The wild lawn handbook : alternatives to the traditional front lawn

"In recent years, environmentalists, gardeners, and harried homeowners have begun to question the validity of the American lawn as the major feature of most landscapes. As traditionally tended, a lawn in most parts of the country demands a great deal of time, money, and effort to maintain. These two books offer greatly differing strategies for handling this problem. The Balls (Yardening, LJ 12/91) recognize that most people want to keep their grassy lawns but with a lot less effort. Readers of Smart Yard will quickly realize that the subtitle's 60-minutes-per-week claim will only take effect a year or more after they make the initial investment in time and effort to renew or replace their lawn by improving the soil, choosing appropriate grass varieties, aerating and dethatching, eliminating most herbicides and pesticides, and assuring frequent but "tall" mowing that leaves the grass around two inches high. The result will be a healthier lawn that will resist drought, diseases, and pests and ultimately demand less pampering. In contrast, Daniels explains how and why to replace turfgrass with other plants to create an entirely new kind of lawn. Examples include prairie and native grass lawns, meadows, moss lawns and woodlands, ground covers, and front-yard gardens. Since many antilawn mavericks have gotten into trouble because of local ordinances and homeowners' associations, Daniels (a former editor of Organic Gardening) includes a chapter on how to deal with such opposition. The Wild Lawn Handbook will find a much smaller audience than the more mainstream Smart Yard, but it gathers together a great deal of specific, practical information that may be hard to find elsewhere, as well as examples of successfully installed alternative lawns. Both books are highly recommended for most gardening collections."--Beth Clewis, Library Journal. "Native grasses, wildflowers, ground covers, and moss are Daniels' answer to "monotonous single-species turfgrass lawns." Her book is a primer for gardeners who want to reduce or stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, conserve water, or turn their yards into a collection of plants that attracts birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. There are detailed instructions on choosing a wild lawn and on installing and maintaining the lawn, and even a chapter on landscaping ordinances. Daniels divides the wild lawns into chapters on prairies and native grasses, meadows, moss lawns, woodlands, ground covers, and front-yard gardens. The result is little need for polluting fertilizers and demanding watering regimens--and you won't have to mow ever again. This comprehensive book includes 16 color photographs."--George Cohen, Booklist.… (more)