Probably quite a long time, but the maintenance would be at least inconvenient and I doubt the wife would want it.
There are lots of options, of course: ground cover, ground cover around stepping stones, wood chips or bark, gravel, concrete, ...
All of those have been considered, but we would really prefer grass (or a grass substitute) because we do walk through there occasionally.
Naples Florida for one. They made a guy rip out his Astroturf lawn and put in real grass that requires watering and fertilizer ... at the same time when they are telling us fertilizer is killing the Gulf and we are running out of water.
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