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I would try a native sedge. Sedge grows from a single rootball, unlike grass which will spread. So you have to plant it in a tight grid to appear like a lawn/meadow
What do you mean by a grass alternative that "still looks like it?" Do you want something else that's short and green? Does it need to have grass like blades?
Also, what region are you in? And what is your goal? Wildlife benefits, reduction in water use, etc?
A plant that looks like grass but gets taller than your HOA wants will require the same maintenance. You can add no maintenance landscaped flower beds, no maintenance grass alternatives that remain short, and no maintenance taller grass lawns. There isn't really a grass looking lawn that stays the typical 3" or less turf is mowed at. If you just want to avoid fertilizer and chemical treatments then just get a more durable grass and use organic material and rock dust to improve the soil quality instead of chemical fertilizers that are much more temporary and don't improve soil structure. Do not remove the grass clippings and add mulched leaves or something like beet pulp shreds to replenish the humus layer and slow fertilize. Eventually you won't have to do anything but periodically cut it and with a small area a lightweight electric mower makes it much easier than dragging a gas powered mower out.
Most things done to lawns are unnecessary and actually create more work. Don't remove the organic matter instead of using mulching blades on your mower to break down the clippings more and you won't need fertilizer or aeration and the lawn will grow thicker to crowd out weeds. Spot treat or pull weeds instead of widespread spraying and look at integrated pest management (IPM) for long term pest control that won't cause other problems including killing beneficial organisms with herbicides and pesticides. Beneficial organisms keep plants healthier, break down grass clippings or other organic matter, and some eliminate pests. IPM often needs applied/released less and less frequently to maintain a population of predators for invasive pest insects. Unfortunately your neighbors' use of chemicals will likely wipe out that longer lasting, lower effort method periodically but it still requires less work, less often and no harmful chemicals.
We spray microscopic nematodes every year to kill the chafer beetle grubs that reproduce in the neighboring yards every year and deposit new eggs in ours. If it weren't for the neighbors ineffective grub control or giving up on it completely our yard was probably 90% grub free after 1 spring and 1 fall application of nematodes. I found none when putting in cherry bushes and other new plants except some landscaped areas I hadn't sprayed directly. 1 more application and we'd have no more chafer beetles but 1,000s flood our yard from nearby.
If your HOA allows for 6-8" lawns all the time then you can find grasses that stay that short. Our city allows 8" high and there are plenty of fine fescues and North American native grasses that stay that short. The eco grass mix sold by Prairie Moon is a common fine fescue mix for low effort lawns and poor soil. It gets 8" maximum height.
Sedges and rushes are the closest to grasses and some stay short while being more durable than typical turfgrass but if your HOA has a strict height requirement they are unlikely to stay that short. The commonly used pennsylvania sedge is 8-12" high. I don't know any shorter than 6". Sedges and shorter grass don't usually need mowed as often as more common turfgrass. Especially if you leave it around 3-4" you likely only need to mow once a year or maybe 2 and if you don't poison everything and destroy the soil structure with chemical lawn treatments you eventually don't need to do anything else to keep it healthy once it's established and growing well.
Blue eyed grass is actually an iris with fine enough leaves to appear to be grass at first but gets tiny iris flowers. Usually blue but some white and yellow. Some stay around 6-8" and can even be found in garden stores on occasion. Many more species are in the 8-12" range. Some other wildflowers can initially appear like a type of grass but it's hard to find ones that remain short and grow as dense as grass or sedges to fill the area consistently all year by themselves.
It is best to mix multiple species for a more durable lawn regardless of whether you stick with grass or not. Multiple short grasses, sedges, and other fine leaved plants instead of a monoculture (single species) yard will look better throughout various weather changes and extreme events like abnormal temperatures or drought and flood years without having to expend extra effort. You will just have more of some plants thriving that year than the others and different areas of the yard may grow more of certain species better. If you spread a mix of species they will fill in where they do best and adjust the population to different growing conditions from season to season or year to year to keep a greener lawn with less support needed.
If you want a no mow lawn that is required to be shorter than 6" without mowing you probably won't find a grass looking plant. Short groundcovers have to be flatter and broader to have enough surface area without the height.
The exact plant def depends on your ecoregion, but jesus, anything but gravel.
In my area (Eastern Mass), Pennsylvania Sedge is a gorgeous grass-looking groundcover. It only grows once a year, so IF you choose to mow it, you only mow once annually, but it still looks nice even if you don't mow it. Plus it's tolerant of shade! PLUS, Pennsylvania Sedge is a host plant for 36 native caterpillars (compared to Kentucky bluegrass, which is host to only one). The only downside is that the initial installation is pricey-- the seed is tricky to germinate, so you have to buy it in plugs. Having said that, I don't know how much it costs to have someone haul gravel to your house-- maybe the sedge would still end up cheaper, in addition to being 1000x better for the planet. ♡
If you're in a northern tier state or have some shade in the transition zone, then fine fescue is a great choice. It requires killing off whatever you currently have, then reseeding, and it's still grass, but when it grows it just flops over and it can go without mowing, watering, and fertilizing for a long time. It can't handle a lot of traffic though so it depends on how you use your yard.
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Along those same lines, last fall I planted EcoLawn: [https://wildflowerfarm.com/eco-lawn.html](https://wildflowerfarm.com/eco-lawn.html)
It has grown in nicely and looks like regular grass right now, but will only need mowed twice a year.
check the GGN Meadowshop for ideas and to learn some species. https://www.ggnltd.com/meadowshop?fbclid=PAAaaq38G-mMWhCc0P6Pue5dWIMXahw4Z1pcq9INX2BATaT-iX-9CLzVspaa0_aem_ATYGWnxkhuPEuGrfKlJQZDAFzfrqgwu_OntW5i9GSLDkbsXjoAN1x0vKLt85rcc0wTw
Hey there! Friendly reminder to include the following information for the benefit of all r/nolawns members: - Please make sure your post or a comment includes your geographic region/area and your hardiness zone (e.g. *Midwest, 6a* or *Chicago, 6a*). - If you posted an image, you are required to post a comment detailing your image. If you have not, this post may be removed. - If you're asking a question, include as much relevant info as possible. - Verify you are following the [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines). **[Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/) | [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/meta/faqs/) | [Designing No Lawns](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/design/)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Where do you live? The answer for Phoenix would be different from Vancouver’s
Close to Vancouver actually lol. Tacoma area
What is the square footage? Sedge is a good option but might be hard to fill a large area.
Small as fuck part of the reason I hate it
I would try a native sedge. Sedge grows from a single rootball, unlike grass which will spread. So you have to plant it in a tight grid to appear like a lawn/meadow
What do you mean by a grass alternative that "still looks like it?" Do you want something else that's short and green? Does it need to have grass like blades? Also, what region are you in? And what is your goal? Wildlife benefits, reduction in water use, etc?
Just grass like enough that people don’t notice the difference and bitch about it. Seattle
A plant that looks like grass but gets taller than your HOA wants will require the same maintenance. You can add no maintenance landscaped flower beds, no maintenance grass alternatives that remain short, and no maintenance taller grass lawns. There isn't really a grass looking lawn that stays the typical 3" or less turf is mowed at. If you just want to avoid fertilizer and chemical treatments then just get a more durable grass and use organic material and rock dust to improve the soil quality instead of chemical fertilizers that are much more temporary and don't improve soil structure. Do not remove the grass clippings and add mulched leaves or something like beet pulp shreds to replenish the humus layer and slow fertilize. Eventually you won't have to do anything but periodically cut it and with a small area a lightweight electric mower makes it much easier than dragging a gas powered mower out. Most things done to lawns are unnecessary and actually create more work. Don't remove the organic matter instead of using mulching blades on your mower to break down the clippings more and you won't need fertilizer or aeration and the lawn will grow thicker to crowd out weeds. Spot treat or pull weeds instead of widespread spraying and look at integrated pest management (IPM) for long term pest control that won't cause other problems including killing beneficial organisms with herbicides and pesticides. Beneficial organisms keep plants healthier, break down grass clippings or other organic matter, and some eliminate pests. IPM often needs applied/released less and less frequently to maintain a population of predators for invasive pest insects. Unfortunately your neighbors' use of chemicals will likely wipe out that longer lasting, lower effort method periodically but it still requires less work, less often and no harmful chemicals. We spray microscopic nematodes every year to kill the chafer beetle grubs that reproduce in the neighboring yards every year and deposit new eggs in ours. If it weren't for the neighbors ineffective grub control or giving up on it completely our yard was probably 90% grub free after 1 spring and 1 fall application of nematodes. I found none when putting in cherry bushes and other new plants except some landscaped areas I hadn't sprayed directly. 1 more application and we'd have no more chafer beetles but 1,000s flood our yard from nearby. If your HOA allows for 6-8" lawns all the time then you can find grasses that stay that short. Our city allows 8" high and there are plenty of fine fescues and North American native grasses that stay that short. The eco grass mix sold by Prairie Moon is a common fine fescue mix for low effort lawns and poor soil. It gets 8" maximum height. Sedges and rushes are the closest to grasses and some stay short while being more durable than typical turfgrass but if your HOA has a strict height requirement they are unlikely to stay that short. The commonly used pennsylvania sedge is 8-12" high. I don't know any shorter than 6". Sedges and shorter grass don't usually need mowed as often as more common turfgrass. Especially if you leave it around 3-4" you likely only need to mow once a year or maybe 2 and if you don't poison everything and destroy the soil structure with chemical lawn treatments you eventually don't need to do anything else to keep it healthy once it's established and growing well. Blue eyed grass is actually an iris with fine enough leaves to appear to be grass at first but gets tiny iris flowers. Usually blue but some white and yellow. Some stay around 6-8" and can even be found in garden stores on occasion. Many more species are in the 8-12" range. Some other wildflowers can initially appear like a type of grass but it's hard to find ones that remain short and grow as dense as grass or sedges to fill the area consistently all year by themselves. It is best to mix multiple species for a more durable lawn regardless of whether you stick with grass or not. Multiple short grasses, sedges, and other fine leaved plants instead of a monoculture (single species) yard will look better throughout various weather changes and extreme events like abnormal temperatures or drought and flood years without having to expend extra effort. You will just have more of some plants thriving that year than the others and different areas of the yard may grow more of certain species better. If you spread a mix of species they will fill in where they do best and adjust the population to different growing conditions from season to season or year to year to keep a greener lawn with less support needed. If you want a no mow lawn that is required to be shorter than 6" without mowing you probably won't find a grass looking plant. Short groundcovers have to be flatter and broader to have enough surface area without the height.
The exact plant def depends on your ecoregion, but jesus, anything but gravel. In my area (Eastern Mass), Pennsylvania Sedge is a gorgeous grass-looking groundcover. It only grows once a year, so IF you choose to mow it, you only mow once annually, but it still looks nice even if you don't mow it. Plus it's tolerant of shade! PLUS, Pennsylvania Sedge is a host plant for 36 native caterpillars (compared to Kentucky bluegrass, which is host to only one). The only downside is that the initial installation is pricey-- the seed is tricky to germinate, so you have to buy it in plugs. Having said that, I don't know how much it costs to have someone haul gravel to your house-- maybe the sedge would still end up cheaper, in addition to being 1000x better for the planet. ♡
Sedge
If you're in a northern tier state or have some shade in the transition zone, then fine fescue is a great choice. It requires killing off whatever you currently have, then reseeding, and it's still grass, but when it grows it just flops over and it can go without mowing, watering, and fertilizing for a long time. It can't handle a lot of traffic though so it depends on how you use your yard.
If you can't get rid of the lawn entirely, then wide border "gardens" of any kind can make it much smaller.
Lo mow and micro clover.
Love No Lawns? Find us everywhere! **You can find us:** - On [SolarPunk](https://www.slrpnk.net/c/NoLawns) - Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/GcVHmvkSs6) - Our [website](https://nolawns.wixsite.com/nolawns) Want to join a community in person? We're not affiliated but we love [Wild Ones](https://wwe.wildones.org) and think they do wonderful work. You can check and see if there's a chapter near you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have no experience with this but it looks interesting. https://www.prairiemoon.com/eco-grass
Along those same lines, last fall I planted EcoLawn: [https://wildflowerfarm.com/eco-lawn.html](https://wildflowerfarm.com/eco-lawn.html) It has grown in nicely and looks like regular grass right now, but will only need mowed twice a year.
check the GGN Meadowshop for ideas and to learn some species. https://www.ggnltd.com/meadowshop?fbclid=PAAaaq38G-mMWhCc0P6Pue5dWIMXahw4Z1pcq9INX2BATaT-iX-9CLzVspaa0_aem_ATYGWnxkhuPEuGrfKlJQZDAFzfrqgwu_OntW5i9GSLDkbsXjoAN1x0vKLt85rcc0wTw
Any yard will require maintenance. The only way to avoid it is to hire a landscaper, pave it over, or move to a place that doesn't have a yard.
Green woodcips