Other than a lawn, your only other option would be fake lawn. I hear that some of the fake stuff can look pretty good.

I don't know much about what grows well in the Bay Area, but I've heard there is a trend toward clover/microclover lawns, or at least a grass/microclover mix, for a more ecofriendly lawn.

Thank you for your comments and ideas. Someone on my local gardening group had also suggested Kurapia. According to its description, "it can tolerate light foot traffic, but is not recommended for heavy traffic areas like playgrounds or sports fields." My lawn space would fit somewhere between the two, I suspect.

As for the clover/microclover, I want to research if it is anything like the clover-like stuff that comes up everywhere in our area this time of the year (has yellow flowers, and the stalks are edible and sour -- my children call it "sourgrass.") That stuff is super-invasive, so I want to make sure I'm not inviting something like that into my lawn space.

I am also going to look into the UC Verde Buffalo grass more closely. It sounds promising.

I have not heard of the Kurapia before but that looks promising!! But the "light foot traffic" would have me concerned. Kids running and playing in a backyard is not exactly 'light foot traffic'!! I would like to see it in place and test it out first if I could before investing the time and expense to install.

The yellow flowers sound like oxalis rather than clover and yes, a weed rather than a suitable groundcover :-) And clover or microclover will not stand up well to any foot traffic, let alone kids playing.

I agree, on both counts -- testing Kurapia, and about the oxalis.

I really do want a natural planting, so I'm going to research the Buffalo grass you mentioned, and try and see where I might be able to see Kurapia in person around here.

Instead of eliminating your lawn, can you simply reduce it substantially? Lawns have many good qualities - the ability to withstand foot traffic and the fact that they provide a safe and enjoyable play area as you note. They also provide 'negative space' for the eye and the green swath gives a cool sense even in hot weather. The negative aspects are well known around here, but even a smallish lawn will provide many of the positives. Think 1000 square feet max, for example, an easy size to mow with a push mower and to hand weed. This eliminates some of the negatives (gas lawn mower, weedkiller etc used by mow and blow companies). Your kids won't be able to play baseball on it, but they can sprawl on it. And when they grow up and you don't need it anymore, relatively easy to fill in as a patio or additional bed.

The buffalo grass suggestion is a good one. The other thing that some of my friends do is to simply let their lawn go dormant in summer, but I would have a hard time looking at dead grass for six months if it were right out my window!

Thank you, Sara, for your input. That's what I might end up doing. Right now, there's only dirt in the space, no lawn at all, which is why I'm brainstorming the best way to go about putting in something. Given the options I seem to have, I might put in a small lawn, surrounded by a pathway on all sides, and then have room for a patio on one side, and gardening beds on the other three sides.

Kurapia is the name used for a sterile form of Lippia nodiflora. Lippia has been available for a long time; it is funny how all of the sites tout Kurapia as something new! It is more a new form of something old.

Other than the sterility, I don't know how the Kurapia differs from the species. (Our Lippia patches never seemed to spread by seed.) The species is a tough plant. Ten years after we closed a nursery site, we could still find patches of it that had survived without supplemental irrigation in a field where cows and horses grazed.

One thing to note is Kurapia still produces flowers, and bees like Lippia flowers. So if it is a children's play area, you probably still want to mow regularly to remove the flowers. Heavy traffic tends to encourage Lippia to flower closer to the stems, so they might not be as easily removed by mowing. Just something to consider.

Thanks, gyr_falcon. I appreciate your experience and perspective. I'm now trying to find out where I can see Lippia/Kurapia in person, and hopefully hear from more folks who have experience with it, while also researching for other options such as the UC Buffalo.

You can find information about both Kurapia and UC Verde Buffalograss here. https://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/uc-verde-buffalograss

If you currently have something like Marathon, St. Augustine or a hybrid bermuda would allow you to cut back substantially on water. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/TURF/TURFSPECIES/index.html

Thank you, Igteacher. I am leaning towards UC Verde buffalograss. From all the reading I've done on Kurapia, it seems like it will likely serve the purpose I have in mind for now, but it also seems really hard to get rid of, if/when need be. If we live in this house for a long time, I'll eventually want to convert parts of the lawn into garden beds, as the children outgrow the lawn space. I don't want to be battling a deeply rooted groundcover, which, at that point, will be a nuisance in the gardening areas.

I would caution against Bermuda.....first, it is not nearly as drought tolerant as buffalo grass. Bermuda requires watering every 3 days - BG only once a week. And second, there are homeowners all over the warmer parts of this country that complain endlessly about restraining Bermuda from taking over their entire garden. It is a very aggressive spreader and knows no boundaries :-)

I. Hate. Bermuda. Grass. With. A. Fiery. Passion. I pull it until my hands bleed. I live beside a BG golf course which is maintained by professionals and heavily watered (with reclaimed water) which looks fine, but it invariably looks terrible when semi-maintained by homeowners. It is harder to kill than cockroaches, but also very hard to keep looking nice.

My husband innocently suggested one day that we plant Bermuda grass in our pastures because he heard that it was very tough. He was surprised at the vehemence of my response.

Here the UC Verde Buffalo grass, while it forms a useable lawn, has a fairly long period of being brown, not green. For a play area that is okay, but some people are bothered by a brown lawn. (I'm not.)

Where artificial turf really works well is in areas where it is too shady to grow real grass, but you need a lawn in that spot. In full sun artificial turf is as hot as concrete. (I have a rug-sized patch in full shade for the dogs. We're all happy with it.)

Yes, in most of California it will go dormant and brown for a long period.

I'm in Alberta, so am in a completely different growing zone where the grass is green just from late April (if we're lucky) through September (if we're lucky) : ) , but we're planning to use a grass seed mix that is tough, low maintenance, and as drought-resistant as possible. I'm not interested in the usual "lush green lawn", which around here is more than 50 percent Kentucky bluegrass. I've been able to find what I need by searching for my part of Alberta and drought resistant lawn grass seed.

The two options we're looking at are called "Hardy Playground" (40 percent creeping red fescue, 35 percent Kentucky bluegrass, 20 percent crested wheatgrass, and 5 percent annual ryegrass), described as "A hardy, drought tolerant, traffic-resistant blend specifically suited for areas where frequent watering is a problem. Maintains green color for up to 6 weeks without water"; and "Low Grow Mix" (25 percent hard fescue, 25 percent Kentucky bluegrass, 25 percent perennial ryegrass, 20 percent sheep fescue, 5 percent colonial bentgrass), described as "a combination of dwarf turf varieties that is an excellent choice when looking for a low growing, low maintenance, shade tolerant mixture".

I have this article bookmarked in my gardening folder,

https://www.newsweek.com/2015/09/11/grass-doesnt-need-water-could-keep-california-green-366871.html

Hoovb and Colwynn Design, when you say UC Verde Buffalo goes brown for a "long periods of time", could you mention the time and duration of the year, please? In the FAQs on their website, they mention from "around November to February" for central CA, but I know they'd probably present the best case scenario, and not necessarily the real life scenario.

Beckysharp, thank you for your insight, and for the link to that article. It seems the Pearl was developed for northern areas, but I'm going to do some digging into how it might do in our area.

I have seen it stay brown from Oct/Nov thru late March, but that is in a coastal planting in SoCal. Try contacting your local UC Master Gardener, they may have knowledge of how it grows in your area: http://mg.ucanr.edu/FindUs/

UCVerde buffalo grass, like other warm season grasses, is cold sensitive. It goes dormant (brown) when the temperature drops, so it may vary from year to year and from place to place. In southern California, where the winters are mild, the time it is brown may be very short.

Avoid Bermuda!! The only real way to get rid of it when you are done (this comes from even hippy dippy sources I've consulted with) is RoundUp, as the rhizomes can be feet deep in the ground. It also will aggressively grow EVERYWHERE you don't want it.

@anchita What did you end up with? I'm considering Kurapia ground covering. Did you end up with that?

I live in the same zone as you, Bay Area, Zone 9, Sunset Zone 15 or 16, I am never quite sure which, but it’s a colder zone.

i recommend considering a Zoysia grass lawn. I have had one for more than 30 years and it’s a wonderful lawn and in my personal experience more drought tolerant than the oft recommended buffalo grass. I grew the UC Verde Buffalo grass in a small area of my garden and after three years I killed it off. I did not like much about it, especially in comparison to my Zoysia lawn. It did not have a good green color, was more gray green than green. It went dormant at least a month earlier than Zoysia and greened up at least a month later. At least! And it was invasive with above ground runners that required constant vigilance to keep those runners from escaping into adjacent planted areas.

As for drought tolerance, I cannot make a direct comparison because I wasn’t growing both when we had water restrictions, but I am willing to bet that Zoysia is at least as drought tolerant and likely more than buffalo grass. When we had water rationing I decided to stop watering my Zoysia, it went two months without water before I took pity on it and resumed watering. And then I barely watered it. So I think it has REMARKABLE drought tolerance, and otherwise has much better other attributes than buffalo grass. With better color, shorter dormant season and is less invasive.

Speaking of invasiveness, I grow a seedless Zoysia so there is no seeding about. It spreads via underground rhizomes but not above ground runners like both Bermuda and Buffalo grasses. Zoysia is easily contained by an edge barrier.

It baffles me that it is never mentioned as a good alternative to less drought tolerant options.

BTW, Kurapia is invasive. My close neighbor has it and has to be very vigilant that it doesn’t escape into adjacent garden areas. It also flowers and attracts bees. It doesn’t have a great green color either. It does need watering also.

I also have a rather large patch of Festuca rubra that I never mow.. It is a remarkably attractive deep emerald green. It has sturdy fine textured blades that are lax and lie almost flat in swirls. It does well in full sun or part shade. It stays green in good soil and with a little shade (and not much shade) almost all summer without water. It has only one major drawback and that is it seeds about rather invasively. The seedlings do not weed out easily but are quickly deep rooted and it’s really tough to pull roots out. Of course it can be mowed and that would eliminate the seeding problem. I don’t know how well it would do as a playground for children but it is certainly something to look into.

echo, can you be more specific about your zoysia. There are different varieties with much different characteristics.

I don't think the OP is interested in zoysia as it is not that non-traditional, but if you're having success with zoysia, it would be great to know what you have.

I bought my Zoysia grass well over 30 years ago but I remember quite vividly that the name of the cultivar is El Toro. I went hunting on the net to refresh my memory on zoysia lawns and I was quite surprised to see only a few references to zoysia. At the same time I was reading up on its drought tolerant qualities and learned something new, which is that under drought conditions it will turn brown but will not die, but instead will green up when watering is resumed. Wow, that is really quite impressive drought tolerance.

I am literally on the brink of covering it with cardboard and chip and saying goodbye to it to save money on water, yet after reading how extremely drought tolerant it can be, I am rethinking my decision.

Here is a pretty good write up on Zoysia lawn cultivars

Zoysia article

I was going to suggest El Toro, but did not want to give you any hints. Yes it is very drought tolerant. The zoysia I had was not and would remain brown for the rest of the growing season once it went dormant. It was horrible. Variety was Shadow Turf, a hybrid of the Manila type of zoysia.

So sorry you had such a terrible experience. Interesting how many different Zoysias there are - makes me glad that I lucked into a good choice. It has served me well and I will be sorry to say goodbye to it.

@anchita What did you end up getting? I'm considering Kurapia but not sure if it is the right option. I'm in Northern California.

Just an update. I am saving my Zoysia grass lawn after all! And correction, it is the cultivar ‘Meyer:, not ‘El Toro’. I decided it was too important a backdrop to all the raised garden beds that surrounded it on all sides. It is not a typical front yard lawn. I live on a flag lot with no front yard. My side yard is my backyard and the lawn is there surrounded by garden beds. It has been badly neglected for about the last ten years because I was always one water bill away from killing it off. It was very uneven and very weedy so I filled in the depressions with a mixture of soil and compost, did a lot of weeding, fertilizing and watering and in only three weeks it looked fabulous. I’m ever so glad I’ve kept it.