Better than grass

User-friendly surfaces

By Timmi Aplin-Barrett

Although neat grass lawns can look aesthetically pleasing, more and more research is showing they’re not great for the environment.

Consider how often you water your lawn in the summer time. When it starts to brown up due to the heat and lack of rain, do you throw the sprinkler on? Probably.

Not to mention a plain turf lawn doesn’t provide a welcoming habitat for pollinators and bugs, and does not offer food opportunities for birds and insects.

Now, more than ever, people are beginning to look at other options for covering ground. Benefits of a groundcover lawn:

• No mowing required

• Hardly any weeding needed

• Retain moisture better so they stay green for longer

• Shade tolerant

• Holds sloping sections together due to deeper roots.

NoMow owner, Dave Harris, says they provide ground cover plants to create attractive lawns, banks, sloping sections and landscaping. He says they can take a bit of effort to get going but once they’re established, they’re incredibly easy-care.

“My comment to most people is that ground cover plants are like children and pets; you’ve got to put the time into them at the start,” Dave says. “They grow within four to 12 months and you just need to keep on top of the weeds while they get established.”

Remuremu (Selliera) is NoMow’s bestselling lawn alternative and is also known as swamp weed.

“It looks like grass and it feels like grass but only grows to about 20mm high. People love using it for lawns and it’s lovely to lie on,” Dave says.

It’s a tough plant and has a strong, vibrant emerald green colour boosted by little white flowers in the late spring and early summer.