Cement driveway alternative?

Lately, I’ve been contemplating the state of my backyard. My ideal would be to have a lovely brick patio, but alas that’s not in the budget at the moment. However, during the daydreaming phase, I was on the lookout for ideas and while in Maine I saw something at Jordan Pond that I thought was very interesting. It’s a type of block that has holes in it that you can grow grass in. So basically the surface of the ground is level and solid, but it allows drainage and doesn’t look like a solid slab of brick.

I thought this was a cool product. It’s environmentally friendly and probably a cheaper alternative to traditional brick. What’s even more interesting is that I just happened upon an old post at Charles & Hudson about the same thing. (Can I just say again how much I adore Charles & Hudson? They’re my new favorite home blog.) Only in this instance they’re discussing it as an alternative to paving a driveway. I think that’s a brilliant idea…much better than for a patio most likely (since your patio furniture might get stuck in the holes). Anyways…here’s the pic I took at Jordan Pond.