Three living alternatives
Chamomile
This is suitable for a lawn if it’s only walked on occasionally. The leaves release a scent when trodden underfoot. The best bit about a chamomile lawn is it shouldn’t be mowed. Just trim straggly shoots that overgrow their space. Best for a sunny place on soil that drains well but is slow to completely dry out.
Wildflower meadow
Now’s the time to sow a wildflower meadow onto wellraked, weed-free, level ground. Don’t feed the soil because you need soil fertility to be low in order for wildflowers to establish. Choose a mix that’s purely made up of British native wildflowers for an authentic meadow. If removing the whole lawn is too big a job, plant wildflower plug plants into the lawn and stop feeding it to encourage the wildflowers to develop.
Thyme
If you’ve a small area of lawn in a sunny position, where the soil’s thin and dry and you don’t really walk on it except to mow, then a thyme lawn can work. It will also look a real picture in summer when it’s in flower. Buy very small thyme plants to keep the cost down. The thyme for a lawn is creeping thyme ( Thymus
serpyllum). Don’t overplant because the plants will soon spread to fill gaps.