Lawn Alternatives for your Garden

Lawn isn’t the ‘Low maintenance’ solution most think, and apart from the establishment period of a garden we can design really low input landscapes if lawns are left out of the plans.

Lawns provides us with plenty of benefits including large functional areas for play and entertainment, a balance to filled garden bed spaces, a place of calm in the landscape and it has a wonderful cooling effect as opposed to hardscaping like paving and concrete. Though, despite its benefits, we’re often asked about alternatives to using lawn for large areas, perhaps as a visual alternative, often to reduce regular maintenance, to reduce water use and sometimes because the existing lawn has not been successful for various reasons.

We also make the point of suggesting a lawn alternative in higher rainfall areas like our base in Bright, Victoria, when appropriate. For us, lawn mowing is needed weekly during either side of high summer, whereas the garden can mostly be left alone for weeks at a time.

Here are some ideas for alternatives to lawn and their pros and cons.

Compacted Decomposed Gravel

A popular alternative for large areas of high traffic, this granite quarry by-product can provide large functional areas at a fraction of the cost of paving.

Pros: economical, lighter colours reduces heat absorption, no water use, easy to repair/top up, still provides an accessible surface for those with mobility issues, can be blended into gardens as a mulch alternative to blur the lines between garden and path.

Cons: can still get weed ingress but easily sprayed or pulled out, especially if not prepared on a proper sub-base, more heat absorption than lawn or planting, colour and quality consistency can vary between suppliers. It is not great on sloped sites due to erosion.

Ground covers

A tough spreading ground cover like Dichondra repens (a hardy little native) can provide a lot of the lawn benefits without the mowing.

Pros: no mowing, green and lush cooling effect to the space, same visual effect to lawn, fine in a variety of sun and shade positions, works on sloped sites.

Cons: cant take the same foot traffic as lawn, still needs watering, though less than lawn, may struggle in hot western sun, still prone to weed ingress.

Pebbles

Using a fine pebble 7-10mm ideal is a wonderfully textural way to treat a large open area. The sound underfoot is pleasing, you can blend garden and path together with pebble mulch, you can use locally sourced pebbles for a sustainable solution.

Pros: textural variation for the ground plane, pleasing sound underfoot, can usually be sourced fairly local but also can be available in many colours and forms, no water use.

Cons: can still get weed ingress but easily sprayed or pulled out, especially if not prepared on a proper sub-base, more heat absorption than lawn or planting, too large a pebble or thick a layer of pebble is difficult to walk on, ensure you get the right advice here. Can cause accessibility issues for those with mobility issues. Special pebble mixes can sometimes come and go, stick to the readily available local ones to avoid future sourcing problems. It is not good on sloped sites due to erosion.

Steppers and Groundcovers

A nice way to break up an area though still give a similar feel to lawn is the use of steppers surrounded by low ground covers. Steppers can be closer together in the true path from one side of the area to the other and fade out in the edge areas.

Pros: an interesting way to transition from hardscape to garden, best of both worlds with hardstand to walk on and soft planting surrounds, no wear to planting on path route, no mowing, lower water use than full planting.

Cons: problematic if not installed and maintained correctly causing trip hazards and accessibility issues. Keeping groundcovers from covering steppers can be arduous when required, pavers will be wet when groundcovers are watered causing a safety issue in shaded areas prone to moss.

How to choose what's best?

You'll need to consider the function of your space, the constraints of the site and your aesthetic preferences and sometimes lawn is just the best option!

These decisions are all part of our broader design process, balancing the function and aesthetic of the design with the site constraints.  Get in touch today for a garden chat to see how we can help you!

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We only specify and deliver the highest quality materials and work.