The Complete Guide for Creating a Beautiful, Eco-friendly, Water-Wise, Low Maintenance Front Yard With increased drought conditions and water restrictions, many homeowners are choosing to let their lawns die, but do not know what to do next. People are seeking green and "green" alternatives that are attractive, affordable and easy to maintain. This book is designed to provide the reader with a recipe for designing their own custom, beautiful and eco-friendly front yard. Like a recipe, there can be limitless variations in ingredients, flavors and presentation but the basic steps always apply. The author takes the reader from Getting Started, where she shows how to create a base plan, drawn to scale on grid paper, which will become the foundation for Defining Your Vision, Creating Your Design, Selecting Your Plants, Accessorizing Your Yard, and finally, Installing Your Design.

Continuing his exploration of popular American culture, Schroeder investigates how the front yard came to be, with its clipped lawns, shaped bushes, conventional flowers, noble shade trees, sidewalk frames, and other elements denoting respectability. He notes that it came into being between 1870 and 1890, and has persisted against the criticism, indeed the ridicule, of landscape designers, architects, urban planners, and other professionals and aesthetes. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

In Front Yard Gardens, Primeau explains how an environmentally friendly and well-planned front yard garden is a small step toward healing the damage done by pesticides and other lawn-care products. This book covers planning and designing, and outlines the steps involved in removing grass, enriching the soil and planting. Primeau discusses the key elements of various front yard garden styles, gives tips on how to create and maintain the garden, and provides lists of complementary plants.--COVER.

If there's one lesson every homeowner must learn, it's this: The traditional lawn is a huge, time consuming, synthetic-chemical sucking mistake. The time has come to look for new ways to create friendly, livable spaces around our homes. In The American Meadow Garden, ornamental grass expert John Greenlee creates a new model for homeowners and gardeners. For Greenlee, a meadow isn't a random assortment of messy, anonymous grasses. Rather, it is a shimmering mini-ecosystem, in which regionally appropriate grasses combine with colorful perennials to form a rich tapestry that is friendly to all life — with minimal input of water, time, and other scarce resources. Kids and pets can play in complete safety, and birds and butterflies flock there. A prairie style planting is a place you want to be. With decades of experience as a nurseryman and designer, John Greenlee is the perfect guide. He details all the practicalities of site preparation, plant selection, and maintenance; particularly valuable are his explanations of how ornamental grasses perform in different climates and areas. Gorgeous photography by Saxon Holt visually illustrates the message with stunning examples of meadow gardens from across the country. We've reached a stage where we can no longer follow past practices unthinkingly, particularly when those practices are wasteful and harmful to the environment. It's time to get rid of the old-fashioned lawn and embrace a sane and healthy future: the American meadow garden.

Includes entries, paths and steps, driveways and parking, property boundaries, foundation plantings, ground covers, plantings, and lighting.

“Ted Steinberg proves once again that he is a master storyteller as well as our foremost environmental historian.”—Mike Davis The rise of the perfect lawn represents one of the most profound transformations in the history of the American landscape. American Green, Ted Steinberg's witty exposé of this bizarre phenomenon, traces the history of the lawn from its explosion in the postwar suburban community of Levittown to the present love affair with turf colorants, leaf blowers, and riding mowers.