Guidance for my no lawn
Location: Chicago IL
In the transition of killing my lawn, and wanted to run my ideas through you all.
Info: I am city proper, in my neighborhood/block people ACTIVELY, throw trash into people yards so I am avoiding tall/bushy plants to be able to see and pick up the trash that gets thrown and blown around. I would prefer something low maintenance because I just don’t have time between caring for the property and work. And I would like to encourage and preserve the small firefly population we still have over here (super open to suggestions for encouraging the growth of the population). All of my options will be post digging up the lawn. A tree shades my front lawn, the back lawn is pretty much full sun.
Option 1: Mulch and gravel/dirt mainly; section off a spot to plant some common milkweed for butterflies and maybe a small section for wildflowers. Kids do play in my lawn a small bit often so I need something that can create stability so they aren’t sliding around hurting themselves especially when wet.
Option 2: Clover with the aforementioned milkweed and wildflowers section.
Option 3: ground level native plant that is low maintenance (needs to be tolerant of activity on the lawn) I am open to suggestions on plant reccs but was looking at stone crops?
TIA!!