Lawns evoke visions of picnics and playtime, but maintaining them requires a lot of work and weed killers. What if you could have that cushy green carpet while getting your weekends back and growing a healthier environment for humans and pollinators?

Lawns serve several design functions in landscapes — they offer restful negative space amid busier planted areas and a place for all to loll, run and play.

Yet ecologists and garden experts are asking us to shrink or enhance our lawns to help combat climate change. More and more homeowners are breaking up with conventional lawns for environmentally-friendly alternatives that offer the same function with less work once established.

Better lawns

Often called ecolawns, lawn seed mixes like “Eco-Lawn” from Canada’s Wildflower Farms, Fleur de Lawn from Portland’s Pro Time Lawn and Seed and “Nearly Native Bee Lawn” from Port Townsend’s Northwest Meadowscapes, are becoming increasingly popular.

They tend to be more drought-tolerant, needing fewer inputs and water to stay healthy. When mixed with wildflowers that attract beneficial insects and pollinators, they enhance biodiversity and enrich the soil. Unlike conventional lawns which turn brown and crispy during Seattle summers, these stay green and lush.

Eric-Lee Mader’s Port Townsend front yard is a shifting tapestry of flowers including self heal (Prunella vulgaris), creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), white clover (Trifolium repens), meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba) and baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii).

“My lawn is mowable; my kids run on it and have had birthday parties on it, but there are 20-odd species in there,” says Mader, co-owner of Northwest Meadowscapes.

“All of these are smallish plants (under 6 inches) that can withstand a certain amount of foot traffic,” Mader says.

Mader mows only two or three times per year, once in the height of the summer dry season.

Instead of designing small planting areas around a large lawn, Sally-Anne Sadler, principal of Shooting Star Designs, specializing in environmentally-friendly landscapes, wants to reverse that.

“When I’m advising on spaces, I ask ‘What’s the minimum you need for negative space?’” Sadler says. Lawn is her last choice for that negative space.

She prefers wide planting areas with paths or open spaces covered in wood chips, gravel, lawn alternatives or an organically managed lawn. As for synthetic lawns, she doesn’t recommend them because they leach microplastics into the soil.

These lawn alternatives will not be mistaken for a golf course, but Sadler says the benefits outweigh that for her.

“If you are trying to maintain a perfect lawn, none of these will look exactly that way, yet these are so much better environmentally,” she says. “It’s not only using less water and fertilizer, but there’s a lot of data about children taking up fertilizer and herbicides from their feet.”

She loves watching how quickly these lawn alternatives expand life in the garden.

“First, the color of the Fleur de Lawn is that new spring green, like the color of Oso berry leaves emerging — it makes me so happy. Then, there is the robin’s-egg blue of the baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii),” Sadler says. “If you get down at ground level, you’ll see all kinds of beetles and bees you’d never notice. I love that it’s attracting all kinds of pollinators. I like that it serves a purpose greater than simply being a carpet.”

Kim Gunning and her partner hired Sadler to redesign their Edmunds garden to better blend with the naturalistic feel of the nearby Interurban Trail, converting their lawns to Fleur de Lawn in the sunny front and a shade-tolerant blend in the back, sowing last spring.

“It was awesome. We got a push mower and maybe mowed it twice, and had a sea of clover, blue flowers and English daisy,” (by summer) she says. “It’s just a huge improvement over the old school lawn.”

The mini-meadow surprises and delights their human visitors, as well as a few others.

“Since we let the lawn grow higher, we had to be careful last summer,” Sadler says. “We saw a bird divebombing the grass, and it turns out she had built her nest in the grass. It’s brought the wildlife to our yard.”

Getting started

Most mixes will germinate best when sown in open soil, and early spring is a great time for that, says Mader. Pro Time Lawn and Seed recommends sowing after soil temperatures are 50 degrees Fahrenheit or more in spring, or six to eight weeks before the first frost in the fall.

To boost the diversity of an existing lawn, you can overseed open patches, Mader says. You may need repeated sowings for the new mix to compete against the standard turf grass.

Removing an old lawn takes three to six months and is easiest in fall. Sadler recommends covering the area with cardboard and 4 to 5 inches of natural bark chips. You’ll probably need to dig out persistent lawn in spring. Then remove the remaining bark, spread it around your garden beds, and sow your seeds.

What to plant?

Choose a mix or handpick individual plants like Mader’s above suggestions as well as California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), English daisy (Bellis perennis) and Yaak yarrow (Achillea millefolium var. ‘Yaak’) — all attractive to multiple pollinators and with a long bloom season. There are mixes geared to tolerate various levels of sunlight, drought, foot (and paw) traffic.

For a one-species green ecolawn, Sadler recommends microclover, low-growing, small-leafed variants of white clover (Trifolium repens).

“Microclover is a little expensive, but I love it,” says Sadler. “It’s evergreen and requires less water than regular grass.”

Clovers fix nitrogen in the soil and feeding bees, so Sadler says you may want to wear shoes while it’s in bloom.

Prefer a more traditional look? Consider an alternative grass like Zoysia, whose deep roots help it withstand periods without rain while preventing erosion and sequestering carbon.

Maintenance

While these mixes are more drought-tolerant than traditional turfgrasses once established, they need regular watering during the first two years. Keep a watch for interloping weeds or returning turf grass, Sadler says, focusing on perennials like quack grass (Elymus repens) rather than annuals like shot weed (Cardamine hirsuta) and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale).

When you do mow, set your mowing blade higher than you’re used to — at least 3 inches — to preserve the crowns of the plants and leave the trimmings where they land to nourish the soil.

In between those occasional mowings, think of all the life you are encouraging — and all the life you can live.

Source: seattletimes.com