Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives

In many American towns and cities, the steady hum of lawn mowers and gasoline-powered weed whackers constitutes a summer symphony. Neighbors often vie with one another to grow the greenest and lushest lawn, free of dandelions or crabgrass, and often shun those neighbors who choose an alternative to the orderly, closely cut patches of grass or sod. Experts now recognize lawns as the largest irrigated crop in the United States, and the chemical pesticides and fertilizers we use on our lawns have polluted our surface water and contaminated our groundwater. Drawing examples from expert gardeners from around the world, garden design expert Hadden (Shrink Your Lawn) suggests a number of ways that lawns can be replaced by meadow and prairie gardens, rain gardens, or edible gardens, among others. She then takes us step-by-step through the process of converting a lawn to a garden and maintaining it, offering very thorough recommendations for a significant variety of plants that thrive in various types of gardens. With refreshing zeal, the author urges us to rethink our yards, helping us to see that a lawnless or a less-lawn landscape can fascinate us with its beauty, complexity, and variability. (Feb. 7)