I have a small patch of "lawn" ( about 60 x 40' ), that I am running an experiment on. After purchasing an extra 1/2 acre parcel of land right behind my house, I spent much labor tearing out the brush that was there, left the trees, mulched most of it, and in that 60x40 space, I was going to plant my Perfect Lawn. I researched the different kinds of grasses, I graded out the land, added some ammendments. Spent hours and hours of hard labor doing that. So while deciding what kind of grass to use, Nature had other ideas. Crab grass and other ground cover sprouted and started spreading. At first, I did my best to dig that out, but then, I decided to let Nature show me what grew there best.
Sure enough, I have a beautiful "ground cover" lawn in that spot, that is nicer than the crappy Bahia lawn on the rest of my property. Its a mix of crab grasses and various clovers. I mow it fairly short, and it looks damn good considering the price. I dont water it, I do occasionally remove whatever looks like a "weed". Fairly slow growing as well, again compared to the awful Bahia.
Same here. I keep the St Augustine grass in the front, as required by the HOA. It requires lots of water (even though I live 20 miles from the actual town of St Augustine!) and hurts bare feet to walk on it. In the back, I allow native grasses and clover and such to thrive and it is beautiful, soft, and hasn’t been watered in15 years. I can tear up a patch it fills in again in less than a month.
I will take native ground cover over HOA-approved sod any day.