replacing lawn

I am torn between pachysandra and mazus retans 'alba' and azorella trifurcata 'nana', for a lawn replacement in part sun. any of you have exp. with these w/ our wet winters? They will not be walked on but occasionally; certainly not daily.

There is a nice area of pachysandra at St Vincent's Hosp in Portland, so I would assume it would do fine. Isn't it a little tall to walk on? I think I have a mazus reptans in a planter - seems to me it dies back in winter, but maybe I'm thinking of something else. I don't know the azorella - Googled it; it sure looks cute.

How's your soil?

Aren't there some stony ground areas on the east side and other parts of Vancouver, WA?

Or is your soil decent?

My soil is not particularly rocky and we live on the west side of Vancouver. The east side, the newly developed side, maybe rocky.

I'm only have experience with the Pachysandra, which thrives nicely with light irrigation and decent soil.

It retains a decent green color in winter.

It may require stepping stones if you need to weed, otherwise it can get crushed. But I've seen many big patches with no step stones, and very few weeds as some residences.

Pachysandra is for shady areas. I am now looking into dichondra repens. I purchased a little pot of bear berry but one site says it is very fragile to walk on which is not an issue but even an overhead sprinkler will harm it? it is woody and spreads fast. does that make sense to you?

Dichondra is very pretty. My parents had a 'lawn' of it, but they had terrible problems with, I'm not sure, a fungus maybe? that caused it to die out in circles. They live in So. cal., though, so that may not be an issue.

I can not find info that dichondra would even grow in this climate. I want something evergreen and low, 3" or less and does well in sun.

The best Pachysandra patches I saw were in sun and shade areas, with good soil - not compacted.

Portland's not too hot though, not many days from 95 to 100, except a few.