Alternatives to Grass

[Bartleby]

Most of the properties I have seen listed have grass lawns. Is that what most people have?

I guess you have to keep the jungle away from your house to some extent. Are there any alternatives to planting grass?

[Mitzi M]

Absolutely! There are many ways to plant a space clear of thicker vegetation around your house besides a lawn. While a little grassy area may be nice, especially if you have kids, there are a lot of options for larger areas that can require even less maintenance, including low ground covers and/or planted "islands" in cinder, a'a' or gravel groundcover. In my opinion as a designer, these solutions look much nicer and are more in-keeping with the spirit of the land. There are many great looking native plants you can use and luckily they are starting to become more avaiable commercially. A lot depends on your climatic and soil conditions. If your lot has not been completely cleared, you are very lucky! If there is some remnant forest or native plant community, learn about it, preserve it and cherish it. By incorporating it into your landscape you will not only have a unique and beautiful yard but will also be helping to preserve vital habitat for species found nowhere else on Earth. On the mainland grass lawns seem to be the default. In most places, what nature put there to begin with would have been far more interesting (and wouldn't require chemlawn). Check out some native plants and landscapes like Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Kealakekua, or the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua'i.

Aloha,
Mitzi

[Bartleby]

quote:

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By incorporating it into your landscape you will not only have a unique and beautiful yard but will also be helping to preserve vital habitat for species found nowhere else on Earth.

Check out some native plants and landscapes like Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Kealakekua, or the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua'i.

Aloha,
Mitzi

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Thank you for the very thoughtful and helpful post. I hope to do as you suggest.

[Kapohocat]

Has anyone had any luck with zoyja (sp?) grass. It looks like little fluffy clumps and doesn't seem to need much maintenance.

-Cat

[allensylves]

Cat,

I did a search on zoysia and came up with 2 threads from last year with passing references. However the consensus seemed to be that seashore paspalum was particularly desirable.

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[sansei]

Cat,
There is a whole section of articles on Turf on the CTAHR web site, including one on Zoysia. It turns out you need to decide which Zoysia first. The Adaptation article has a nice ranking of various turf alternatives relative to factors like salt and shade tolerance, etc. IMHO I think huge expanses of lawn borders on criminal but it is really nice to have a patch of lawn to lay on a sunny spring day or to play catch with the dog. Here are links to a few of the articles.

Zoysiagrass: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/TM-8.pdf
Seashore paspalum: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/TM-1.pdf
Adaptation of turfgrasses in Hawaii: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/TM-4.pdf

[Hotzcatz]

We have three or four different types of zoysia (sp?)and/or mondo grass in our yard. There is the nice dark 6" tall "dragon's beard" which is tucked between rocks on the wall to make a grassy looking embankment. We have several different types of the zoysia grass which will turn into little clumps once it gets established enough. So far ours hasn't done that. There is also a smaller and lighter green colored mondo grass.

We get flats of grasses we like or starts of it and then plant it in an area. As it spreads, we pull out the grasses we don't like to make the areas of the grasses we do like larger. Once the zoysia grass gets established, other grasses and weeds don't take over as much although it does need to be weeded every once in awhile to keep the grasses which sprout by runners from getting a toe hold in the zoysia areas.

The fellow who was here before us planted a variety of grasses which are low growing. He just got them from other folks' lawns, he didn't know if they had names or not but just got ones he liked and put them around.

There are loads of things to plant other than grass, although if you want to walk on it or sit on it, that can limit your choices somewhat. Chamomile and thyme are lovely things to make into "lawn". They smell lovely when walked or sat on.

[Kapohocat]

Thanks for the advice! I will look at those sites. Bob and I are tired of mowing a small maybe 30 x 10 strip of grass that already exists, and thought by putting zoysia on the rockwall and on the strip would cut down the maintenance. We definately don't want to increase grass - we are trying to increase our garden area.

In addition, now when the grass is trimmed, we just allow the trimming to mulch, don't use a clippings catcher. We have <inch of dirt in most areas except our garden.