Great question! There is no shortage of options when you are looking for a lawn replacement. Artificial turf or mulch are optimal for play surfaces, while gravel and decomposed granite are affordable and effective for utilitarian zones. If you are looking to swap in new planting, the world is your oyster! While few plants can match grass’s toughness underfoot, many groundcovers can handle limited foot traffic, including the floral blue star creeper and creeping thyme, and green favorites like Scotch moss and dwarf mondo grass. Rather than simply replace lawn with a single massive groundcover planting, we look to create the biggest positive impact with the area occupied by the lawn. This could mean mixed planting, with trees and small scenes of perennials and shrubs interspersed with patches of groundcover planting. It could also mean new hardscape zones, for reading, eating, or entertaining. Usually it’s some combination of a few things.