Backyard Patio: SOD or NO SOD?

[Jon S.]

Triplex in final stages of renovation. The inside is done. The exterior is getting a make over. White vinyl 6' Privacy fence was installed last week, giving each unit its own private backyard. Pavers are going in this week, giving each unit a back yard private patio area. In order to save on the number of pavers needed, I am considering options for the remaining backyard area, which is relatively small. I can put plant beds in near the fence edges using free materials, ie, the contractor has about 20 yards of 57 grade white stones that I could use in all flower beds, and a moonlighting landscaper can install very robust and inexpensive plants for greenery in those beds. There will still be about 6' wide strip between the pavers and the flower beds. The landscaper, of course, wants me to put SOD in there and offered to provide low cost maintainance on all three units for $25/visit 4x/mo for 7 mo of the year and 2x/mo for 5 mo/yr, which works out to almost $1000/year. He said without SOD, the maintainance would be half as much, ie, about $500/year. I'd rather save the $500/year on cost of maintaining the landscaping. By the way, the flower beds can be maintained mostly with drip irrigation, no need for sprinklers, no wasted water. They just need weeding once in a while. These units are commanding higher rent, competing with luxury apartments, and the backyard privacy space is part of my strategy for commanding the luxury apartment rates. I don't mind up front capital expenses to command higher rents, but I don't want increased costs of operation. So I am leaning against adding SOD to the backyard. But I don't know what alternatives to put there instead of SOD. Should I bite the bullet upfront (higher capital expenditure) and go ahead and do more pavers extending them everywhere except the flower beds, and avoid ongoing maintainance costs of SOD? Or is having a little SOD, albeit only a 6' strip of it, an important touch to a desireable backyard space? Thoughts, suggestions?