Is there an environmentally friendly substitute for silk flowers?

Several loved ones are buried in distant cemeteries and I cannot go there to change out fresh flowers on their graves; yet silk flowers have to be thrown in landfills when they get old. These cemeteries do not allow flowers or shrubs to be planted, because it gets in the way of the lawnmowing.

Are there any alternatives?

No, unfortunately there are no built-in vases at each grave, so everything has to go either on a side vase, if the headstone has those, or on top of the headstone.

I had not thought of bird feeders; that is an idea.

Is this one of those cemeteries that has a built in narrow vase for flowers? Try putting one of those long narrow birdseed poles and tie some raffia or dried flowers to them. This way you decorate and also feed the birds. There is nothing left but a wooden stick when all the seed is eaten away.

If the person was a real animal lover ( as my parents were) this would be something that the deceased could have appreciated.

I found a finch/songbird block that fits perfectly into the metal vase on my parents grave. They fed the birds at their home every day and loved watching them.

Jews also have a custom of placing a small stone on a grave when we have visited. I try to find a smooth or attractive small stone to place there, too.

EDIT: You can also make your own decorative environmentally friendly bird feeder out of a large pine cone, peanut butter, bird seed and raffia tied into a bow, tying the feeder to the vase or perhaps a bouquet of dried flowers.

put peanut butter into each "petal" of the large open pine cone and then drop it into a bag full of bird seed and shake..

unfortunately..sometimes ants and insects also find these treats tasty...
we have had to remove them and then treat around the grave with fire ant killer before..that poses another problem..However, the ants aren't there now at least for a while and the birds are back to enjoying the thistle and seed on a stick.

I must admit that I had put our first feeder attached to SILK roses..not thinking about the environment with this really.

Plastic flowers can be very realistic looking and beautiful. They could be seen as environmentally friendly if you consider that they are reusable; swich them out for holidays and such and them use them again for the same holiday the next year. If you need to just leave them there for a long time, they don't degenerate fast like silk flowers. And if you change them and don't particularly want to keep the old ones you're replacing, you can always put them on a gravesite that has no flowers.

It's good that you're thinking of this. Have you looked around the cemetery to see if anyone else has found an alternative? What comes to mind immediately is that you can buy flowers made of blown glass, but those are a bit pricey.

Dried flowers and lovely herbs. Dried lavender is beautiful and of course enviromentally friendly.