Looking for less lawn to mow? Here are some easy options | The Compleat Home Gardener
Published 3:30 pm Monday, June 15, 2026
The second week of June is pay back time if you neglected to weed in the spring or to manage the lawn.
Weeding early in the spring cuts back on June weeds but there is still time to control weeds. Make this the week that you root out tough perennial weeds such as blackberry, thistle and ivy before the summer sun dries the soil. Weeds are always easier to remove when the soil is wet.
There is still time to fertilize the lawn if you have not yet done so but if parts of your lawn is already looking brown or yellow this may be a request from Mother Nature to please grow something else.
IDEAS FOR NO-MOW LAWN ALTERNATIVES
Boulders and stones and gravel
Using gravel and stones as a mulch on top of the soil with some large boulders in the place of bushes is a practical way to landscape a small area where the grass and even the weeds refuse to grow.
Dig out any remains of the struggling lawn, cover the area with cardboard and layer on two to three inches of drainage gravel or river rock. You can purchase beautiful boulders from a rock yard such as Marinakos (located in Issaquah) or put to use any large rock you dig up in your landscape.
Tip: In a shaded area the boulders will soon grow moss and this is your inspiration to add more Japanese garden inspired plants such as Nandina (Heavenly bamboo), Japanese maples and Japanese Forest Grass.
More Thyme for more Time
Creeping thyme is an effective lawn sub stitute in Western Washington but only if you prepare the planting area by adding gravel before you add thyme.
Our native soil stays too wet in the winter to support most types of thymes. The best thyme groundcovers are a mix of creeping thymes including Woolly thyme, Coccineus Major thyme and Highland Cream thyme.
Go native in the shade
If tall trees cast shadows, turn the area into a woodland walk and put that mower in the shed.
Dig out patches of turf to make winding pathways between mounds of earth you make from piles of overturned turf, compost and garden debris. Use shade tolerant vine maples, rhododendrons, native salal, huckleberry and sword ferns and add a bench or bird bath as the destination for the pathways. Incorporating early blooming perennials such as hellebores and pulmonaria and woodland bulbs such snow drop and blue bells will give more color and more food for our native birds and pollinators.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.
