“We’ve reached a stage where we can no longer follow past practices unthinkingly, particularly when those practices are wasteful and injurious to the environment. It’s time to get rid of the old-fashioned lawn and embrace a sane and healthy future: the designed meadow.” – John Greenlee
In The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn, “grass guru” John Greenlee leads us into a new way of thinking about grass. He uses the words “glade,” “grassland,” “mead,” “savanna,” “pasture,” “sod,” and “meadow” among other terms, to describe areas around the world that are largely treeless, grass-covered landscapes.
These words paint an image of golden or green grassy carpets, rippling in a breeze. In this beautiful book, we are given a portfolio of meadow gardens and a guide to grasses for meadows and how to maintain them.
We’re constantly looking for ways in which to cope with our water-challenged world in California and Greenlee offers alternatives to our lawn habit. In many areas, aquifers are dwindling and water is increasingly scarce. There is no longer enough of it to supply lawns. Growing populations and dwindling supply is our scary future and our landscapes must change with the times. The American Meadow Garden was published in 2009, but the relevance of the information and ideas within its covers increases every year.
The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn, by John Greenlee, Timber Press 2009