Hello! My wife and I moved into out first house and are wondering wtf to do with this yard. My father in law paid for the first months of grass cutting, but the guy left all the trimmings on top and my yard is dead currently (we had huge patches of grass all around the yard, guessing it got smothered but I’m not sure). I am finally buying a sprinkler and have a decent mower and weed eater.
In the case where my grass doesnt grow back, could I just plant clover or another groundcover and be fine? I have been wanting to do a more natural clover/groundcover lawn, but scared too if the mowing cycles are off.
This started as sedum tiles 2 years ago and has filled in and spread out well.
I’ve been keeping a strip cleared to let moss and sedum spread.
My moss garden. It started as a volunteer patch 2 springs ago and I’ve just been keeping it clear. The red and brown on top the moss are spent sporacles. The red sedum split off from the tile nearby which is one of the things I lile about them: they have a variety of colors and shapes to start but I never know which ones will thrive. In the back is silvermound which is a great low growing perrenial with incredibly soft foliage. It smells nice, too.
Thyme, this was a transplant from another patch and started as just a couple stalks in a crevasse. Behind and to the left is a ninbark bush; fast growing, purple-red leaves, with pink or white flowers in the spring. Behind and to the right is a bunchalotta purslane I’ve been halfheartedly weeding; it’s basically a harmless volunteer but spreads so easily I have to keep it in check lest it overwhelm its neighbors. You can also see some sedum I put in the spaces between stones; another perk of the tiles is you can cut them with scissors to fit wherever you need.
Another type of thyme with more varietes of sedum around it and some Irish moss to the left. Same purslane in the back.
Yet more thyme. This was planted last spring and has gone wild wherever it can.
Wooly thyme! This is one of the types I see recommended as walkable. It gets teeny tiny pink flowers in the spring.
Hylotelephium telephium, a type of stonecrop (sedum) plantes by itself (not from a garden tile).
Do you have the thyme? To listen to me whine…
This patch started from a single starter pod from the local nursery last year and has spread itself out well. Water meter for scale. :) Also the patch I took some from for the first thyme picture.
Another cool thing about sedum is you can pretty mich stick it on a rock and it will grow.
Sedum and a hens and chicks succulent on another rock.
Another picture of the hens and chicks. I wanted to show another view because we’ve never seen hens and chicks grow a stalk and flower like this.
You can also see some bugleweed in the lower right. Bugleweed is another spreading ground cover with some varieties to choose from.
Oh yeah, we’re in Missouri, hardiness zone 6b so all these plants can take 100+ F in the summer and -10 F or more winters.