As you’re “asking Lemmy”, I think the most Lemmy-like option is to set up a sort of paved guillotining area to be used to execute billionaires.

Once they’ve been culled to an appropriate level, they can be composted down into good soil.

Then you can rip up all the paving and deinstall the guillotine(s), then plant your moss/wildflowers/veg/local plants/bee-friendly plants etc.

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.

It very much depends on where you’re located, what sort of climate the place has, even what sort of neighbors you have.

I have a relatively small front yard and am located in a temperate region with reasonably good rainfall. So I planted a bunch of perennial flowers and clover in the existing grass of my lawn, laid down some decorative stone pathways weaving through it, and some shrubs around the edges. Bought a sign that reads “Meadow Habitat Restoration - Please Do Not Mow or Spray” to make it clear that I wasn’t just neglecting my front yard but was deliberately turning it into a patch of pseudo-wilderness. Now I can basically leave my front yard completely untouched all summer (occasionally pulling a few thistles because I personally hate them) and it looks lovely and has plenty of bees and whatnot visiting it. There’s no such thing as “weeds”, just wildflowers.

My back yard is much larger and I wanted to keep the lawn because it’s a nice space for activities. But I got a pushmower, and the lawn doesn’t grow fast because I’ve allowed trees to grow all around the edges and that makes it quite shady. The trees make for a nice privacy screen once the leaves come in, it’s like my back yard is a forest clearing. I scattered clover seed among the grass there too, you can mow clover just like grass so I figure whatever survives best gets the territory.

Personally, I’m not fond of gravel because it’s an unnecessary dead zone. There’s already plenty of bare concrete everywhere, we don’t need more of that. But if you’re in a dry environment that doesn’t support greenery without watering or fertilizer then some hardscrabble landscaping could look quite nice. Maybe plant a few sagebrushes or even cacti (cacti can put out some very nice flowers) with some interesting piles of larger rocks to add visual interest.

Maybe take a wander around your neighborhood to see if other folks have set up interesting alternatives to lawns and get some ideas off of them, they’ll have done the testing to see if it works.

I didn’t replace mine with anything. I just stopped cutting it so now it turns into a field instead. The biodiversity grows by itself every year. You don’t really need to do anything to it - nature will take care of that.

Honestly, local plants* is the best way to go

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

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.

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.

In the UK. Lawn surrounded by shrubs and other plants that regrow every year.

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.

The vegetable garden suggestion isn’t bad, but it depends heavily on you liking gardening.

Clover or (edit: if you can establish them) wild plants are a decent answer for low maintenance vegetation. Pavers or gravel will look a bit dire but they do the basic job of providing walkable space.

Artificial turf is nice. Somebody might point out it’s plastic, but this is an application where you want it to last forever.

Xeriscape with native plants and drip irrigation

I would like berry bushes and flowers, personally.

Less grass.

I have kids and dogs. Native plants don’t work - they can’t handle the traffic, the poop, and they don’t cover the mud.

But I don’t need to fertilize it. I certainly don’t spray. I don’t need to water. I mow it, but it’s mechanical. And I plant native perennials around it.

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

Edible garden/pollinator’s garden. Flowers, fruits, herbs