To the avid vegetable gardener, a lawn is just wasted space. Why grow grass when you could be growing salad greens and herbs?

But there's a way to have your lawn, and eat it, too - or steep it, more precisely. English gardeners know that chamomile makes a great groundcover, but in the U.S., chamomile is thought of mostly as an herb for tea.

And that's our loss, because a lawn of chamomile is a fragrant, ferny green mat that you can walk on. You can sow it from seed, or plant seedlings; just be sure to plant the perennial kind, Roman chamomile, and not the annual German chamomile (both are fine for making tea, but only the Roman chamomile is suited for lawns).

A chamomile lawn requires two things to really thrive: plenty of sun, and sandy, well-drained soil. It grows only a few inches tall, so you don't have to mow it. I planted some around the stepping stones in my front yard and sometimes trim it with a pair of old sheep sheers when it gets shaggy, but it really isn't necessary. I just like to cut it because it smells so good.

You can buy chamomile seed in bulk, as well as flats of chamomile seedlings, from a Canadian company called Richter's, a great source for all kinds of herbs. Seedlings will fill in faster, of course, but slackers like me would rather toss some seeds on the ground and let nature take its course than have to bend down, hunch over, and dig.

Admittedly, my patch of chamomile won't spread very far in our heavy clay soil, so my fantasy of having a lawn big enough to play badminton on seems unlikely to be fulfilled. Plus, our steep and semi-shady backyard is not conducive to chamomile or any kind of edible, for that matter (perfect for a waterfall, though; that's number 2 on my "to-do" list, right after "finish insulating house and install sheetrock).

So on the hill behind our car-free two-car garage, I planted Prairie Nursery's No Mow Lawn Mix. You can't eat it, but it feeds our need for a patch of green without calling for all the maintenance a conventional lawn demands and the toll that takes on our surroundings.

Our country's been overrun with immigrants who squander our resources, and I'm talking about your lawn, not the Mexicans who mow it. The typical American lawn is made up of non-native grasses that need an awful lot of water to stay lush. And plenty of fertilizer, to keep it green. All those chemicals harm the soil and seep into our water supply, messing up marine habitats.

Then we trim all that green growth with lawn mowers that generate more pollution than cars. So the typical American lawn is pretty much an unmitigated environmental disaster.

The No Mow Lawn, by contrast, is a drought tolerant blend of native fescue grasses that you don't need to fertilize or mow. Once it's established, its deep roots don't require much water, either. You can play wiffle ball on it, or have a picnic, or just lie down and take a snooze.

It's pretty, too, forming soft, blue-green tufts of grass. If you crave a more manicured look, you can mow it once or twice in the course of the season, but there's really no reason to. Why not go for a more natural, wabi-sabi -style of gardening?

Fall is the best time to plant a No Mow Lawn because there's less competition from weeds, but you can plant it in the spring, too. I planted a patch of it in front of my fence last Sunday (along with my nasturtium seeds), and I'm hoping that when I walk up the hill from the train station to my house this weekend, I'll see tiny blades of grass emerging from the soil.

Growing good things to eat is my true mission in the garden, but even the most hardcore edible landscaper can use a little lawn. And when you plant a No Mow Lawn, you get the satisfaction of knowing that your grass truly is greener.

Prairie Nursery No Mow Lawn Mix

Why We Like It: A drought-tolerant lawn you don't have to fertilize or mow

Cost: $5.50 per pound (5 pound minimum)

Where to Buy It: Prairienursery.com

Image Credit: Texas/Dallas History & Archives, Dallas Public Library