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Originally Posted by Kevin
In our back yard we have a very small lawn about (10ft by 20ft) that needs mowing weekly and sometimes twice weekly in summer.
Now I'm looking for lower maintenance so everything can be left unattended for weeks at a time if were out of town. I have a neighbor that "may" mow the rear lawn for us if he has time and remembers and I don't want to hire a service for that small area. Our HOA takes care of the front lawn and plants.
I could simply expand our back patio and cover the current lawn area with concrete, but since we already have automatic sprinklers set up, I'm considering replacing the lawn with low-maintenance groundcover than can be walked on and that we could ocassionally place outdoor furniture on for an evening without killing it.
We want to be able to simply set our automatic sprinklers on a timer and not have to attend to it more than a few times a year with fertilizer and trimming.
Recommedations for ground cover and how to get rid of the grass so it does not interfere with the new ground cover?
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Hi Kevin,
Instead of using chemicals to kill the grass, the roots of which you'll have to dig out anyway, use a flat shovel to scrape off the grass or rent a sod stripper/cutter. For such a small area you don't need a power one.
http://www.quail-mfg.com/sodcutter.htm
Add some compost you can get in bags at a home improvement center or nursery. A 2" to 3" cover will do and mix it in with a shovel and smooth with a garden rake.
http://www.davedupler.com/garden/Rakes1.jpg
Calculate how much compost you'll need here.
http://www.cedar-grove.com/calculator.asp
Since you don't say where you live or the sun conditions it would be difficult to say what to plant. Take a look here for ideas of stepables. For a sunny area I like creeping thyme if it's hardy in your zone. You might want to consider something that is evergreen.
http://stepables.com/
http://classygroundcovers.com/
You can find your hardiness zone here.
http://www.garden.org/zipzone/
If you do mailorder you can check references here. You can also search for nurseries by state.
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/
Newt