Lawns just aren’t what they used to be. With more and more units popping up and land getting smaller, lots of people are ending up with a tiny little piece of green.
That patch of green is so small that it’s really not worth having grass there that you have to mow and muck around with. It can actually be quite tricky figuring out to make this space pretty.
Now there are people who think the solution to this is putting down plastic grass, which we… strongly disagree with. Honestly, we hate the stuff. It’s ugly, it’s expensive, it’s hard to lay down, and it makes any garden look ten times worse.
So we’re going to steer you away from plastic grass to much better, prettier, and cheaper options. Let’s get right into it.
Dichondra repens
Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
Ophiopogon ‘Dwarf’ Mondo Grass
Pratia ‘White Star Creeper’ and ‘Blue Star Creeper’
Thymus ‘White Creeping Thyme’
Dymondia ‘Silver Carpet’
Myoporum ‘Yareena™’
Soleirolia ‘Baby’s Tears’
Sagina ‘Green Irish Moss’
Scleranthus biflorus ‘Lime Lava’
Mint ‘Corsican’
Zoysia ‘No Mow Grass’
This is a very popular groundcover and is perfect if you have a shady spot. You might have a big tree that casts shade over the whole area, or it’s on the south side of the house.
Lawn typically doesn’t grow great in these spots. But Dichondra repens is going to absolutely thrive.
Dichondra repens will also grow in full sun, so if you have a mixed spot with sun and shade in different patches, then this is a great option.
It’s great around pavers, most people like to choose Mondo, but Dichondra repens is faster, easier and cheaper. Also, it looks a lot better.
It has a kidney shaped leaf and looks very green and lush with minimal effort. It also will take low foot traffic.
It needs a reasonable amount of water and fertiliser, and reasonable soil. If you plant it now as we go into the warmer months, it will cover the ground really quickly
This is Dichondra repens’ silver-green coloured cousin. Now Silver Falls can grow in the hottest sun, or the deepest shade.
It will give you that pop of bright silver that contrasts beautifully with the rest of the greenery in your garden.
It’s great for covering any area, particularly an embankment where it can cascade over. It can cascade for more than a metre, so is really perfect for those situations where you want a lawn besides a retaining wall.
We’ve often used it in our garden designs at the base of a large pot and also love to use it around paving.
This is very, very popular. We do want to note that Dwarf Mondo Grass doesn’t seem to blanket out the weeds all that great though. We’ve seen many plantings of it where it has quite a lot of weeds coming through it, so just be mindful of that.
Dwarf Mondo is also only good in the shade, if you put it in a place with hot sun it will get sunburn. So the whole area you’re planting it in needs to be shady, and you have to stay on top of the weeds.
But don’t let that dissuade you from buying it, Dwarf Mondo is very beautiful. It’s lush, low and a gorgeous shade of dark green. It will take a bit of foot traffic, but nothing crazy.
If you love flowers, then you’ll love the White Star Creeper and Blue Star Creeper – it has the most beautiful starlike flower which you can get in a striking white or a soft blue.
Best of all, you’ll get these stunning flowers for eight months of the years, which is a very long flowering period.
It’s a low groundcover that is great to put around paving or make a whole lawn of.
It loves the hot sun but can do well in partial shade. However, absolutely don’t plant it in deep shade. It needs fairly good soil, a regular feed, and a good amount of water, especially in the heat of summer.
But it is a very pretty and reliable groundcover that’s going to make that small patch of land shine.
Creeping Thyme is a spectacular option, with our favourite being the white one. It is a beautiful moss like green mat and flowers from mid spring through to late summer. So another groundcover with a long flowering period.
The flowers also give off a gorgeous fragrance when you brush over the top of it. It will take some light foot traffic, but again, don’t go stomping all over it.
It will grow well in hot sun through to partial sun, but just make sure you aren’t planting it in a completely shady spot.
It’s easy to grow, and spreads quite quickly, particularly in the warm weather. It needs good soil and fertiliser.
You also have a couple variations, of course the white one we love the most, but also crimson, pink and purple. We’d say the Purple Creeping Thyme is the second best, and the Crimson Creeping Thymeis the third best.
Some of the other variations are a bit more shaggy and not quite as smooth and flat as the ones we just pointed out.
Silver Carpet is closely related to the Marguerite Daisy, but it hardly ever flowers, you may get the odd yellow flower on it every now and again.
It’s a beautiful silver-grey that would pair very nicely with dark paving, like a dark blue stone.
It takes light foot traffic – maybe the occasional dog running over it or person walking on it. Silver Carpet is very tough and has a neat appearance.
It loves the hot sun but will take partial shade.
This is a good Australian native that has a broad dark green leaf and grows fairly flat on the ground. All through the summer you get lovely starry white flowers that have an amazing honey fragrance.
It can take quite a bit of foot traffic, you can jump on it, lay on it, do whatever you like, it’s very tough stuff. It is a bit fatter than some of the other options on this list.
Once established it will end up about 20 or 30cm tall. Yareena is incredibly low maintenance, occasionally you’ll have to cut around the edges but that’s about it. It also blankets out the weeds really well.
One of the best patches we’ve seen of it was Shepparton on the side of the road where it never gets watered and it’s a really hot dry climate with hard clay soil. Yet, it remained lush and green all year.
So if you want something really tough and low maintenance that is going to cover a large area, Yareena is the one to go for.
If you have a spot that is in really deep shade, Baby’s Tears will absolutely thrive there. You get in a green or yellow shade, and it is a beautiful delicate looking plant.
The best time to plant it is now at the end of August/start of September and it will spread like crazy in the warm weather. Keep it well watered and fertilised, and out of the hot sun.
You can put it around pavers, along garden walls and in between cracks. It would do great in a fernery or undercover courtyard.
We know we’ve said this a few times, but we are providing a list of the best options, so here is another popular one.
Irish Moss has starry white flowers in springtime and looks just like moss, but it’s much hardier than moss.
It’ll grow in full sun through to partial shade, such as planting it under a tree where it gets speckled sun.
It’s low, lush and smooth with a luminous limey-gold colouring. It looks very attractive in the garden.
It needs good soil, and a fair amount of water and fertiliser.
This has an incredible texture, that grows into a mound with a very smooth finish. It is this special quality and softness about it that makes a lot of people pat it when they walk past it in the nursery (we see this happen every day).
What’s interesting about Lime Lava is that it’s actually an Australian Native – even though it looks like something that would have originated in Scotland. In truth it grows naturally in the cracks of the rocks above the snow line on top of Australia’s mountains.
In winter it will be buried in the snow, then once the weather warms up and it thaws out, it needs the full sun. You really don’t want to be planting it in the shade because it will get all shaggy and weird.
Instead, it needs full sun, well drained soil and plenty of water and fertiliser. When we use it in our Garden Designs, we pick out the sunniest spot in the whole garden and then plant two or three of them together. They look really great as a clump, and we also like to blend them with a little bit of Black Mondo for some contrast.
They are not suitable for foot traffic, so don’t grow them in a spot where a lot of people, or animals, will be walking over it. In this situation you would be better off with a Creeping Thyme.
This is a really interesting one that you don’t see round that much. It’s pretty much Baby’s Tears for the sun – so if you loved the look of Baby’s Tears but your spot isn’t in the shade, then Mint Corsican is the choice for you.
Now Mint Corsican does flower, unlike Baby’s Tears. It has a gorgeous mauve flower and a fine mossy look. It’s great for growing over rocks and right in the cracks of pavers.
It also has a delicious minty fragrance when you brush your fingertips over it or squish it.
Also known as Temple Grass, Zoysia is a fine and dense grass that grows in hilly tuft mounds. It will take light foot traffic and grows best in warm weather.
It will grow fine almost anywhere in Victoria and even though it’s a little tropical it can take quite a bit of frost. It needs plenty of fertiliser and water.
When you first plant this, it’s important to keep really on top of the weeds until it has had enough of a chance to form a thick mat. Once it’s established, you’ll find that it will blanket out the weeds.
Then you just need to make sure you keep it well watered and fertilised, and you will have this gorgeous soft green mat that you never have to mow.
It’s not your conventional flat lawn and the reason why you don’t have to mow it is because the blades of grass have no real length to them.
So there you have it, an excellent round up of lawn alternatives for that tricky small space in your garden. We hope this has shown you how easy and cheap it is to create a beautiful lawn – and to steer FAR away from artificial grass.
If you’re struggling to make your mind up, here are some questions you should ask yourself:
Now is the time to be thinking about it because all of these options grow and spread much better in the warm weather. Which means the time it takes to get coverage from your plant is much shorter. And we are very happy to say this, but the weather is getting better, and we are drawing closer to summer.
If you’re someone who wants more interactive content, come join our lives! We typically do two a week, a Live Q&A 12PM on Monday and an educational lecture 12PM on Tuesday (like this one on lawn alternatives!). Now these aren’t set in stone times, so please be sure to check our socials for updated information.
Spread the word and help us make gardening accessible for everyone.
Feeling inspired to create your own garden, but want some expert advice? Try our one-on-one garden design service with Chris. Together you’ll come up with a selection of plants along with a layout plan that gives you the look you want, as well as being suitable for your local soil and conditions.
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