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Who we are

Alternative lawn seed, sized to your yard

From the team behind Moss & Stone Gardens — shipping living plants from Pennsylvania since before lawn alternatives were a trend. 85 products across thyme, clover, fine fescue, native grass, sedge, moss and wildflower.

Shop the rangeSee who we are
Ships in 1–3 business daysFrom our Pennsylvania facility. In seasonal peaks it can run longer — we keep you informed, not guessing.
The seed on the label is the seed in the bagSpecies and cultivar listed on every product page, on every label.
A real person answersEcologists on staff — not a ticket queue. Ask about shade, slopes or zones before you buy.
30-day returnsOn unopened seed, no questions. The returns page has the address.
A microclover lawn grown from FineFolio seed
Grown from our seedFineFolio microclover — one of 85 products.

The structural difference

Sized to your yard, not to a packet

Kits, shakers, plug trays and fixed packets all make your yard fit the product. We do the reverse: square footage in, bag sizes and price out — from a tiny bag that covers 62 sq ft to bags that cover 10,000. Every seed product we sell is in the list — 60 of them, grouped by type. Enter one area or several; add a row for each rectangle.

What you are doing

New lawn or overseed changes how far each bag goes — both figures come from the product page.

Bags to buy

0 bags

Enter an area to size the order.

    Choose this size →Not sure which product?

    Coverage comes straight from each product page: a HearthClover Small Bag covers 1,000 sq ft, a FineFolio Oversized Bag up to 25,000 sq ft of new lawn.

    Seed, not plugs

    The plug-tray math, done honestly

    A tray of 36–50 thyme plugs runs $60–$100 and covers a small area. A $6.99 bag of ThymeWalk seed covers 62 sq ft. Both take a season to look established — the difference is what you paid for that season.

    The most common complaint against plug sellers isn’t the plants — it’s that the result didn’t look like the advertisement: trays arriving with empty cells, no flowers until the second season. Seed is slower to germinate but cheaper by an order of magnitude per square foot, and year one looks the same either way: sparse, then filling. We photograph year one and say so, rather than showing you year three and letting you find out.

    Read the full seed-vs-plugs breakdown →

    Who we are

    The seed side of a moss company

    Competitive Lawn exists because of an observation about moss. Niels Mekelenkamp started Moss & Stone Gardens — a live-moss nursery in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania — after realising that moss gardens are biodiverse habitats, in contrast to traditional grass lawns. Competitive Lawn is that same observation applied to everything else that can replace turf: thyme, clover, fine fescue, sedge, native grasses, wildflowers.

    Moss & Stone began by selling wild-harvested moss, then moved deliberately away from it. As demand grew, so did concern about extractive harvesting — so the company began developing cultivation: moss farming, living mats grown on soil-free backing, moss milkshakes for propagation. In their own words: “We are not there yet, but every day we take a step to build a moss industry that benefits people and planet.”

    That’s the company behind this shop. Twelve years of packing living plants to survive transit — seed is the easy part.

    Niels MekelenkampFounder

    Founded Moss & Stone Gardens and the wider group. The biodiversity observation is his.

    Alyssa CulpepperCOO · Sustainability strategist

    Practitioner-scientist; years in native ecosystems and regenerative land care.

    Olivia MilnerDirector of Ecology & Education

    Doctoral research in sustainability education. When a mix is recommended for shade or a slope, she’s why.

    The range

    Something to compare

    You arrived comparing shops — so compare. Ten of 85 products, one per lawn type, each sized from a tiny trial bag to full-yard coverage.

    ThymeWalk — red creeping thymeRed creeping thymeThymeWalkThe flowering no-mow classic. Purple-pink bloom May–July.from $6.99FineFolio — microcloverMicrocloverFineFolioFine-leaf clover that blends invisibly into grass.from $9.99HearthClover — white dutch cloverWhite dutch cloverHearthCloverThe classic clover lawn — flowers all summer.from $8.49MicroTurf — clover + grass mixClover + grass mixMicroTurfClover and fescue together, the low-input middle path.from $7.99GroundKeep — fine fescue no-mowFine fescue no-mowGroundKeepFescue and clover meadow mix — mow a few times a year.from $2.99RootNative — native grassNative grassRootNativeLow-mow native grass blend for a regional lawn.from $15.99SedgeLawn — sedge for dry shadeSedge for dry shadeSedgeLawnPennsylvania sedge — the native answer to dry shade.from $9.99SunMeadow — wildflower lawnWildflower lawnSunMeadowA full-sun flowering lawn you mow twice a year.from $7.99Bee lawnPollinator Clover MixClovers chosen for nectar — a lawn that feeds bees.from $8.99DogLawn — for dogsFor dogsDogLawnWear-tolerant, non-toxic, urine-resilient.from $7.99

    Browse all 85 →

    The half nobody else answers

    Moss for the shade, seed for the sun

    The bare ground under your maple will not grow thyme, clover or fescue — they need six hours of sun. Moss will. Between Competitive Lawn and Moss & Stone Gardens, one team can answer a whole garden.

    Seed the sunny two-thirds from this shop; cover the deep shade with live moss from our sister nursery. Our free 30-minute consultation covers sun, shade, drainage and coverage across both.

    Moss lawns, explained →

    In fairness

    What we are not

    • Not the cheapest. Big-box seed costs less. It’s also mostly annual rye and filler — read the label.
    • Not instant. Clover fills in one season; thyme takes two to three years to a full mat. We say so on every product page.
    • Not for deep shade. That’s what the moss side of the company is for.

    Ready

    Start with your square footage

    Size it above, or browse the full range — every bag states its coverage before you pay.

    Shop alternative lawn seed