Grass Alternative
This client’s backyard was completely overhauled to make a space for her children to garden and play. The client wanted to preserve most of the yard for a play area, so we installed Herniara Glabra (Rupturewort), a drought tolerant groundcover that tolerates foot traffic and requires less maintenance than grass. The first pictures show the first and second years of the groundcover growing in. A side bed mixes herbs and vegetables with flowering perennials. In the back corner of the yard we planted a small secret garden with a Buddleia (butterfly bush) and a Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ (Dwarf Korean Lilac) tree to mask the utility pole. We used bluestone dug up during soil amendment to create a branching path to the flower bed and the playset. A multi-trunk Betula pendula ‘Laciniata’(Weeping Birch) is planted near the patio to provide shade. Calamagrostis brachytricha (Korean feather reed grass) provides soft screening between the patio and yard.
