two 14" pots of Buffalo to re-plug and they're doing great, as well as the plugs in the shade that were not driven over. Since Buffalo is slow to grow (which I didn't really realize at the time since I was led to believe that it would fill in from plugs in 3-4 months) and I would like to have a more interesting section of yard, I need some help deciding what to do now so I can have this area filled in and managed before Winter comes and creates more of a mess.

IÂd like a no- to near no-mow area and love the idea of Thyme, and even Ajuga and making a mosaic of several groundcovers but I have financial constraints since the budget was spent on the Buffalo in the first place. I can do Thyme plants or whatever in the Spring, but I need to have something before Winter!

Is there something I can do now that can be a Winter cover and then re-do in the Spring? I hope I Âm not stuck with grass seed as my only option since I canÂt afford to plug anything else right now.

Ideas and suggestions please and thank you!