we live on Long Island NY and have this Zoysia grass that my dad put plugs in years ago. it spreads on its own, gets really thick and even chokes out the weeds. the only bad thing about it is that it is the first grass to turn brown in the fall and takes longer than other grass to turn green in the spring. but a very hardy grass.
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Aside frim the traditional gravel there are a number of economical âturfâ driveway solutions that retain the soil and create a permiable and sustainable surface. Basically, structures that hold the soil in place while allowing for wear.
The nice part is that in the long term it can actually be cheaper than concrete or asphalt.
Iâm looking at my second resurfancing of my driveway which with the removal of the past eforts will cost me big time
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The grass isnât a good idea because no matter what grass you pick, youâre going to compact the soil driving cars over it all the time, and once soil gets to a certain level of compaction, itâs very hard for anything to grow in it. Youâll end up with two dirt tracks and a grass strip in the middle. Plus, being in Colorado, grass isnât a terribly awesome idea anyway. Back when I lived in New Mexico, it always astonished me when people would plant grass. Itâs⊠The desert. Stop planting stuff that requires so much water.
But you might be interested in a nifty product called permeable pavement. Itâs designed to allow storm water to pass through and leech out of the gravel catch basin underneath rather than run off to pollute the ground water. Itâs a good eco alternative to parking on the grass, especially since @VOLVO-V70 is correct that many ordinances forbid parking anywhere but a hard surface.
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As long as it is not sugar sand.
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How about just using gravel?
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I think (or know, rather) what Iâd do if I already had an existing concrete drive. Nuthin. Maybe plant some shrubs beside it or something.
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Notree-hugger and Greenie approved.
Why not? What exactly is âgreenâ about grass besides its color? It requires upkeep that uses resources. Getting water back into the ground instead of into stormwater sewers is way more important than the little bit of CO2 that the grass might capture.
My parents built their house mostly themselves in the late 70âs and af first poured a concrete pad in front of the garage and later added another section to connect with the shed. Rest of the driveway is gravel/grass. Dad just buys a load of gravel every couple years to maintain it.
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You can always dye the driveway green, squint your eyes and make believe its grass. 
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Iâm so green it ainât even funny. I need to cut some trees, though. Ignore the snow. Old photo. Snow is so rare to us that we take pictures when it snows in MS 
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Whatâs not âgreenâ about putting a layer of rocks on the ground?
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Donât tree-huggers believe plants have feelings. those poor grass blades would be getting crushed every day from the weight of your vehicle. 
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Yes, I am devastated when I mow. HOA makes me.
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Iâm sure if I shut the mower off I could hear the howls of anguish from the little blades of grass. I keep the blade sharp though to minimize the pain to the little fellas. We are required to have a hard surface to park on so the concrete drive stays. Power washing once in a while really whitens it up.
To minimizemotional trauma, I alwaysharpen the battery-operated mower blade in the garage out of sight.
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The property shares a gravel road with 4 other neighbors, we split up the annual gravel bill as evenly as possible. When it snows youâre either the first one to plow a trail up to the main road or you wait for someone to get their tractor out and plow the road. After some trial and error we found a gravel that packs down to be pretty much like an asphalt road if you donât mind a little dust.
If youâre going to add a new driveway and decide to use grass instead of concrete driveway then it will be good for the environment. To replace an existing concrete driveway with grass isnât helping one bit.
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Yes. Only do turf, if allowed, if the wholexisting driveway must be replaced.
Our drive doesnât require much maintenance. It doesnât need plowed for snow in MS. Itâs pretty flat and straight. Weâve been in the houseâŠ17 years I thinkâŠand I had to get a local guy to come out once and add a little bit of rock and grade it. Once or twice a year I wind up spreading it with a rake near the garage because my wife turns into the garage at 20 mph and eventually pushes up a rock âbermâ. Itâs the gray, sharp edged rock. No roundness to it. Packs pretty well. I think they refer to it as aggregate around here.
That being said, I donât know that the environment prefers it that much over concrete. The rock on my drive is the same rock thatâs on most of the county roads, sans the asphalt. Iâm not sure what weâre trying to alleviate in the original topic. Water runoff or heat reflection? I think youâre going to get both of those to some extent with anything you can realistically drive on long term. And the runoff from a gravel drive might actually not be as clean as the runoff from a concrete or asphalt drive with the inevitable dirt/dust from the rock.
If itâs a short little driveway that youâre always turning on, Iâd stick with concrete or do the thing Barky referenced. Otherwise youâre going to get a mud hole and spread part of the environment all over your tires lol.
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