Lawn / Less Lawn
The most frequently asked-about topic in all of gardening has got to be 
lawn care - ask any gardening expert. So here's what I recommend for healthy, low-care, eco-friendly lawns, plus ways to reduce its size or get rid of it altogether. People are desperate for better alternatives to traditional lawn care.
Articles on this Site
Earth-friendly Lawn Care around the Year explains out how and when to seed, how and when to feed - everything you need to know for a lawn that's safe and healthy for your family, pets, wildlife, and the local waterways.
The Great American Delawning Movement offers lots of alternatives to lawn - meadows, serious veggie patches, woodland gardens, even installing fake turf or decking over the whole yard. Plus ways to make your lawn smaller. Lots of choices.
My Standard Disclaimer about Lawn Removal may shock some readers because it's a defense of turfgrass - if it's grown organically. While I'm happy to see people questioning the need for lawn, I fear that painting it as all bad will turn off potential converts to environmentally responsible lawn care.
Stories from the Garden
- One Gardener's Quest to be Mower-Free elicited some great comments from gardeners and professionals about how they're coping with lawns and alternatives thereto.
- Living Life in Clover might surprise you. Turns out it's not a weed after all.
- Big Thumb's up for Safelawns.org covers the kick-off to a great cause.
- How to Kill the Lawn? What to Replace it With? This article asks those questions and gets some comments.
- Comments to this article about Artificial Turf educated me on the subject, and it was humbling (however briefly).
- In Lawn as a Low-Maintenance Solution, organic gardening expert Mike McGrath is consulted for some wisdom.
- This report on No-Mow Grass is worth a look.
- In To Make a Meadow we learn it's not so easy.
- A landscape architect in California weighs in on lawn-killing, here and here.
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Michael Pollan's Case Against Lawns
More Great Info on Line
- Here's the advice of a trusted nursery on restoring an old lawn or starting a new one.
- And I'm a big fan of Paul Tukey and the gang at SafeLawns.org for spreading the word about organic lawn care. There are videos and more on that link.
More Information in Print
- Organic Lawn Care
by Paul Tukey, spokesman for the important SafeLawns campaign. - Down to Earth Natural Lawn Care
by Raymond
- Food not Lawn
- Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn