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She works at Beyond the Garden Gate in Blawnox, where the property is landscaped with groundcovers, not grass, to highlight the benches, trellises and other garden-themed accessories sold at the store.

"Why do people grow something so when it grows, then they cut it?" says Petrus, whose daughter owns the store. "To me, it's sort of anti-green in a way. You're running a lawn mower, so you're using gasoline. It smells. There you are using gas, and that's polluting."

Groundcovers are gaining popularity with homeowners who say grass is labor-intensive and, in fact, not much to look at. With the array of groundcovers to choose from, some homeowners say, why would they choose grass?

Groundcovers are generally low-growing plants that spread to carpet an area. These plants offer advantages for homeowners in Western Pennsylvania whose property consists of slopes and rocky, odd spots.

Gregg Friday, owner of Friday's Perennials in Cheswick, says he sees more people replacing grass with groundcover.

"Some are, or eliminating sections of the grass and putting in groundcover so they don't have to spend the weekend cutting the grass," he says.

And there are more choices beyond the traditional English ivy, Japanese pachysandra and creeping junipers. Friday's Perennials, for example, stocks about 30 groundcovers, and Country Farms in Greensburg also has several varieties.

"Think outside of the box. Try not to be restricted to common choices," says Scott Tarris, manager of Country Farms. "Think of the big picture. Don't be concerned with what it looks like when you put it in. Be concerned what it'll look like five or 10 years from now instead."

One way to consider the bigger picture is to pair early-blooming and late-blooming groundcovers.

"I mix them together, and as long as you don't have one that is so much more aggressive than the other, that'll probably work," Friday says.

A possible combination is using plumbago, an evergreen shrub with flowers similar to phlox, with sweet woodruff, a low-growing plant with delicate blooms. Friday also suggests pairing European ginger with epimedium.

People should be prepared to spend time getting the plants established, but after planting, and perhaps some dividing, many hardy groundcovers require little else.

This does not mean keeping up with the Joneses, or even following them. Homeowners should consider how the color of the groundcover will look against the home and the rest of the landscape, says Lindsay Bond Totten, president of the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania. Many people stick to blue rug junipers, with creeping, blue-gray foliage.

"It's a yucky old variety," Bond Totten says. "My take on these blueish-gray varieties is when you stack it up against the summer sun, they give the whole landscape the look that it needs water. I find it uncomplimentary to almost every home you put it in front of."

Buffalo juniper, on the other hand, remains bright green and grows a bit higher. "I'm trying to help regional gardeners see there are many good choices out there, for groundcovers, trees, and shrubs, too," Bond Totten says.

Country Farms carries more than a half-dozen types of junipers.

Generally, garden-supply experts say, people should make the most of what they have instead of worrying about their neighbor's yard.

"The funny part about groundcover is people that have them, if you go into older developments -- say you drove into Fox Chapel -- those people don't understand what they really have. Their landscapes are mature, so their biggest problem is getting the leaves out of them. Newer people would just die to have those," says Chuck Croskey, exterior sales manager for Plantscape in Lawrenceville.

"Just like people who have curly hair, and they want straight."

Getting the most from groundcovers

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