Anybody swapped their grass lawn for camomile or another green alternative?

[Whitehorses67]

I am thinking of replacing my small lawn with something else as it never looks that nice and I can't mow it myself due to disability.
I don't want hard landscaping or horrid plastic grass so what are my alternatives please?
Photos would be hugely appreciated!
Here's a photo of the area in question below.
I will be turning the narrower strip into a bed so I just want to replace the main part of the lawn.
As you can see, the top end is shady although the tree at the back is about to be heavily pruned due to a split trunk so it won't be quite so shady afterwards.

I was reading about clover lawns and am intrigued. We'll be replacing slabs (left by the old owner) in an attempt to make the house cooler. I'm also going to try a pack of these meadow seeds. We don't have a garage or shed so it needs to be no-mow because we don't have anywhere to store a mower

Also very interested in this as I currently have very old artificial grass - it needs replacing but it’s a small shady space and I don’t want to pave it. A colleague suggested clover or chamomile so I’m hoping someone with experience will come along and enlighten all of us!

My friend has a camomile lawn and it’s gorgeous. Really soft to walk on and she says it’s very low maintenance.

No advice, but your garden is lovely!

We have a clover lawn although we didn’t do it intentionally, it must have been birds! Helpfully our neighbour keeps bees and they love the clover, so I think they’ve also propagated it. I really like it, it’s nice and soft and looks love and green. When it flowers it’s really pretty too and, as mentioned, wonderful for bees

I starting switching mine to clover. But the micro clover seeds I bought were not micro, so I’m stuck with what seems like giant clover! ☘️ I obsessively mowed it on a super short setting to try and kill it off in the dry weather. One weekend of rain and it’s green again 🤦🏻‍♀️

I loved it when I was in flower. Just need to do some manual work to remove what I don’t want. And then seed again.

I should say all the reviews from 3-6 months after I bought the seed had the same issue. I actually bought a second pack of seed a few months after the first, and that is definitely micro. All other reviews (before and after) are been really positive. So it was obviously a rogue batch.

I'm interested in this as well! I've not looked into it in any detail yet, but I have been wondering whether a moss lawn would work in our garden (north facing and shady).

I have a tiny camomile lawn (and I mean tiny, it's a small border in my patio about 30cm x 60cm, 'lawn is a bit of an exaggeration).

For a proper camomile lawn use Chamomile nobile ‘Treneague’ which more of a dwarf variety that needs less maintenance and doesn't flower. You can't walk on it a lot, and not at all for the first 3 month, and preferably not for the first year. And it needs careful weeding.

I've just let mine have clover etc takeover.

I'd really like thyme, but it needs more sun and less walking!

Thanks all.
I think I may try micro clover. It doesn’t need to be hard wearing, just green and ok for wildlife so this sounds the best option.

I love the idea of camomile but I think too cool in the north of England.

Same - have patches of clover unintentionally and they look more lush and green than the grass! Plus you get the little flowers every so often which attract the bees, and it’s quite hardy so it stands up to DS playing football on it

I am currently cultivating a micro red clover lawn! It’s very unscientific, consisting of me sowing seeds where there are bare patches. So far it looks lovely!

I’ve swapped 1/3 of our lawn to clover, but I agree that it can easily get leggy and then either it is too deep to really be a ‘lawn’ or when you cut it the trefoil of leaves are gone and it looks bare. At points it is amazing though! Green and lush and full of flowers.

I'm in the NE and mine is looking very lush at the moment. Better than the grass TBH. It looked a bit sorry for itself earlier in the year but the only thing that looked better in January and February was the ivy.

I've started patching my 'lawn' with crimson clover. Grass just doesn't stand up to my two young dogs running around like mad loonies! Chucked a load of seed down a week ago, mostly clover with a little grass seed I had left over mixed in. So far, the clover has germinated quicker than the grass, so I'm hopeful it will give good coverage in a few more weeks. It seems to have sprouted equally well in shady areas where some 'shady area' grass seed has previously failed. I think clover is supposed to be drought tolerant and if you go for the micro clover, I expect you won't need to mow. White clover seed from different suppliers has never germinated for me for some reason.

I've previously tried and failed with creeping thyme and chamomile lawns at the front of the house (where the dogs have no access). I'm in Yorkshire and a wet winter and clay soil killed it off after a few years.