I try to keep my whining about back-the-scenes IT problems to a minimum but can I just say it’s been three weeks since I’ve been able to publish a new post, or even upload a frigging photo! Finally, that’s all behind us – fingers crossed. This blog and website are safely hosted by a new company (Hostgator) and ready for action!
What’s Happened in 3 Weeks?
My Lawn Reform buddies and I have been busy. We were mentioned in a wonderful article by Adrian Higgins for the Washington Post, which is now showing up across the country thanks to syndication. We’ve also acquired three new members – details coming soon. And our new Facebook page is jumping with action!
I was one of 70-some gardenbloggers shown a fabulous, fabulous time at our meet-up in Buffalo, about which there are dozens of blog posts compiled right here. I have to admit it was downright discouraging to see how many of my fellow gardenbloggers are better photographers than I am.
This gardenblogger got the opportunity to talk about garden-center blogging at a DC-based marketing salon, hopefully reaching a larger audience about the wonders of blogging and networking by local businesses.
And my team’s video about a new civic center was shown at a local documentary film festival. Two media events in one week? Yeah, bring it on.
Just today a bunch of garden writers are calling out Scotts MiracleGro for possible (wink) hypocrisy on the subject of sustainability. Please weigh in while we’re awaiting their promised response.
Coming up soon
Photos of the gardens of Bethany, Maryland. Low-maintenance, beachy gardens.
Reporting from the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago. They’ve graciously invited all four GardenRanters to talk – about the whole “green” thing. We have no shortage of opinions to offer them.
In early September, reports from the national conference of the American Society of Landscape Architects being held right here in D.C. I promise to find THE most interesting stuff to tell you about.
Possibly, photos of great gardens in New England…if I can stand to leave the two babies in my family long enough to make the trip. (Jerry and Harry below, keeping me company as I write this very post). The trip would include the garden of Layanee DeMerchant and Blithewold in Rhode Island, the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, and who-knows-what out on Cape Code and Martha’s Vineyard. It’ll be heavenly there in early September, right?
Apologies for this photoless post but after 2 days of server errors that prevent uploading photos at all (the dreaded “Error 500″) I’m giving up and publishing. Photos coming soon – I hope.
Lately I’m noticing more local gardeners looking for plant suggestions to replace their lawns, and some of the suggestions offered on gardening listservs include the more drought-tolerant native plants, like Prairie Dropseed, Rudbeckia and Carex. Others write to tel us they’re trying creeping perennials that can be walked on a bit, especially the vigorous low sedums that do so well on green roofs.
But finding the right plants for a particular landscape is tougher than you’d think.
1. How Tall is It?
First, a definition or two are in order. All sorts of things are used to replace lawns – even patios and veg gardens - so it’s fine to call them lawn replacements. But let’s use the term “alternative lawn” for something that’s lawnlike – short, no taller than a foot. It performs the lawnlike design function of keeping a space open.
Another great thing about short plants is the safety they provide for us humans. Anything taller than 6-12 inches is a tick magnet that’s best not walked through or near. Lyme disease is spread by deer and even more often, by rodents, and rodents just love tall grasses. And there’s other wildlife to consider. Once when I had a lawn I tried just stopping the mowing and a month later I was seeing snakes scamper as I walked through the stuff. Goodbye tall grass! (With apologies to snake-lovers reading this. I have to be true to my comfort zone.)
And of course, plants 6″ and shorter don’t need to be mowed, ever!
2. Is it Step-on-able?
If the space needs to walked on or through, the options are to have paths or to use plants that can be stepped on occasionally. Plus, if you water by hand, the plants need to also withstand having the hose dragged over them. This rules out woody plants that would break when stepped on, and the same for most perennials, even short ones like Lamb’s ears, Geraniums and Coreopsis.
3. How Self-Sustaining is It?
What’s gotten us all looking for alternatives in the first place is the desire and need to use fewer resources, especially water in the turfgrass-ridiculous parts of the country. (Arizona, what are you thinking?) We also want plants that need no herbicides or pesticides, and only minimal (all natural) fertilizing. And as mentioned above, no need for polluting mowers.
And the very key to plant sustainability is that it require very little of the resource known as maintenance – the gardener’s time and effort.
4. Does it Fill in Quickly?
If you’ve ever removed turfgrass you know that the bare soil that results doesn’t stay bare for long because impressive numbers of weeds emerge from the soil and arrive by air. Bare ground also causes erosion, and however virtuous we may feel about removing turfgrass, we’re better not let its removal add to the degradation of our waterways as a result. (Yes, I’ve seen that happen.)
So to cover the soil – completely – you could just plant very closely and achieve instant coverage. That’s great if your space is small enough or budget large enough. For a more modest budget, you could still cover a sizable area within a season or two by using plants that spread quickly and vigorously. Like the turfgrasses they replace, they fill in quickly to do the job of weed suppression and protection from hard rains.
5. Does it Look Good All Year?
And most homeowners want these prominent spaces to be covered with plants that look good in the winter. That’s especially important in front yards, for the enjoyment of the homeowners and for good neighborly relations. Most sedums look good enough in winter, for example, and so does Prairie Dropseed, despite its dead foliage. For evergreen grasses, the Carex family is bountiful.
6. What’s it Got for the Pollinators and other Wildlife?
And we’re all more aware these days of the need to provide for pollinators, something that the turfgrass monocultures fail at miserably. Clover, a self-fertilizing import, is wonderful in this regard, feeding honeybees and native pollinators alike. Creeping sedums are also great for pollinators, and it’s safe to assume any regionally native plant is, too. And the greater the number of different plants, the better, though if more than one plant is used they have to co-exist well over time. That last point is a lesson I’ve learned through failures in both my front and back alternative lawns (more about that coming soon).
There may be more than these six, but I honestly hope not. The choice is complicated enough.
I hope you have plant swaps near near you because they’re such a cool way to get free plants, especially ones that are new to you. Also, you can talk to the plant’s donor about it, and it’s honesty just fun to talk plants with other enthusiasts. This swap was organized by Kathy Jentz on behalf of Washington Gardener Magazine and it’s undisputed that she’s terrific at organizing this type of gardening event or really, any type – photo contests, speaker series – you name it. We probably don’t thank her enough.
Now about the plants I brought home. One is a pink crape myrtle about 2 feet tall and the other is totally new to me – labeled “Cassia Marylandica Senna”. I think this mean it’s a Maryland Wild Senna, which is native to most of the Eastern and Midwestern U.S.
Senna’s in the pea family and looks a lot like Baptisia, another native, but the donor explained that Senna forms a nice mass of roots, so doesn’t hate being moved like the taprooted Baptisia. She also told us it becomes HUGE over the season, then it dies back to the ground over winter like the big perennial it is – not an actual woody shrub – and starts again the next year. Sounds great!
Via Google I found this website, which says that it indeed grows to an impressive 6 feet tall, likes full sun, and likes soil that’s “moist to mesic” – which manages to inform almost no one and certainly not me about what this plant actually needs. You can take that as a mini-rant.
Top photo by Kathy Jentz. I’m on the far left contemplating the asphalt. Lower photo by Jerry Old Nettel.
Oh, I hate choosing winners of giveaways, which is why I usually do it randomly. But this time I was looking for someone who might put the edger/trimmer to an interesting, blog-worthy use. That’s right, I’m hoping that Chrystal (the 4th commenter here) will report back to us on her battles with the HOA she’s unwittingly ruled by in suburban Atlanta.
Congratulations to Chrystal and here’s hoping that some quick civilizing of your freedom lawn with an edger/trimmer DOES buy you points with the HOA.
Just as I was researching how best to maintain my replacement-type lawns (clover and creeping perennials), the tool guys at Black&Decker offered me a spanking new 24-Volt Cordless String Trimmer/Edger to review and boy howdy, did I say yes.
My Review
In trim mode I needed it to shorten the groundcovers along the stone pathway and it accomplished that easily, even using the Normal power setting (there’s also a Boost setting). Then in edger mode I wanted to trim around all the stepping stones, which were completely hidden by plants. This was also easy but actually fun because it uncovered my long-missing fieldstones.
Before and after shots above, and below is a little video demonstrating both trim and edge modes.
Next, I tried the trimmer out on my neighbor’s Liriope spicata (right), which in its vigor was obscuring her stepping stones, and again it did the job easily. This is really good news because us Lawn Reformers can promote these plants as super-low-care alternatives to lawns, with no mowing required. Just a couple of trims each season can, I think, keep lawn-like but turfgrass-free spaces neat and navigable.
B&D also asked me to comment on comfort and weight and I can say I was totally comfortable using the thing. I did put on hard clogs for the job – Safety First! – but then proceeded to do the job with my legs bare – Safety Not So Much! Like too many customers, I didn’t read all the safety precautions, but I just bet that covering your legs is one of them.
Now having used a corded electric lawnmower and hated that damn cord with surprising intensity, I’ve gotta say the cord-free nature of this tool is fabulous. What freedom! I used the trimmer for about 30 minutes on a single charge and I assume it’ll last longer than that, but don’t know yet exactly how long.
How Green is It?
That’s the question everyone’s asking about everything – fair nuf – and it’s not a slamdunk in this case because some amount of electricity IS required, though not much for just a path. The point is, it’s far better than any gas-powered cutting device because it produces no emissions.
And keeping in mind the many gardeners who need power tools, we don’t point fingers at their use, responsibly done. Count me in as a Boomer desperately seeking ways to garden standing up, not kneeling and bending over. Ouch.
So what ARE the human-powered tool alternatives? One option is the old-fashioned sycthe, but the motion is a wide side-to-side affair, which is good at whacking down meadows but not for fine trimming in the garden. For edging only, there are nonpower tools for that and I hope to try one out soon.
How to Win One If you’d like one of these handy tools for your own lawn – alternative or regular – just leave a comment to win one. Tell us why you need a cordless trimmer/edger, what you’d do with it, how crappy your yard looks without it – you get the idea. Entries accepted til 6 p.m. EDT Sunday June 27.
First, we have a Facebook Page – please “Like” it to follow news of the hottest issue in gardening today! True, we initially set up a Group on Facebook but as many users have discovered, Pages are better for campaigns like this one, so we’ll be asking Groupies to move on over to the page.
And to keep even MORE folks up to date about lawn-related happenings – even people who are Facebook-averse – we also have a newsletter we’ll be publishing at least quarterly, and you can sign up right here.
Now while we’re collecting subscribers for our first e-newsletter to be sent in September, here’s the sort of news we’ll be stuffing into our newsletters, and of course updating to our Facebook page.
Saxon Holt Joins Us
Welcome, Saxon! Here’s why we thought he’d be a valuable partner in this campaign, from our About page: Saxon Holt is a professional garden photographer whose images are well recognized in hundreds of magazine and book credits. In his work he seeks to change the aesthetic of what we expect to see in a garden photograph so that the media portrays authentic and sustainable gardens. ”The American Meadow Garden” and his two most previous books, Hardy Succulents, and Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates, were all awarded prizes by the Garden Writers of America as “outstanding books”. He owns the stock photography library PhotoBotanic and blogs regularly at Gardening Gone Wild.
Coalition Members doing Lawn Work
Evelyn Hadden and Saxon Holt have contracted with Timber Press to write and photograph the upcoming Lose Your Lawn. We can’t wait to see it.
Paul Tukey sends us this news of SafeLawns.org: “The film, A Chemical Reaction, has now been shown in more than 150 locations and we’re working on distribution on Netflix and Amazon. We are hosting SafeLawns Organics Night Sept. 10 at GWA in Dallas: a reception that will include a screening of the film, a moderated panel and drinks etc. We’re developing a children’s book about lawns. We’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of our blog, and there’s a project too big to even talk about yet, but it will be the BIGGEST thing I’ve ever done in my career”. Okay, we’re curious.
Tom Christopher has also been busy working to reform the American Lawn. He edited a book for Timber Press about sustainable gardening which will be published next spring. It includes a chapter about lawn alternatives by John Greenlee and an introduction to no-mow lawns by Neil Diboll. Tom’s been working with fine fescues himself, planting a couple of lawns for friends and neighbors and a demonstration plot at his town hall, and will be reporting his findings soon.
Tom Engleman writes: “The Grass Roots Program has just now launched on a grant study with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. We are comparing Tall Fescue, Bermuda Grass and Buffalograss lawns using various irrigation practices. The study runs for 1 year — after which we are hearing that MWD will likely recommend and adopt widespread change for traditional lawns in their HUGE service area!! Moreover, other Western water supplies will likely follow MWD’s lead on such innovation.
When the study is completed next summer, I’ll pass on our conclusions and MWD recommendations. “ Good work, Tom!
Susan Morrison is leading workshops as part of a statewide California Master Gardener public outreach program that teaches actionable, sustainable gardening practices, including the benefits of reducing turfgrass. Susan tells us that “in California, many gardeners understand the need to conserve water, but they’re shocked to learn that run-off from irrigated lawns often contains fertilizers and pesticides that flow directly into local watersheds. We’re so used to pointing the finger at corporations, we don’t realize that we homeowners are a bigger source of water pollution.”
And I (Susan Harris, if this link makes the rounds), posted a video about the mosaic of groundcovers that replaced my front lawn. My ex-lawns, both front and back, were recently photographed by Saxon Holt for Lose Your Lawn. And I’ve been invited to join the Lawn for Pollinators Task Force of theNorth American Pollinator Campaign when they meet in D.C. this fall. More conspiring for the cause!
Fine Gardening Mag’s Editor Steve Aitken published a balanced, reform-minded editorial about lawns in their Feb/2010 issue as an introduction to Susan Harris’s article on lawn alternative plants.
Nice article by Debra Prinzing in Alaska Airlines Magazine and fortunately, also on her website.
Urban Farm magazine ran a feature about the Coalition and the cause, not online.
Not online but we’ll take it: the June issue of Prevention Magazine has article on natural lawn care (mainly organic fertilizers) and Reader’s Digest also recently tackled the topic.
On the Legislative Front
Natural lawncare advocates are celebrating the signing of a tough anti-pesticide bill by New York Governor David Paterson. The Child Safe Playing Fields Act, which bans the use of chemical pesticides on school playing fields and playgrounds, is being called “historic” by our Paul Tukey.
Nice Examples of Alternatives
Gardening Gone Wild tackled groundcovers, and here’s their roundup of blog posts on the subject. Great stuff!
One blogger wrote to tell he he’s “the caretaker of what is apparently the first homeowner buffalo grass lawn in Phoenix – it’s the new variety UC Verde, with its exceptional heat tolerance and modest water needs). He blogged about the entire process and reports that “even as a startup lawn it was using less water starting plugs than established Bermuda grass takes.”
Paul Tukey is featuring a different groundcover (and alternative lawn) every Wednesdays, starting with lemon thyme and Goldmoss sedum.
photo! Finally, that’s all behind us – fingers crossed. This blog and website are safely hosted by a new company (Hostgator) and ready for action!
