It takes some effort to make everything simpler in the long run. We are currently working really hard to get each small section of our yard to be low maintenance. Planting perennials, mowing leaves where they land and piling up leaves to decompose over the winter. Our "lawn" is looking more and more like a meadow with clover, some grasses, random flowering weeds. All it takes is some clover seed, to stop fertilizing and to not use herbicides.