Like other members of this group, I believe that the contemporary model of lawn has got to go. It does have its virtues, though we critics tend to overlook them. For example, traditional lawn provides a relatively inexpensive and easy way to maintain large expanses of the landscape in a green and domesticated cover – I can think of no other landscape treatment aside from meadow that can cover an acre or two of sunny ground and demand only a couple of hours a week of maintenance, and though I prefer the beauty and biodiversity of a meadow, it is not appropriate for heavily trafficked areas. Lawn also provides a nearly ideal play space for children and a relatively tick-free zone – an important benefit where I live, 30 miles from Old Lyme, Connecticut, the original epicenter of the Lyme Disease epidemic.
What if we could eliminate many of the environmental defects of lawns while preserving its benefits? That was the question I asked myself 5 years ago, and one that I have been exploring ever since. Other types of cultivated landscape used to be environmental disasters but have since been updated. When I began my career as a horticulturist 40 years ago, rose gardens were toxic from the constant application of pesticides, but that has changed with the introduction of disease- and pest-resistant cultivars, and a more environmentally sophisticated style of design and maintenance. Likewise, the average vegetable garden was dependent on constant inputs of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides a generation ago. Could the lawn be similarly updated, I wondered.
My first pursuit was to identify types of grasses that in the Northeast where I live that are less demanding of mowing, fertilization, irrigation, and pesticides. A few emails put me in touch with turf breeders at Rutgers, Cornell, and the University of Connecticut who very generously shared the under-utilized low-maintenance turfs that they had created. A visit to Dr. Stacy Bonos at Rutger’s turf-breeding station was particularly eye-opening.
I soon came to focus on mixes of different fine fescue cultivars as the most promising alternative for my purposes. Once established on a site, such blends require mowing no more than 2-3 times a year, they are drought-resistant and much less hungry for nitrogen, and, if the cultivars are chosen with care, naturally weed- and insect-resistant. However, I found these blends challenging initially because they are slow-growing (that’s why they require so little mowing) and so slow to establish.
It has taken several years of experimentation, but I have developed a routine that will convert a conventional lawn to fine fescues in just 6 weeks at a price customers can afford, and which, with occasional interventions, produces an mature, mostly weed-free lawn within 6 months.
By “weed-free” I do not mean that such a lawn is a grass monoculture.
In fact, the sustainable lawn model I have been seeking demands a more
diverse flora. In this case, I am defining “weeds” as plants that
make the lawn unsightly, increase the need for mowing, and which will overrun
their neighbors. The best way to keep such plants out of the lawn
is to fill their niches with other, more turf-compatible plants.
My inspiration for this came from first-hand experience, of
course, but also readings in guides to lawn maintenance dating back to the pre-chemical-care era – one such book from the 1920’s, for example, included more
than two dozen flowers it recommended including in the lawn.
White clover (Trifolium repens) provides an obvious example of the benefits such plants can provide: not only does it enhances soil fertility but it also flourishes where soils are too poor to support vigorous grass growth, and continues to grow in conditions of heat and drought that push most northern lawn grasses into dormancy. And of course clovers are a nectar source for bees. Strawberry clover (Trifolium fragiferum) also integrates easily with turf grasses, providing similar benefits to those of white clover and pretty flowers.
Our native violets and even Viola tricolor add color and coexist quite comfortably with turf, providing food for a variety of moth and butterfly caterpillars. Houstonia caerulea, bluets, are also compatible and quite pretty and help to feed a variety of native bees.
Other plants that I have identified include Trifolium repens atropurpureum, the bronze Dutch clover (I want to create a turf networked with its colorful foliage), Thymus serpyllum (creeping thyme), Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry), and Potentilla indica (Indian strawberry). Some of these are native while others are not, but I use the exotic species only where they are already naturalized and non-invasive. I’ve also incorporated early spring flowering, low-growing bulbs into my lawns, including the early crocuses, snowdrops, grape hyacinths, etc. as they have gone dormant by the time the fine fescues need their first mowing.
I would like to expand this list of lawn-compatible forbs, and I am asking for your suggestions. Ideally, any such plants should be easy to start by direct seeding, as this will help to keep my sustainable-lawn model affordable. In addition, they must be sufficiently low-growing that they do not increase the need for mowing, and they should be either perennial or reliable self-seeders.
I am aware that many members of the Lawn Reform Coalition will object to continuing lawns in any form. I myself was of that position for many years, but what I found was that friends and customers often did not have the time, resources or commitment required to transform their landscapes so fundamentally. According to a NASA study, lawn is, like it or not, the largest irrigated crop in the United States, covering an area equal to that of the states of Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and ¼ of Vermont combined. If we can make an immediate impact on this, reducing its resource-use and turning it into a carbon-sink rather than a CO2 generator, wouldn’t that be worth doing?
Lawn Reform Coalition member Tom Christopher’s pioneering sustainable lawn company is aptly named Smart Lawn. Tom’s the author of Water-Wise Gardening, a guide to new styles of gardening, editor of the wonderful New American Landscape, and more. Tom also writes for HuffingtonPost and contributes to a blog about sustainable gardening, Green Perspectives. It’s a product of the New York Botanical Garden, where Tom earned his degree in professional horticulture.
A few weeks ago, fellow LRC member Evelyn Hadden shared her thoughts on three new books that include helpful information on replacing or downsizing lawn. The following review, reprinted from Blue Planet Garden Blog, is a more in-depth review of Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard
The book is divided into three parts. “Part One: Beyond the Lawn” explores what to do with all the real estate eliminating or reducing a lawn makes available. Low-growing plant alternatives are discussed in detail, but Lawn Gone also makes a case for replacing lawn with new living spaces and garden features, such as patios, ponds and play spaces.
Mixed species lawn. Design and photograph by Rebecca Sweet
“Part Two: Out with the Grass, In with a Garden” gives step-by-step instructions on removing an existing lawn. This is an area where the book really shines, as Pam explores multiple methods, and provides the pros and cons of each. She knows her target audience of DIYers well, and also includes instructions on planning and creating a range of garden features, from how to edge pathways, to basics on bed preparation.
A welcoming space for entertaining. Photograph courtesy of Pam Penick
In “Part Three: The Politics, Health and Safety of Going Lawnless,” Pam provides tips on dealing with both man-made obstacles (think HOAs and city codes) and natural ones, such as lawn alternatives for fire prone areas.
Design and photograph by Kelly Kipatrick
What I liked
Quibbles
No quibbles this time, but be sure to do your research before following any of the specific plant advice in the book. Many of the plants mentioned, in particular the ornamental grasses, are invasive in California and other regions of the country - I counted more than one plant I would hesitate to recommend to my clients. This can’t really be avoided in a book geared towards a national audience, but follow the advice Pam includes in Lawn Gone, and be sure to check online or with your county’s extension program before choosing plants for your garden.Confidential to California gardeners: The alternatives provided that most closely mimic a lawn are mainly those grown from seed or plugs. Since here in California we're addicted to the look of fresh sod rolled out in a new garden, I usually specify no-mow native grass mixes in sod form for my clients. Check out Delta Bluegrass for alternatives that work in a range of USDA zone 9 cultural conditions.
A must read for anyone considering reducing or eliminating a lawn, Lawn Gone provides a thoughtful mix of inspiring photos, step-by-step solutions and troubleshooting tips.
I received this book as a review copy. Photos reprinted with permission from Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard by Pam Penick (Ten Speed Press, 2013).
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Susan Morrison is a landscape designer, master gardener, and the
co-author of Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces
I remember how thrilled I was back in 2003 to find Liz Primeau's excellent book, Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass.
How unusual to see a design book focusing on the topic of lawnless (or less lawn) landscapes right out front in the public view. It even showcased a no-mow front lawn, which was extremely cutting edge. What joy to page through, taking an "armchair tour" of a dizzyingly diverse array of gardens without lawns.
At the time, I was speaking and writing about these topics and felt very much on the fringe. But in the years since then, a sea change has happened. All aspects of lawn reform -- from waterwise and no-mow alternatives to fewer chemicals to wildlife habitat gardening to lawnless front yards -- have moved from the fringe into the limelight.
Lawn reform has ranked among the top trends in gardening for the last few years, according to various polls. Most recently, the American Society of Landscape Architects issued a 2013 Trends news release stating, "Native or drought-tolerant plants, drip irrigation, permeable paving and reduced lawns are making their way into outdoor living spaces across the country."
As if that weren't exciting enough, there's more... this very spring, the unthinkable happened, with the publication of not one but two beautiful, practical books that guide everyday folks through the process of designing a lawnless landscape.
Both books offer example after example in a mouthwatering variety of styles, along with solid instructions and advice. Both include plentiful, pointed, and inspiringly gorgeous photos. Both provide a good framework for the beginner embarking on a lawn-to-garden conversion. And both authors have plenty of direct experience designing lawn-free landscapes, as well as that enviable "designer's sense of style" most of us can only sigh over.
Generous, Appealing, and Poetic
Billy Goodnick, a landscape architect in Santa Barbara, California, has been designing landscapes for 40 years and teaching for more than 20 years. Living in a state where droughts are a continuing threat, with a mild climate that allows an enormous selection of possible garden plants, Billy is continually emphasizing lawn alternatives for his clients' gardens. He's a founding member of the Lawn Reform Coalition.
Billy's new book Yards: Turn Any Outdoor Space into the Garden of Your Dreams breaks down his accumulated wisdom into bite-sized insights that a layperson can understand and use. His writing is full of personality, lyrical throughout and often hilarious, as anyone who's familiar with his Cool Green Gardens blog at Fine Gardening magazine knows. This hand-held design course edifies as it entertains, sharing a generous amount of detail with a solid undercurrent of sustainability, imparting secrets for improving the artistry of your design, and coaching you on how to find your own unique style. You'll want to read it cover to cover just for the poetry of it.
Hardcover, US $17.95, St. Lynn's Press.
No-Nonsense Advice and Encouragement
Pam Penick, a landscape designer based in Austin, Texas, has built a name for herself with her riveting, photo-rich, and deservedly popular blog Digging, as well as her leadership in creating an international community of garden bloggers. She is well versed in waterwise plants and lawn alternatives; the province of scorching summers, Austin is also suffering through a multi-year drought in which even hardy native trees are dying of thirst.
Pam's book Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard guides beginners through the basics, giving clear, concise information for choosing and installing lawn substitutes, offering easy reduced-lawn designs, and tackling common concerns from fire to ticks to homeowners' associations. To round out the book, Pam keeps it local, inviting ten experts to recommend well-adapted plants and strategies for gardening in their regions.
The organized layout and approachable tone make it easy to consult this practical guide whenever you face a challenge in your lawn makeover.
Paperback, US $19.99, Ten Speed Press.
Ecology and Horticulture Merge, FINALLY
One more new book I must rave about is Principles of Ecological Landscape Design by Travis Beck. I've been searching for a book like this since I began seeing my garden (or any piece of land) as an entity apart, with its own connections, preferences, and character, not just a blank slate.
Beck's book puts ecology (the science of how nature works) into the context of our own gardens and the human-altered landscapes we encounter in our daily lives. Written in scientific language dense with ecological theory and case studies, this veritable textbook won't appeal to the beginner or even to all professional landscape designers. But you might be interested to know about it -- even if you are a beginner -- because you may soon be able to hire someone who has read it.
And if you do happen to be interested in enlisting natural processes as you shape and steward your landscape, you might enjoy diving into the details, discovering new ways landscape architects and city planners are partnering with nature, and chewing on more philosophical aspects of the role we humans play in the natural world.
Paperback, US $40, Island Press.
These new books make it even easier to find the information, inspiration, or encouragement that you need to convert your unused and resource-intensive lawn areas to landscapes that are more rewarding for you and more beneficial for the environment. Happy gardening!
National speaker and award-winning author Evelyn Hadden shares strategies for making comfortable, functional, nature-friendly landscapes with less or no lawn. Her most recent book Beautiful No-Mow Yards has been a Timber Press bestseller since it was published in early 2012. Evelyn founded the informational website LessLawn and is a founding member of the national Lawn Reform Coalition. She is currently working on another book for Timber Press.
GIMME GREEN, a documentary that examines the American obsession with the residential lawn, was created by two students at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 2006.
Here are some of the lawn facts shared on their website:
-Lawns are America's most irrigated crop.
-Every day, more than 5,000 acres of land are converted to lawns in America.
-Americans spend more than 40 Billion dollars a year on their yards.
-Lawns cover 41 million acres.
-Americans apply more than 30,000 tons of pesticides to their yards every year.
-Of the 30 most used lawn pesticides, 17 are routinely detected in groundwater.
-The EPA finds that nearly half of these 30 pesticides are possible or probable carcinogens.
-The National Cancer Institute finds that children in households using lawn pesticides have a 6.5 times greater risk of developing leukemia.
-In the Southwest, lawn owners use more than 75% of their water on their yards.
-In an effort to save water, Las Vegas lawn owners are paid a dollar per sq. ft. to remove their grass.
-In 1989 more than 500,000 people made their living directly from the turf care and maintenance, and turf grass was a $25 billion industry.
-Once groundwater is polluted, it can stay that way for several thousand years.
-Families turn on water faucets an average of 70 times daily.
-If present consumption patterns continue, two out of every three people on Earth will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025.
-On average, Americans use 40 to 60 percent of their water on their landscapes.
-In order to maintain all the lawns in America, it would take approximately 200 gallons per person per day.
For more information and to view a preview of this film see: www.gimmegreen.com/
Posted by Ginny Stibolt www.greengardeningmatters.com
Book review by LRC member Susan Morrison
In 2007, I designed my first no-lawn back yard. I would have welcomed advice on design strategies or plant options, but at the time, a book like that wasn’t even a gleam in a publisher’s eye. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to have the opportunity to review Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives (Timber Press 2012), written by fellow Lawn Reform Coalition member Evelyn Hadden.
Following a wonderful forward by Lawn Reform Coalition member Susan Harris and a terrific introduction where Evelyn eloquently describes how our changing definition of beauty doesn’t necessarily include a lawn and further encourages us to “return life to our landscapes,” the book is divided into three sections. The first section makes up more than 75% of the book and focuses on design inspiration. You won’t be surprised to hear that this was my favorite part. Set up mainly as case studies, Evelyn reviews in detail various strategies both homeowners and professional designers have used to replace lawn with garden.
There’s something for everyone here, as gardens from all over the United States that showcase a range of cultural and lifestyle situations are featured: woodland gardens, rain gardens and kids' play areas, just to name a few. This segment ends with a section called “smarter lawns,” perfect for the homeowner who is ready to eschew a chemically propped up, water-guzzling version of a lawn, but for esthetic or functional reasons, still wants their own little patch of green. (Or even blue!)
Prairie garden, photograph by Saxon Holt
Pond and patio instead of lawn, designed by fellow APLD member Kelly Marshall and photographed by Saxon Holt.
No-Mow Lawn
The second section is practical, with advice on removing existing sod, as well as planting, irrigating and maintaining a lawn-free garden. The final section is a comprehensive plant list, arranged by design intent. Categories such as ground-filling plants, mat-forming plants and minglers let you go right to the plant list that fits your garden’s particular needs.
Looks time consuming, but in fact there's very little effort in maintaining a lawn alternative like this one.
Stunning example of a tapestry of mat-forming plants
What I like
Quibbles
Whether you are a designer, home gardener, wild-life enthusiast or an environmentalist, Beautiful No-Mow Yards is a must-have addition for your gardening library.
Looking for more lawn reform inspiration? Evelyn's made it easy by gathering the links right here.
Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Evelyn Hadden.
Reprinted from Blue Planet Garden Blog.
Check out the January issue of Fine Gardening Magazine for this article by blogger/designer Pam Penick in Austin, TX. On the newsstands now!
Pam's also researching/writing as fast as she can her book about lawn alternatives for Ten Speed Press, to be published in the spring of 2013. Alternatives to lawn are HOT, I tell ya!
Austin's Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has developed a mixture of native grass species that works well in dry regions of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. The grass mix, named HABITURF™, contains these grasses native to the Southwest: Buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and curly-mesquite (Hilaria belangeri) and depending on the source: Texas grama (Bouteloua rigidiseta,) hairy Grama (Bouteloua hirsuta), poverty dropseed (Sporobolus vaginiflorus). Here are instructions for establishing a native lawn for these climates.
“We created a lawn that needs less mowing and keeps weeds out better than a common American lawn option,” said Dr. Mark Simmons, director of the center’s Ecosystem Design Group. Simmons led the study comparing common Bermudagrass to the seven native grasses that will be published online this week in the journal Ecological Engineering.
The traditional turfgrass and the native grasses responded the same to mowing once or twice a month, to two watering regimens and to the equivalent of foot traffic. However, the turf of seven native grasses produced a carpet that was 30 percent thicker in early spring than the Bermuda turf. As temperatures climbed into mid-summer and all the lawns thinned, the mixed native turfgrass still stayed 20 percent thicker than Bermuda.
Although Buffalograss also retained its lushness into summer, the mixed native turfgrass beat both single species (monoculture) turfgrasses in weed resistance. When dandelion seeds were added by hand, those plots grew half as many dandelions as the Buffalograss or Bermudagrass plots.
To see if the mixed native turfgrass would also outperform the others under conditions such as very light watering, Simmons and his colleagues will conduct the next research phase later this year. The answer under some conditions will likely be a yes because the multiple species in natural grasslands are thought to allow them to respond better to different conditions over time.
Simmons and colleagues used funding from Walmart to establish multiple plots of grasses in an open field at the center. They intend to develop other mixes for other ecological and regional situations.
There is also more information up on their website. And here's the press release about Habiturf.
Lawn Reformers are hearing lots of questions about specific plants that can be used en masse to create a low lawn-like expanse in the landscape - to replace a lawn or instead of a lawn - and we're frustrated by the lack of detailed, regionally specific information about the plants people are asking about - Carexes, buffalo grass, low-input grass mixes like No-Mow, and spreading perennials like Sedums and thymes.
SO, we've created a new Flickr group for photos of these plants in landscapes, with details like shade, sun, drought-tolerant, region and what maintenance may be required. Check it out here - the Lawn Alternatives Flickr Group.
Our goal is to create a searchable database to act as a resource for those looking for lawn substitutions appropriate for their own specific cultural conditions.
PLANTS WE WANT PHOTOS OF
We are interested in low-growing groundcovers up to two feet tall. Ideally, they will have been in the ground for at least two years. They can be mowable or not, but should be appropriate planted en masse.
(We are NOT looking for garden design alternatives such as a mix of perennials, gravel gardens, etc. Design alternatives to lawns may be shared at our FLickr group for No-Lawn, Small-Lawn and Alternative Lawn Gardens.)
DETAILS NEEDED ABOUT EACH PHOTO
USE TAGS TO HELP PEOPLE USE THIS DATABASE
Again, the more the better, as this will greatly improve the search function of the site. Key tags to include are:
MORE ABOUT HOW TO POST
WHO MAY POST PHOTOS:
Growers and nurseries may not post, although we encourage them to have homeowners or designers who have experience with their plants share their photos.
GOT A GREAT DESIGN TO SHARE?
Like the one in this photo? Please upload it to our other Flickr group - for No-Lawn, Small-Lawn and Alternative Lawn Gardens.
Top photos, from left: Prairie dropseed, UC Verde Buffalo grass, and Liriope spicata. Lower photo and garden by Pam Penick in Austin, TX.
