A beautiful lawn with artificial grass and a strip of gravel along the right side of the yard along the driveway - christopher babcock/Shutterstock With the labor involved in caring for a lush lawn, ...

It’s the American ideal: a green lawn, neatly trimmed, and free of brown spots or blemishes. Like most American ideals, it comes at a high cost—unending weekends of fertilizing, mowing, and watering.

Lee Wallender is a home improvement writer of nearly 20 years and specializes in home remodeling, repair and maintenance. Sami Allen is the managing editor at Forbes Home, with over seven years of ...