There is a gravel lawn in my neighborhood. It is the ugliest thing ever... I'm just saying, please don't be that yard...

My mother found some kind of ivy-like thing that works real well, but beware, it kept spreading and would now be real hard to get rid of if you wanted to.

The lawn alternative I know of is dichondra. It looks nice and grows well, but I'm not sure how it would do up there. Look into it, though.

You could also do xeriscaping (though the seattle climate might make "xeriscaping" an oxymoron).

A moss lawn requires some particular conditions. My arm is killing me so I am not in a typing mood, but maybe later.

I simply sewed 700 doormats together.

In our new house, we are going to minimise the lawn, but plant lots of native gardens - a thick layer of mulch and lots of hardy Australian native plants and it will pretty much take care of itself. Not much fun for the kids to play on, though. We will still end up with about 1/2 an acre of grass, but it will be all in one big area that we can run over with a ride-on in about 30 munutes. In the house we just sold, I created a manicured front lawn and spent all my time maintaining it - watering, weeding, fertilising and mowing it every week in summer got to be a real pain. Despite having an almost unlimited supply of free water in the new place (a dam plus on-site waste recycling), I just don't want to get back on that treadmill.

Mosses are not at all hard-wearing and not suitable for kids to play on - they also need lots of water to stay alive. Things like ivy are also not much good for kicking a ball around on, so aren't all that suitable for kids.

Xeriscaping is the solution and pretty much what we have in mind. If you want to have a lawn for the kids, keep the lawn to one single area bounded by low-maintenance gardens so that it is simple to mow - most mowing time is spent trimming edges and going around obstacles.

Clover is low-maintenance, but not good if you want an even-looking lawn and may attract the ire of your neigbours if they are sensitive about keeping the neighbourhood looking tidy.

An alternative grass type may the the solution - there are lots of new lawn grasses around that have minimal water requirements and are weed-resistant - ckeck with your local turf suppliers. One of the most important things is to keep the grass as long as you can while still being tidy - the longer the grass, the more moisture it can retain in the ground (kind of a self-mulching process). Cut it at about 2" long and it will stay much greener and healthier than if you "scalp" it every time you mow. No matter what, though, if you want lawn, it will always be a high-maintenance item. If you make sure the rest of your garden looks after itself, you can cut down the total time you spend on the yard.

I spread clover all across "my" area of my childhpod lawn, and parenst weren't at all happy. But summer after summer, my lawn area was always green and nice to play around on! :)

Wasn't a huge area though, just around my playhouse and tree, but I think a whole lawn of that could work.

A word of caution about IVY: Rodents LOVE to make their nesty little homes in ivy beds.

When they do that I just shout my screen name at them a few times....

Ivy is an invasive exotic and very very difficult to get rid of; do not plant it.

My friend Sam (here in Portland) has had a great low-maintenance lawn for a couple years. It's a mixture of various plants (clover included) and needs mowing two or three times a year. And you don't have to water it either...

Remind me to ask her about it the next time I see her, agro.

how about a camomile lawn?

Clover is edible, good for you, and actually tastes quite nice.

You could always make a deal with Old Nick for some of that eternal no-mow bluegrass, but then you'd probably have to build a big long stone fence within 24 hours or tile his roof or something.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Down with mowing! Down with watering! Maybe I'll have a MetaChat meetup on my crazy lawn whenever I figure out its composition.

I've heard of thyme lawns. I can't remember the exact species of thyme nor do I remember where I heard of it but I do remember that it was supposed to smell heavenly without being overpowering.

I saw buffalo grass all over San Antonio (and like the look) but I think the PNW is too wet for it.

Clover is actually very good for the soil. I use a reel mower, and yeah I mow every week when we get regular rain, but it's something I enjoy doing and gives me a good workout.

When we got a dog last year I swore off any kind of broadleaf control or anything fertilizer-ish. I'm really seeing the effects of that this year, as we have broadleaf invaders all over the lawn. But I'm not too worried about it; I'd rather pull fescue and creeping charlie when it starts to wind into my flower beds and veggie garden and let the rest of the lawn go wild. I keep telling myself it's not for show, it's for us to enjoy . . . but I am still fighting some mighty urges to try something to control the stuff. There's only so much weeding I can do!