[mazelife]

Along with other commenters here, I've given up on trying to have a perfect lawn. As long as it's green, it's fine with me. I'm also trying to gradually reduce the amount of property given over to lawn by a little bit each year as I expand beds of native plants. In my experience here in the Mid-Atlantic region the upkeep in terms of time between a lawn and garden bed is pretty much a 1:1 tradeoff. Occasional weeding and a one-time day spent planting annuals in the Spring is about the same as having to mow every 1.5 weeks.

[fhbdukfrh]

My advice? Cultivate crabgrass. It's green, grows without any care, drought resistant and lays low so no mowing.

Bonafides: 20 year homeowner with neighbors who have come to accept I'm not going to waste every weekend on yard care

[mazelife]

My lawn definitely has it's share of crabgrass which I don't mind. But Kentucky blue grass and clover (both native) seem to do better. Which unfortunately means mowing.

[athenot]

Crabgrass also gets tall (it grows faster than my bermudagrass) and will die back at the first frost. In comparison, Zoysia and Bermuda will go dormant but maintain a ground cover to prevent erosion.