Welcome to the No-Mow Zone: New Ways to Ditch Your Lawn

"Transforming a standard lawn into sustainable landscape is certainly not a weekend project,” says Clinton Lak, a landscape designer with ArtisTree Landscaping in Venice, Florida. “You'll literally need to remove your lawn and any plants that don't fit with your new plan.”

Ching-Fang Chen, 55, remembers the odd looks her McLean, Virginia, neighbors gave her in 1999 when she covered her entire front yard with newspaper to prep the soil for sustainable landscaping.

An award-winning landscape architect and project manager for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Chen transformed her typical suburban corner lot with a traditional lawn into a garden showstopper.

"Lawn is a food desert for insects, birds and small animals,” she says. “It has very low ecological function and requires a great deal of maintenance."

Chen used the no-digging method to get rid of the lawn she planned to replace. The strategy involves laying newspaper or cardboard on the grass, and then covering with mulch.

"Let the bed sit for a few weeks,” she says. “The grass and roots will rot and become compost.” The newspaper or cardboard suppresses weeds while allowing water to filter through.

Today, Chen's yard includes a lily pool designed to fit into a steep slope by the driveway. She has a slate dining terrace sheltered by a hemlock hedge and a kitchen garden for edibles including fruits, vegetables and herbs. She retained some lawn on the quarter-acre property as a path so people can circulate throughout the yard, push trash containers, walk and enjoy the garden.

Leaves from the garden are recycled in planting beds, and high-nitrogen-content sludge from a biological pond filter is used as fertilizer for woody plants and fruit trees. She has to water the garden only during severe drought.

"We enjoy the beautiful and year-round garden, love to be surrounded by birds, bees and butterflies,” Chen says. “We cook with fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden.… The garden is our pride."

Beyond traditional turfgrass

Most American lawns are composed of some form of turfgrass, which requires more water and maintenance than ground covers such as ornamental grasses and hardscapes, decorative rocks, stones, slate or pebbles.

If you want to stick with the grassy look, Diboll recommends a no-mow lawn seed mixture of fescues that does well in both sun and shade and in moderate climates like the Midwest. These options form a soft green grass — nature's version of shag carpet — that needs minimal watering, no fertilizers and mowing just twice a year.

"If hardscapes such as rock paths or stone-paver patios are desired, bring in the supplier early to discuss ideas and show them your proposed plan,” Lak says. “They are a great source of knowledge."

Lak likes to blend decorative stone with ground cover for an affordable, sustainable alternative to a lawn. Native plants typically adapt best. “You have to do your homework to make sure it will thrive in the area you live,” he says. “Research plant material that's suitable to growing in [your] area.”

In hot climates like Florida, Lak suggests replacing grass with plants like sunshine mimosa, perennial peanut and beach sunflower. They thrive in sandy soil where grass barely survives. Perennial ground-huggers like lantana and blue daze will spread quickly.

But not everyone is ready to relinquish the lawn. “A person with a tight, manicured lawn living next to a neighbor who mows infrequently and lets flowering weeds or wildflowers spread will likely think the ‘wild, carefree’ look makes his own property look bad,” Lak says.

No-mow options aren't about letting weeds take over or letting your traditional grass grow six feet high. It's about working with nature in a thoughtful way.

Merlisa Lawrence Corbett is a contributing writer who covers sports, interior design, business and human-interest stories. A former reporter for Sports Illustrated and tennis columnist for Bleacher Report, her work has also appeared in Essence and Black Enterprise. She is the author of the biography Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend and Cultural Heroine.