I have a garden with vegetables, one with flowers, a few fruit trees and a maple, some elderberry trees. And a mowed space in front and in back. I guess technically it’s a lawn but we don’t water it or put any fertilizer or chemicals, just keep it mowed. We throw clover seeds out on bare patches but weeds mostly take over. It grows, we mow.

For my property, the best stuff is wooded land. Cedar, pine, fruit, cottonwood, dogwood, birch, walnut. Cedar being my favorite due to the smell. The tree canopy keeps the ground mostly clear. Lots of birds, raccoon, squirrel, possum, deer, mice, etc. Ample shade. Natural sound deadening. Never have to water it. And a wall of green around my home for most of the year.

Xeriscape with native plants and drip irrigation

There’s a type of clover, I think. I saw it on Reddit a few years ago. I only remember it’s green and short and sort of looks like grass, but is better for some reason, I don’t remember its advantages over grass.

Here in NM, we mostly use rocks. This is common in front yards:

For backyards with kids, it’s real grass if you can afford the water, or fake grass and gravel. Without kids, it’s pavers, a pergola with furniture, and native plants along the walls/fence.

I think something like this provides a good aesthetics/effort ratio:

And you could always move to a desert. Then it’s really easy and looks amazing.

I mean, the correct answer is MORE HOUSING. Yes, lawns are bad for the environment in their own right as a monoculture that requires dumping fertilizer and pesticides on it to maintain an “acceptable” quality. But if you are in the US, it is not unlikely that you have mandatory minimum lot sizes, minimum setbacks on all sides of the propety (especially large in the front), and a mandate that the front area must be grass. You also are not allowed to construct more structures on your lot for the purposes of housing, or run any kind of business on your property that might have customers physically visit the space or have any visible impact on the property.

The result is:

• More expensive housing, since each house is required to sit on more land than it physically takes up.
• More expensive cost of living, since finding sufficient new land requires building farther out, making commutes longer and therefore more expensive.
• Car dependency for daily tasks, since no one can build a gym or a corner store in your neighborhood.
• Reduced social cohesion, since even if a friend lives nearby, you will probably drive to their place since walking in a lawn-filled neighborhood is boring, and the gaps between homes mean their house is that much farther away

Honestly, local plants* is the best way to go

Edit: Got a B- in English, how could you tell?

You can also not rake or otherwise dispose of leaves and other forms of yard waste. A lot of invertebrates depend on fallen leaves to lay their eggs or need them for insulation over the winter. Other animals also use leaves for things too.

Vegetable gardens. Cost of groceries would be a motivator.

Maybe gravel or hardscape? Or just don’t put any effort into making anything around your house have any esthetic value. Anything you do to make the area surrounding your home look any different will require some level of resource drain.

• Native plants
• Community vegetable garden
• both

Heard something like a moss patch is much better.

In terms of benefit to the environment:

• Wildflowers, because it attracks so many bugs, which feed birds.

In terms of benefit to you:

• vegetable garden or herb garden

In terms of benefit to you and the environment:

• wildflowers, because they look pretty :)

The options are limitless. Basically just don’t do a lawn in your front garden and try to have a few other plants on your back lawn if you need to keep it as a children’s play area or similar.

Where i live in the UK, victorian homes are like 55% of housing stock and that means most people have front gardens designed for an enclosed space lined by hedge. This allows you to have a completely hidden spot to sit and get fresh air while you drink coffee. Similar to a porch.

At risk of sounding like a salesman, why not search some landscaping or garden companies to see nice examples? Here’s a really modern one I found when trying to get examples of a hedgey garden: https://www.philhirstgardens.co.uk/our-work/contemporary-front-garden

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It depends on the size and type of plants that you have growing on your lawn.

I will assume that you are referring to classic short green grass lawns but here in the UK that is not how we play.

In our garden we have a weed edge and a good covering of wild flowers amongst the grass which is of varying lengths.

Good for wildlife and the environment.