"Neil" wrote in message ...

My new home has an area that is about 275ft x 30ft in front of the house
(essentially the length of the lot and about 30ft deep). It is uneven and
strewn
with large bolders.

The previous owner of the house took a very costly approach. The area
has a fair amount of trees, some random shrub plantings, and is covered
from
end to end with mulch (wood chips). The previous owner told me it cost
about $2000 to put down mulch along this entire area. Well I was fortunate
enough to find
a free supply of wood chips, as long as I was willing to spread them
myself.
Five truckloads (and over a month later), and
I've finally finished "chipping" the area.

This is unmanageable as far as I'm concerned, but I'm at a loss as to
how to improve the situation.

1) Grass - preparing the land (tree removal, bolder removal, fill) is too
expensive.
2) Ground cover - Seems that I either have to spend a fortune for an acre
of
the stuff, or wait the remainder of my life for a little bit to spread
out.

There's a picture of the area at

http://www.panix.com/~nradisch/yard.jpg

The area curves a bit, but the very end can be seen at the top of the
picture.

It looks a lot better than what I was expecting from your description! I
would forget the grass. First of all, you have very nice grass already and
the grass that would grow under the trees would be inferior to the existing
lawn. It would also be monotonous. Finally, even if you could get grass to
grow it would be a maintenance nightmare mowing around the trees and rocks.

I like the idea of ground cover, but not all ground cover. I would contact
a landscape designer or two and get some ideas. You might drive around your
area and take some pictures of things that you like. I don't know where
you are, so it is hard to make specific suggestions for plants. I would
like to see some hostas under the trees. There are many nice perennials
that would look wonderful planted in a border meandering around the trees.
You could also plant areas of ground cover. I would use a variety of ground
covers. You can mulch some paths between the plantings. You should only
have to mulch the area every two or three years and you would have far less
mulching, and more a more diverse and interesting landscaping. You are
starting with a very nice setting.