How much shade do you have in the wooded lot? If you have fewer than 8 hours per day of open sunlight, there won't be any native grasses that will work for you. Grass is an open prairie type of plant. Now there might be some ground cover plants that will grow, but those won't take much traffic. Would you consider creating a path either with stones or wood (like a deck) and then having the ground cover next to it?

Our lot is also 0.75 acres that have been cleared for the house. My recommendation would be to see what grows in various parts of your lot and develop its natural tendencies.

Our front yard has a south facing slope (25 miles east of Raleigh) that I am lucky to have it green let alone have a known "grass" The areas around the septic system in the back yard is a very nice fescue grass. There are other areas that that are too shaded for any grass.

In the areas around the edge of the yard that will not grow grass, I keep it natural. leaves and pine straw on the ground with azaleas camellias and other shade foliage. There are some area that because of the material removed in building the house will not grow grass. They have become mulched beds with flowers, and more flowering plants. As I said I have lawn grasses growing in parts of the lot.

We have paving stone paths from the cement drive to the back porch, we have other paving stone paths through the flower beds, and have a path through the woods that I maintain with the lawn mower and leaf blower.

Point being, don't force your ideas on the lot, work with the lots ideas of what it wants to grow.

Also one of the misconception is that the wooded areas, are low upkeep. They are not, It takes a lot of work to keep a wooded area looking "natural"

This post was edited by knuttle on Fri, Nov 7, 14 at 9:38

I bought a home in the Texas Hill Country last summer. The yard is full of native grass. If you keep it mowed weekly, it makes a tolerable turf. If you let it go 2 weeks, the seed heads make it look shaggy. Some natives have less conspicuous seed heads and some are worse. That is likely the nature of your question, but we need info on your sun/shade.