I live in a small unit that had dusty ultra-compacted dirt around the house that was called a lawn. I broke the soil with a hoe, threw a few bags of soil mix down and planted some moss I harvested growing wild down the laneway. 2 years later the ground is mostly covered in a spongey moss. Give it a few more years it'll be completely covered and thick.

It requires virtually no mowing and needs little water. Apparently growing moss is even good for air and ground water purification. Not sure how much purifying it's doing but it's good to know I'm doing my little part.

If you have a small yard, grow moss.