Revamping yard
Hi all! I am located in USDA zone 6a/b inside of Ohio, and I was looking for some rookie help with reducing the amount of Kentucky Bluegrass in my yard. I’m mainly tired of the seemingly constant need to mow with how much rain my area’s been getting 😅 Would love to turn it into a short length flower patch that can tolerate some amount of foot traffic! (Not heavy traffic, just the occasional walk through and maybe a running dog)
Did some browsing of my yard and the main plants calling it home right now are as follows:
Kentucky Bluegrass (covers effectively 100% of yard)
Common blue violet (65%)
Other grasses I don’t feel like looking up (40%)
White clover (30% in patches, I know it’s not native, that’ll be a later mission)
Lesser trefoil (20% in patches, also a later mission)
Creeping woodsorrel (15%)
Thymeleaf speedwell (10%)
Blackseed plantain (8%)
Yarrow (5-6%)
(I know these don’t add to 100, since it all grows directly on top of one another)
I love the violets a ton; they are the perfect height, and they’ve been great at reducing a lot of the grasses. Unfortunately, I notice they don’t do as well in the direct sun areas of the yard. Are there any natives that do well in sun and can quietly outcompete the grass? Orrr should I expect to need to pull out the grass first to replace it?
Either way, I would appreciate recommendations for plants native to my area that you all have experience with testing their foot traffic capabilities!