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Lawn Substitutes...Any Suggestions?

scapeartist
16 years ago

I recently moved into a house with a nice large lawn full of not only grass, but every weed you can imagine. I am not sure what I enjoy the least - picking weeds or mowing grass! I have decided to try and plant/propogate a nice low maintenance groundcover that is non poisionous to my dogs (and takes over the yarrow, dandelions, clover, etc. all over the lawn!) I would be open to having a yard full of yarrow if that is someone's suggestion, I have plenty of it already!

Thanks in advance : P

Comments (11)

  • woof
    16 years ago

    Periwinkle. If you are really lucky, you have a friend with a forested area and you can dig it out for free. Had a front yard full of it and it's easily controlled (nice little flowers too.

  • scapeartist
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks, I will try to hunt that down : ) Heres to hoping

  • diggerb2
    16 years ago

    do you have sun, partial or shade? and how long do you plan on living at this house-- the next people may want to get rid of your ground cover and some things are just impossible to eliminate but here are some ideas

    white clover
    thyme lawn
    english ivy
    ajuga
    sweet woodruff
    pennywort-- it really is a weed
    vinca/periwinkle
    phlox subulata
    moss

    remember that many ground covers go dormant during the winter and almost all of them will need a trim every once in a while.

  • dmcevenue
    16 years ago

    White clover might be good if you have dogs - dog urine won't burn it. You also never have to fertilize it and it's drought resistant. I'm going to try it this year since my 3 dogs have destroyed all my grass...

  • diane_9
    16 years ago

    I vote for the creeping phlox. I just love how it looks and check out this picture:

    Here is a link that might be useful: Extreme Phlox garden

  • diggerb2
    16 years ago

    diane-- yowza!! did you see that in person? whats it look like the other 50 weeks of the year?

  • hamiltongardener
    16 years ago

    Clover.

  • chills71
    16 years ago

    Before we moved a few years back our lawn had been infected with yarrow. The biggest plus was that it stayed green all winter long. I mowed only occasionally where it was, and only to get rid of flowers.

    The bad part was that it didn't cover the whole lawn, just half of it.

    ~Chills

  • paul_
    16 years ago

    "our lawn had been infected with yarrow. The biggest plus was that it stayed green all winter long"

    Really? Hmmm. The yarrow at my sister's house always looks like crap before the summer is half over..

  • northerner_on
    16 years ago

    A house on our street was professionally landscaped several years ago and they used white clover as a lawn substitute. It was fine once it was kept cut but one year, they went away for vacation and it grew enough to flower. All the seeds got into all the neighbours lawns and we are still pulling clover from our lawns. Be careful with it if you don't want irate neighbours.

  • whynotmi
    16 years ago

    Growing up in Buffalo my family had a good sized corner lot. My parents let one one "lawn" go over to violets. Neighbors used to stop and star during the blooming season. Our dog used to run through it all the time and it recovered nicely. I will say it looked a bit weak come August.

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