Groundcover Revolution: How to Use Sustainable, Low-Maintenance Groundcovers to Replace Your Turf

Tired of spending your weekends mowing, trimming, and edging? Then it’s time to say goodbye to your standard grass lawn and join the Groundcover Revolution!

Turns out you’re not alone in your desire to ditch the lawn and replace it with something prettier, more diverse, lower maintenance, welcoming to pollinators, and good for Earth’s climate health. Reducing the lawn is among the biggest trends in homeownership, with an endless stream of homeowners looking for an eco-friendly alternative to a traditional turfgrass lawn. In the last few years alone, over 23 million American adults converted part of their lawn to a natural landscape, and now they’re looking to do even more.

The biggest challenge to adopting this new ideal of the perfect lawn? Knowing how and when to replace your turf, and which plants are the best ones for the job. Groundcover Revolution is here with all the answers you need (and some you didn’t even know you needed!).

Those answers include:

• How replacing a lawn with groundcovers reduces resource consumption on a significant level
• Why groundcovers require far less long-term maintenance than turf after establishment
• The many additional benefits of groundcovers, including erosion control, a reduction in chemical usage, a boost in biodiversity, and mitigation of climate change as a carbon sink
• The ways groundcovers overcome challenges such as tree roots, compacted soils, poor drainage, and dense shade
• The step-by-step mechanics of how to get rid of your lawn, how to place and plant groundcovers from seeds, plugs, or transplants, and how to care for your new ＂quilted lawn＂ once it’s in place

Also included are 40 in-depth profiles of plants that are perfect choices for replacing a grass lawn. There are options for sun, for shade, for dry and wet sites, and for various climates around the globe. There are choices that bloom, options that are evergreen, and selections that are deer resistant. Author Kathy Jentz has also included an incredibly useful chart that gives youall the specifics on each of the 40 choices for quick reference and to make your groundcover selection process even easier.

Don’t let a lack of information stop you from creating the no-mow groundcover lawn of your dreams. Join the revolution and say goodbye to the burden of lawn care and hello to summer weekends relaxing by the pool or camping with family and friends. Whether you want to replace the entire lawn or just reduce the amount of land dedicated to turf, it’s time to usher in a new and improved idea of what a beautiful lawn should be.

Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine. She is currently the Green Media columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Grower newspaper. She also edits the quarterly Water Garden Journal, the official publication of the International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society. Kathy’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Examiner newspaper, Pathways magazine, and Washington Women magazine. In addition, she appears on regular gardening guest spots on Channel 9, Channel 4, as well as WTOP, WAMU, and WOWD-LP radio stations in Washington, DC.