The downside to this is that it takes FOREVER if you are impatient! (My husband is quite horrified at the idea that his front yard will probably have patches and holes in it for a few years until this all takes.) Instead of digging up the whole front yard and putting this in, I am just slowly replacing my grass with these groundcover plants every time I find a hole or have to dig out some sort of undesirable weed.

For my groundcover, I chose Elfin Miniature Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) from the Stepables collection. (They seem to be available locally here during the spring from several nurseries as well as Fred Meyer.) It is a compact, tightly matted plant with slower growth that produces pretty flowers in the summer. It tolerates heavy foot traffic and stays green all year. Once established, it doesn’t require a lot of water and it tolerates long periods of sun.

Before we moved in here, the house had been sitting vacant for a long time, and there are no sprinklers so the grass was pretty much dead. This, for me, set the bar in terms of what the yard would do if left completely unattended – the grass would die by fall and the trees (more suited to this habitat) would continue on just fine. So the groundcover is my answer of how to make that part of the yard "survive" the summer with little care.

Along with replacing the lawn with this groundcover, I am encouraging moss growth as a native groundcover. It is really quite pretty and soft, and grows with such little effort in this soil. To feed the moss and encourage growth, I fed it a mixture of buttermilk and compost tea (a recipe from the Lovejoy book). I also wanted to enrich the soil as a whole (feed the soil, not the plants!), so I spread chicken compost around the front yard and let the rain dissolve it into the ground. (Besides making the process easier, I am really glad it was raining during both these applications because it meant that my neighbors were not out in their yards while I was doing this. I really didn’t want to explain to them, being the new kid on the block, why I was putting buttermilk and chicken crap all over my front lawn!) I purchased the chicken compost from Rexius, a local green recycler.

Overall it seems to be going well although there are a few snags in this process – such as what to do about the lawn during this growing phase. I can’t mow it because I don’t want to damage the groundcover that I am trying to establish, but I imagine the lawn will eventually grow taller. I have been hacking out any tall grasses (some sort of fescue) by hand, as well as any undesirable weeds (usually the ones with spikey leaves). I then replace these holes with more compost mixture and another groundcover plant. Eventualy, I may have to just mow down part of the lawn with the edge trimmer to keep it manageable without whacking the groundcover or anything else out there. (One of the fun benefits of not mowing your lawn is that you get to see what else pops up – I’ve had everything from delicate wildflowers to iris and hyacinth blubs.)

I am up to 6 or 7 of these "groundcover plugs", with lots of moss mixed in the grass. I’ll keep updating with pictures as this progresses.

In theory, at least. We will see how this actually works out!

I think most people would select one or two varieties that best complimented their needs, but I went with seven total because I’m going for this wild/forest-looking concept. They were all selected based on their tolerance of sun/heat, drought resistance, and speed of growth. (I’m impatient, what can I say?) These are the finalists:

• Grass replacement: Elfin Miniature Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) As the grass dies off or gets weeded out, I will slowly replace it with this low-growing groundcover. It stands up to heavy traffic, is drought tolerant once it is established, and it produces these wonderful little flowers. It stays green year-round and never needs mowing like a lawn. I can’t wait until my "icky ol grass" turns into a luxurious "living carpet"!
• Corner strawberry bed: Baby Tears (Sedum album ‘Chloroticum’) This will fill in nicely between the strawberries, hiding under their leaves during the hottest months, and bringing blooms every spring. I’m also hoping these will somewhat distract the deer from eating the strawberries, as deer typically don’t like sedum plants but I have already caught them rummaging through my varieties of strawberries!
• Fast growers to live around the landscaping: White Star Creeper (a white-flowered Pratia angulata), Alpine Geranium Charm (a pink Erodium reichardii), County Park (purple-flowered Pratia pedunculata), and Double Alpine Geranium Flore Pleno (a light purple-flowered Erodium reichardii). These may vary in their tolerance of the amount of foot traffic, but what they all do have in common is their tolerance of varying water conditions and bright sun at certain times of the day. They are all moderate to fast growers during the peak season as well.
• The landscape accent plant: Victor Reite, Dwarf Thrift (Armeria) This plant tolerates light foot traffic and looks like a mini grass bush with taller flowers.

The soil was simply prepared by hand-mixing the soil, the top layer of bark mulch, and some composted elements. I pushed down on each plant as I dropped it into the hole to keep them level with the ground. The plants were also watered well after being planted.

I know these will take a few years to really spread out and become established, but I am trying to think of my garden in terms of the long run (say, the next decade or two) instead of what looks good right now. I am also getting continually bombarded with surprises in this yard, because plants keep springing up everywhere that the previous owners must have planted.