If you’ve ever looked at the neatly mowed, raked, weeded, fertilized, and irrigated patch of grass surrounding your home and thought, Why do we do all this, you might be ready to consider an alternative to a traditional lawn. The idea might conjure images of tall, weedy lots with a few flowers and an overgrown fence, but there are many creative and attractive ways to reduce our traditional, high-maintenance turf-grass lawns. 

Lawn replacement doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing venture, and doesn’t have to look unkept or messy. Switching out a regular lawn for something more functional or lower-maintenance works well for out-of-the-way corners, hard-to-reach areas, or places where the grass never quite seems to cooperate. 

Here are a few plant-based ways to rethink parts of your yard without giving up lawn entirely.

Try a Bee Lawn!

Lawns don’t have to be single-species crops of turfgrass. Even if you’d like to keep some of the benefits of a regular lawn, like space to play with the dog, sit in a chair by the pool, or sprawl out to get a tan, adding bee-friendly plants is completely possible. 

A bee lawn is one of the easiest conversions from traditional lawns. It still looks and feels like a lawn, just without all the weeding, spraying, and fertilizing. It’s an area that provides food for pollinators, while still providing lawn benefits for you. Low-growing flowering plants are mixed in and grow with the turfgrass. The combination provides food for pollinators, but can still withstand repeated foot traffic and mowing.

White clover is probably the easiest addition to create a bee lawn. It’s available in bulk, establishes easily, and can be overseeded into existing turfgrass. You may already have a bit of it in your yard. The key to establishing a bee lawn is to stop spraying weed killers and insecticides in those areas. Bee lawns are typically mowed at a taller height to allow the flowering plants to perform, so you’ll notice the lawn is a little longer and less manicured.

Native or Low-mow grass lawn

Switching to a native or low-mow grass in parts of your yard reduces watering and maintenance needs. Native grasses, while not necessarily perfectly golf-course-green, are more adapted to your local climate and less likely to need irrigation and frequent fertilizing. Short-stature grasses can also go longer between mowings, reducing the number of hours spent mowing.

While some native grasses can be overseeded, others will do best when the existing grass is killed and replaced. It depends largely on what your existing lawn is. Check with your local Extension office for recommendations on regionally appropriate native short grasses. 

A native, low-mow grass lawn still looks like a traditional yard, but not quite as well-kept. If you don’t mind a bit of a tussled, less manicured look, it can work well, providing lawn-type benefits while still creating habitat for insects and reducing your weekly chores.

Perennial Groundcovers

Lawns of perennial groundcovers, for most of us, are best used in areas that are hard to mow or that we don’t want to mow. Think up by the mailbox, steep slopes, or that small patch of grass above a retaining wall. They aren’t as well-suited for heavy traffic areas.

Suitable plants include perennials such as creeping thyme, shorter sedums, or native groundcovers in your area. Most importantly, avoid plants listed as invasive in your region. Look for plants that will spread over time and are easily propagated by division, so you can fill in bare spots. Consider whether your planting site is in full sun, partial sun, or shade, as well as your cold hardiness zone when selecting plants.

Perennial groundcovers may need weeding and watering during their first year as they fill in, but will typically take over the site and suppress weeds as they mature. Once established, they may need no maintenance at all or only a once-a-year touch-up.

Shrub and Understory Planted Beds

Lawn areas under conifer trees can be challenging to maintain. Between the shade of the tree, the needle fall, and competition for soil moisture with the tree, keeping a nice carpet of grass can be tough. Why not change that up?

Those shady areas are perfect for planting shrubs and other understory plants, which are adapted to living beneath tree canopies, and can provide a landscaped look (and even some privacy) with a one-time effort. Junipers, hazel bushes, rhododendrons, ferns, yews, and other shade-tolerant shrubs and plants can make a beautiful low planting, and won’t need raking, watering, or fertilizing once they’re established. Choose plants and shrubs that spread, are cold-hardy in your zone, and, for added benefit, provide habitat for wildlife. Mulching between plants will control weeds while your new shrubs and understory plants establish. 

Slowly Naturalized or Rewilded Lawn

This is my go-to, mainly because it’s easy. You might have tried it already, without consciously thinking about it. Years ago, I mowed too much grass. The previous owner had defined the lawn edge when building the home, and upon moving in, I didn’t think much about it. I mowed where they had. After a summer, I wondered why I was spending two hours a week sitting on a noisy mower when I could be doing something else. Quite a few areas I was mowing weren’t being used and weren’t close to the house. 

Many people fall into this trap. If they own a plot of land around their home, they mow it. After all, what else would you do?

Slowly rewilding your lawn can begin as easy as skipping it during late spring and early summer when pollinators are buzzing about, stopping to visit the clover and dandelions in your yard. The idea was popularized years ago under the slogan "No-Mow-May." If there’s a patch behind the garage, at the edge of the woods, or on a slope where the only time you go there is to mow it, that’s a perfect spot to start rewilding. 

There are no definitions here. Choose whatever level of wild feels right for you and your site. Mow it twice a year, plant patches of echinacea, or gradually, you may decide to let nature take over. Walk through it now and then to remove any invasive weeds that crop up, hopefully before they set seed. The upside is that your wildlife will love it. However, depending on your location, you may find that woody shrubs and young trees start to move in. If that’s a problem, try mowing it every other year.

A Prairie Style Meadow

When people think of an alternative lawn, this is often what they envision. Tall grasses, wildflowers, and birds, bees, and critters. A prairie style meadow is a multi-year endeavor, but the rewards are fantastic. However, you may wish to start with a corner of your yard and see if this is for you. Attempting to convert your entire lawn at once could be overwhelming.

When planning out a prairie meadow, you’ll likely need to kill or remove existing lawn grass to prepare the seedbed before planting. Most lawns will also need a cover crop such as oats, buckwheat, or annual ryegrass to help drown out the weed seeds that will sprout from your soil and keep control of the site while your perennials grow. While these prairie patches become established, it’s common for them to look weedy and less attractive for the first year or two. A true perennial prairie meadow won’t be created overnight, but instead gets more impressive year by year. 

With either the slowly naturalized or the prairie style, you may wish to keep a few neat and tidy features, such as mowed paths, a clean edge, and other more traditional urban landscaping elements. If it looks planned, intentional, and well-kept, neighbors are less likely to complain. 

Not Sure Where to Start?

Choosing an alternative to a traditional lawn can be daunting and sometimes involve a lot of expense and work. Instead of trying to do it all at one go, consider selecting one idea to apply in one area. For example, you might decide to stop mowing under those blue spruce trees and instead plant some conifer groundcovers and a few shade-tolerant plants. Or, you could tear up that small strip of weedy grass behind the garage and plant a prairie seed mix. 

Try converting a small section of lawn each year until you find the right balance between traditional lawn and lower-maintenance alternatives. After all, you’re trying to reduce stress, not cause more of it.