Hey all I have been looking at the expanse of grass in my garden and am making plans to fill it in with fruit trees, cover crops and other plants that self-seed. What I want to know is are there cover crops that are as resistant as grass to being stepped on frequently? I have never dealt with them before but ideally I could just replace my grass and still have a garden I feel free to walk around without worrying about hurting the plants underneath. I am considering pinto peanut, would this be suitable? I am currently moving my chickens in a dome structure a la Woodrow to clear the earth, then I will plant a fruit tree in the middle of the circle with a surrounding cover crop and some comfrey. Does this sound like a good process ? It's been a while since I've posted here but it has been an invaluable source of information from more experienced permaculturists than I. Thank you! Alex
You might consider contact the team at Milkwood as it sounds like they have done what you are planning on. Food forest design I would suggest that you think a bit bigger and think of a whole guild of plants to go with each tree. There's info about it in Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemingway. Something to attract pollinators, something to use as a mulch, a legume etc etc. I have a little bit of pinto planted under fruit trees, but it hasn't been there long enough and isn't bit enough for me to tell you reliably that it'll do what you want, but I reckon it looks pretty hardy. I also have clover and lucerne, which I expect will do what you want too. You'll just have to watch out for bees when walking around barefoot. German Chamomile is sometimes used as lawn replacement too. Low growing herbs like thyme and mint?? They wouldn't cope with heavy traffic, but if it is just once every few months to pick fruit then they should cope.
hello alex, did you come across anything that would a good lawn substitute? mine would need to handle a bit kid traffic!
I was told that pinto peanut takes a little while to get started but that once it is established it will withstand anything. Certainly worth a try.
Is it dense even in summer? Another one to consider. Like others, I'd love to remove grass permanently. Even considering native grasses, anything really.
g'day alex, we've just bought land to build on our plan is to get some of the following growing: wyncassia (good lawn replacement drought hardy and rarely needs mowing similar with lotononis [Spelling] lotononis white clover and the other one graziers use not sure what it is called? and a native grass or 2 maybe kangaroo grass or wallaby grass + lucerne be good to replace exotics with natives (grasses in particular) big job for most with some land but best we can do is get some natives growing and help them spread around, maybe don't mow them so they can spread? len