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Rideable ground cover alternatives to grass?

20K views 66 replies 21 participants last post by  AbbyChaney 
#1 ·
Our backyard is relatively small compared to the large patches of woods that many are working with here, but I'd like to see what I can do to make our small 1/10th mile loop easier for riding.

Does anyone know of alternative ground covers that could be seeded into a lawn that would be better for riding a bike across than grass?

The main things I'm looking for:
  • At least as hardy as grass (ie, riding laps at night won't kill it)
  • Doesn't grow as high as grass
  • Lower rolling resistance than grass
  • Can take over grass / spread if seeded in together
  • Does well in sun

What I'm looking for might not exist, but I figure it'd at least be worth asking.
 
#46 ·
Continuing to build, but learning from trial and error how wide things should be (it's really hard to gauge the widths of decking on features just from watching YouTube videos).

Got this "skinny" section together and concluded that 16" was a bit too narrow when you add together my current skill level, the short approach, the initial uphill, and the speed coming out of the wood berm into it.

My kids have been having fun running back and forth on it and my oldest has taken his balance bike across but is a bit too intimidated to try his pedal bike on it.

The 8" skinny section coming out is likewise too far over to get to with my current level of skill.
Nature Plant Wood Landscape Leaf

Wood Natural landscape Walkway Landscape Nature reserve


Will need to go back and rework some of it later, once I get done with the next section -- a 24" path that bypasses the climb / berm.

Rode a little on it so far and the curve is probably closer to the skill level that I was looking for -- took 10 passes going around and was able to clear it on the last 3 of them.
Plant Wood Property Landscape Shrub

Landscape Garden Land lot Shrub Backyard


As a point of comparison, I took a look at some of the curved features that Velosolutions is putting in at a new park about 40 min. away from us over in Westland, MI and the wooden features there are all 30" wide with a lot more spacing on the approaches.
 
#55 ·
Took some video this week of the main path around the yard:


I'll probably rebuild the roller section in the spring to flow a little better. Right now the gap between the first two it a bit too small and the first approach is a bit too steep. Will probably shoot for ~16ft. from peak to peak.
 
#2 ·
Some kind of turf grass for athletic fields. Have some of that stuff in my yard, really wide, tough, indestructible blades that bog down the lawnmower. It's a no-win on rolling resistance since a tougher grass is going to add resistance. But if you do enough laps... maybe consider planting some pavers, they are guaranteed not to grow taller than the surrounding grass, and never need water, sun, or fertilizer.
 
#5 ·
Wood chips?

If you're wanting to be able to just ride all over the place, I don't think you're going to find anything. If you can make a path through the grass, you could do rocks, and/or wood chips. Either would have to be properly sized.

Maybe a picture of the lawn would help. It sounds like if what you are looking for existed, we'd be using it for our lawns instead of grass.
 
#7 ·
Creeping Fescue. Its a family of grasses that have great qualities (as far as non-native plants go). They require little watering (assuming you don't live in desert), little mowing if left long (usually twice a season) and self fill in. The "creeping" varieties are used in professional turf fields. The one thing though: if you keep it short, it needs lots of attention, which is why professional fields are mowed, fertilized and cared for ad nauseam; let it go long (12"+) it folds over into a beautiful lush green carpet that has as high rolling resistance as grass.

If I was you, I would just do a slight raised bed trail with high clay content soil. Yeah, it will look like a trail, but it will look nice. better if you want to put some hostas or something along the edge. Run the rototiller, get some Georgia red clay and make it as scenic as possible.
 
#14 ·
I guess I should back up and give a little more context:

I started building wooden features in the backyard last summer to ride with my kids (4 & 2). The closest spots for riding are about 30 minutes away, which makes it hard to go riding with them after work and be back before it's time for it's time for them to start getting ready for bed.

Here's some shots of the yard:




The biggest issues we faced:
  • My 4 year old got frustrated pedaling around the grass on his single speed and decided he'd rather just ride around the flat driveway out front than ride on the grass (not my idea of exciting). In another year or so he'll likely be on a geared bike and have a bit more strength developed, so it'll be less of an issue for him.
  • Doing a pass around the "trail" with the lawn mower on its lowest height before each ride helped, but was pretty tedious.
  • Needing to do a pass around to clean up dog poop every night was another time sink that took away from riding.
  • If there's dirt, the kids want to dig in it -- the approach to the bridge section I built last summer is now referred to by the kids as "muddy center" and is indeed a large mud pit. Again, another thing that should get better over time.
  • We have some low areas at the back / side of the lot that turn into swamp when it rains -- until I solve that, it's mostly dry weather riding for us. Planning on getting a few truckloads of dirt to even that out.

Once things dry out a little, I'll probably start out putting the carpet underneath & in the approach to where I have the existing rollers & ramps. I'm hoping that will help with the mowing and make it easier for the kids to get up to speed enough that it'll be fun to session them.

The big tests will be:
  • How well does it hold up to riding on it and mowing near the edges?
  • How is the traction?
  • Do the kids leave it alone?
  • Does the dog poop on it?
 
#16 ·
Some updates on the astroturf -- (still need to get some more photos):
  • Have to either be really careful mowing around the edges or come up with something to put down to cover them -- my wife got a little too close and tore up the end a little with the riding mower
  • Dog & kids seem to be leaving it alone
  • Rollover is better than the grass
  • Traction doesn't seem to be significantly different than the ramps (OK, but not great when wet)

Decided to start going down the bike park route for the muddier area on the other side of the yard, but wound up spending half the weekend trying to get my minivan unstuck (eventually a friend came by with his 4wd truck to tow me out):
Motor vehicle Vehicle Vehicle door Fender Alloy wheel

Land lot Soil Garden Groundcover Yard


I know treated landscape timbers may not have the longest life, but at $2.50 on sale at Menards + an 11% rebate, it's about 1/4 the cost of ground contact 4x4's.

Also think I figured out a solution for lighting at the back of the yard -- stopped by the city building department here and they wanted $170 just for permits to running a 15A line out to a few poles in the yard. When I started adding in the materials cost for wire, conduit, & tools for trenching, hard-wiring just make sense.

Started looking more seriously at options for solar lights and came across these:
Product Blue Electronic device Technology Light

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQ4L1SB/

The big difference vs. other models that I could find was that they have an option to just turn on full brightness at dusk and stay on until the battery runs out. When I've looked outside around midnight, they were still going.

Haven't ridden at night with them yet, but based on a quick walk around the yard, I think one light mounted to a 8' 2x4 attached to every other fence post will be enough
 
#20 ·
All else being equal, I'd always pick riding on some nice dirt trails or at the skatepark over riding in the backyard (regardless of surface).

Other than sidewalks and a 1/3 mile paved trail across the street, though, there's not much interesting around us where we can just get out and ride. By the time we can get kids & bikes loaded up & then unloaded, it's at least 30-40 minutes before we're riding (plus the time to pack back up and head home).

With a few features in the backyard, I can roll my bike out after work, goof off for 20 minutes with the kids on the ramps and then head back in for dinner.

On the building & maintenance side of things I enjoy working with wood more than I like working with dirt, so that's another aspect of fun to balance.
 
#19 ·
The lighting is pretty directional and all pointed so that it's contained within the yard -- the neighbor behind us actually has a large sodium halide light from the local electric company on a utility pole in their backyard to light up some tennis courts, which is a LOT more obnoxious. We actually had to put in light blocking curtains in our bedroom to sleep at night.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Some updates -- here's the astroturf down:
Grass Property Landscape Land lot Leaf


Shot of the end where I need to trim a little after my wife ran it over with the lawnmower:
Nature Grass Green Property Landscape


Made some progress on the wood path over the long weekend:
Grass Property Garden Landscape Land lot

Nature Grass Land lot Garden Woody plant


Here's the current plan:
  • Ramping going up leading towards the spruce at the right
  • Elevated platform continuing around the spruce
  • Slope downward toward the left corner to gain speed
  • Banked turn on the left corner
  • Semi-skinny jutting off the longer path and then connecting back in
  • Small drop at the end of the skinny if you keep going straight
Nature Garden Aqua Shade Lawn


Waiting on more wood chips to start the turn at the left -- we put in a request for another load from Chip Drop, so we'll see how long that takes (first request took about 1 week).

For those who haven't heard of it, you can sign up to get free wood chips from arborists in your area with the caveats that you don't get any say in when they come or how much they leave:
https://getchipdrop.com/
 
#26 ·
Continuing to make progress -- framing for the elevated deck is coming into place and I hauled another 1,100 lbs of deck blocks into the backyard last night.

Since the kids play out back during the day while I'm at work, one of the challenges is figuring out how to divide work into chunks so that whatever I start is left in a "safe" condition at the end of the night.

Nature Grass Property Landscape Garden


Wood Nature Garden Lumber Landscaping


Leaf Leisure Cap Land lot Garden


Nature Grass Wood Property Leaf
 
#29 ·
Made more progress over the weekend -- really starting to look like a ramp now:

Grass Tree Land lot Soil Garden


Grass Land lot Woody plant Home fencing Trunk


Nature Grass Property Land lot Real estate


Nature Property Tree Land lot Landscape


Nature Wood Tree Soil Evergreen


For those curious on the process for putting things together, this is roughly how it went to put the sections together:
  • Run a line of string from beginning to end for the stringers
  • Run a line from beginning to end along the tops of the deck blocks
  • Use 2x4's as a template to space out the deck blocks along the bottom line
  • Put 4x4's in each deck block
  • Use clamps to attach horizontal 2x6 support between each set of 4x4s
  • Level the 4x4's from left / right
  • Pre-drill & screw in the 2x6 support to the 4x4's
  • Place the 2x6 stringers onto the horizontal supports
  • Level the 4x4's and clamp down the stringers
  • Predrill & screw to attach the stringer to the 4x4's at each end
  • Use rafter ties at each end to attach the stringers to the horizontal supports
Wood Land lot Soil Slope Composite material


Still needs a 3rd row of stringers in the middle connected by blocking to the other 2, decking, & railing.
 
#30 ·
Work still in progress -- looking for some feedback on some future ideas I'm kicking around:

Here's what we'll have when we're done with the current project:
Yellow Text Orange White Red


These are some of the ideas that are kicking around in my head for future add-ons:
Yellow Text Orange White Slope


Adding in the banking around the turn is pretty much for sure at this point, since I'm not sure how safe the corner is going to be without it.

Does putting a small rock garden in between the main path and the skinnies make sense? I don't think I've seen it done before, but it seems like it might allow for a slightly safer bailout than a normal drop-off and allow fitting an extra technical section into a small amount of space.
 
#32 ·
The challenge with soft grass on the in between area is that like the main path, I'd likely be building with puncheons underneath to keep it above the wet ground.

24" is probably OK for that type of construction, but getting down to 8" seems like it'd be in danger of tipping.

The easiest way I can think of to support it would be to connect to the main path, which would mean a series of landscape timbers perpendicular to the skinny - without something like rocks inserted to even it out, I'm afraid that anyone who deviated that would be instantly OTB.

I'd also like to put in some sort of rock garden section somewhere in the project, so I figured it might kill 2 birds with one stone to use it as a separator.

Still a lot of work and loads of wood chips before we're at the point where that gets built out, though, which is why I figured I'd be good to start getting feedback on the more complicated parts.
 
#33 ·
Here's an overhead / side view of the idea for the rock garden / skinnies to better depict how it would work with the puncheon construction.

Note that moving the rock garden off to the right of the boardwalk isn't really an option since it run near the fence and what little space is in there has already been promised to my wife for trees & other plants.
Yellow Text Slope Red White
 
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