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LAWN SUBSTITUTES | GRASS ALTERNATIVES | GROUND COVERS | Hard at First, Later Much Easier



Lawn Substitutes – find out which ones Coach Matt suggests, what applications might be appropriate, and what you can expect from converting your lawn to a ground cover or lawnless landscape.

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⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 Lawn Substitutes
03:34 Why Lawn Alternatives
05:17 Conversion
10:56 Differences
11:52 Examples
15:53 After Conversion

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50 Comments

  6. Kat B.

    What kind of gardener are you to tell people that they should spray poison on their property? 😮
    Though your list of lawn substitutes is very good. I planted some of the plants.
    My tip on how I don't use any municipal water is collecting rain water. I have a couple of IBC tanks that get me through the dry months. I planted vine, ivy, passion fruit and clematis around them, so I don't have to look at the ugly tanks. And I planted little trees that partially shade my backyard.

  7. Summat

    If I’m located where white Dutch clover is native do I still need to reseed it? Thanks for the helpful vid!

  11. Gameswithajump

    I have a pretty large southern backyard (11,000 sq ft) with an inground sprinkler system and a few large live oaks. It's beautiful. I bought my house about 5 years ago and the backyard is majority tall fescue. And the lawn was okay when I bought, pretty patchy, but okay. And it was just hard to keep up with. 3 years ago I ended up just spreading creeping thyme and clover seeds all over the yard, then rolled a compost roller with composted cotton burrs all over top of it and just kept watering. It's now an oasis of thick fescue, pillowy clover, and bright creeping thyme with no dirt showing anywhere. It turned out beautiful and I get compliments all the time on it. It looks like a natural meadow. I set my mower just high enough to where it mainly just cuts the fescue when it gets tall, and leaves most of the thyme and clover untouched.

  12. Dom G.

    I'm interested in stuff that is naturalized or native to the americas, specifically canada in the prairie provinces (as well as mountains & foothills I guess). Thanks Coach

  13. Linda

    Kill the lawn -kill the soil. Why not just harvest the sod and turn it into soil properly? Why poison the soil!!? Jeeeez.

  15. Rebecca Valicoff

    Why in the world would you go on and on for 12 minutes before talking about the stuff you said you were going to talk about??

  16. lurklingX

    thanks for showing all of those different plants in actual landscape examples. that's really helpful! i think that purple one looks amazing. like….. it does that thing lavender will where it's just an overwhelming wash of color, very impressive. i'm considering doing some stuff like this, especially around fences and wires and things that are REALLY annoying to mow and weedwhack.

  17. lurklingX

    oh! one question i had was what region the plants you mentioned work in. idk if you covered ones for different areas of the country or if they were all ones that worked in one specific climate. it'd be cool to have vids about groundcovers, each focusing on a different region. : )

    (forgive me if you did that already – this was first vid of yours i've seen. also, daylight is wasting and i gotta do massive landscape work just now.)

    thanks!!

  20. julia stephenson

    I prefer permaculture videos that work with nature and don’t involve spraying lots of poisonous chemicals around

  22. Riley

    I need something that I can rake leaves off and that will grow in sand and is drought tolerant. Hawaiian Islands, desert areas.
    I also need a long strip of drought tolerant ground cover for an area where my dog can play and go to the bathroom on.

  24. Christina Annabel

    Rather than spraying pesticides on the lawn to kill the grass and weeds, wouldn't it be better for the environment and one's health to cover the grass with plastic sheeting to kill the plants and seeds, depriving them of light and water? Also, rather than throwing away the sod that is cut out of the lawn, wouldn't it be better to put it in a compost pile to make organic matter? If necessary, cover the pile with plastic to kill plants and seeds. (Hot temperatures will kill plants and seeds in the middle of the pile.)

  26. Heather Fulwiler

    Just becareful with blue rug juniper. Had to pull all mine out as vol infestation ruined my yard and ate them. Got rid of the juniper and planting something different.

  28. Ms. Jackson for Real

    Out of water except when ABC news reports how the weather was manipulated this winter for extra plus snow fall. If they can amp it up, doesn't it make sense they can dry it up?

  30. Dan M

    I would like to know which of those plants were native species to the areas he mentioned in the video.

  31. Melissa MyBubbles

    I wish you'd gone into more detail about which plants can handle foot traffic. I would need plants that can handle quite a bit if i were ever to take on this type of project.

  34. Dan Turk

    Coach, I just found you. I'm in N. Texas 7B and each year under watering restrictions. Since 4/1/23 there is NO outside watering. We have sandy soil here and I have given up on lawn turf this year. We get torrential rains in the Spring and minimal rainfall the rest of the year. Right now, whatever grows and is green is what is there. It's a mix of weed, bermuda and St. Augustine. This is the first of your videos I have seen and will be exploring more of them. I am sure open to any suggestions you may have for me. Lot size is 1/3 acre minus 1,500 sq ft house, driveway and a 1,600 sq ft deck I put in 10 years ago.

  35. Ann Harlan

    Spray poison on the grass? Are you crazy? You can kill most of it with cardboard and woodchips and pull the rest and avoid poisoning the planet.

  36. Linda Hansen

    Watch the water . Government will no longer control the water . I’ve heard good God things heading our way !

  37. Glamma V

    Thanks for the video! What do you recommend for zone 10B Florida? I want very low maintenance, non-invasive grd cover please🙏. Thanks!

  38. Michael W. Perry

    Here's a well-meant suggestion. When your title is "Lawn Substitutes," don't spend over half your video talking about why people might be forced to adopt those substitutes. Not everyone lives in a drought-prone region. Address those issues in a separate video.

  39. Murphis55

    Plant clover instead of grass stays green when lawns are dying. Plus bees love the flowers and it smells wonderful. I’ve had clover for several years now and no chems and it’s easy to mow once in a while.

  44. AmericaCirclingTheDrainFJB

    I can vouch for the monkey (mondo) grass solution. We had a tree removed several years ago. There was decorative monkey grass at the base of the tree that didn't get taken out. Over a few seasons, the monkey grass had spread and had begun to compete with the St. Augustine. When the yardman mowed, I noticed how nice the monkey grass felt on my bare feet and decided I'd rather have it as my lawn than the St. Augustine. It's taken a while and I've done nothing to further the process, but at some point the backyard will be 100% monkey grass. I'm old and probably won't be here to see that day. Had I known what I know now, I would have purposely chosen monkey grass as my "lawn."

  45. Elaine Light

    Gravel is horrendous to weed. Poisons would be needed to kill weeds, thus being much worse for the environment than water use and much more expensive.

  49. Emelda Javier

    TY! I live in SF Bay area! Loved my lawn – lots of grandkids.
    You have helped me changed and cut my lawn size in half!

  50. M Vue

    What kind of chemicals to use to kill off the grass and weeds prior to planting?

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