"tenplay" wrote in message

I have a large lawn that continues around the front, back and
one
side of our house. And it looks bad with clumps of crab grass,
weeds and some bald spots. Basically all I've done for the
past
few years is mow every other week and weed sporadically when I
am
not working or away on trips. I am throwing in the towel with
maintaining a large lawn and would like to try something else
that
would make it more presentable and easier to maintain. Our
kids
are grown and gone, so no one really uses the lawn.

A friend suggested replacing all or most of the lawn with
ground
cover, which sounds promising. Is it possible to start it in
an
existing lawn, and have it take over, or do I need to tear up
all
the sod and start all over? Another suggestion was to tear out
the
lawn and replace it with plants and trees. Maybe but it sounds
like a lot of work and expense. I should mention that I live
in
Western Washington, where we experience A LOT of rain. Thanks
for
any suggestions or advice. Mike

I used Roundup to kill most of the grass in my backyard and
covered it with wood chips I got for free from one of those tree
service companies.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5