Beautiful No-Mow Yards is just what American gardeners need. And you can win it right here

In the last year or so, we're hearing that there are better uses for our land than turfgrass, that unless it's needed for sport or play, you can save on resources and probably your labor, too, by switching to an array of alternatives - meadows, vegetable gardens, native grasse, and so on. 

All good!  Well, mostly good - because that well-intentioned advice isn't easy to actually implement, without a LOT more information.  Which groundcovers? Which native grasses - and native to where, anyway?  How much do the alternatives cost, can they be walked on, and how much work does it really take to maintain them?

My mixed reviews of much of the lawn-free cheering has me wildly cheering the thoroughly researched and honestly reported definitive book about reducing or eliminating lawns by Evelyn Hadden.  Beautiful No-Mow Yards contains exactly the kind of info that's needed, and its gorgeous photographs (most by Evelyn and the wonderful Saxon Holt, too) are deeply inspirational to anyone looking to make their yards more interesting, more beautiful, and more wildlife-friendly.

Meet Evelyn

Readers of GardenRant are no strangers to this subject (see the many stories in our Lawn Reform category), but may not be familiar with the author.  Well, Evelyn is THE original lawn reformer, having written Shrink Your Lawn and created the Less Lawn website back in 2001.  She's a pioneer whose cause has caught on.

What's in Beautiful No-Mow Yards

• Photos and stories about gardens sunny and shady, flat and hilly, a "shockingly simple meadow garden", a "patio for pennies", rain gardens, edibles, ponds, terraces, hellstrips and more.
• "Smarter lawns" using fine fescue mixes, carexes, and other low-resource grass types, including where each type works best and what it takes to install and maintain them.
• Real gardeners and the truth about their attempts to replace their lawns, failures and all. 
• How-to chapters for killing the lawn, designing alternatives, and maintaining them.
• An illustrated guide to groundcovers by type.

Here's Evelyn's quick video introduction to the book.

Just one more photo from the book for now (more coming this afternoon, I hope), and a confession.  That's my garden on the cover!  And in the photo on the left, both by Saxon Holt.  (Though I suppose I should start saying "former garden," since I sold it three weeks ago. Sigh.)

Plus, I wrote the foreward, happy to help in any way I could because this book is soooo needed. 

So I feel like the proud aunt to Evelyn's baby. Her beautiful, superbly written baby.  Great job!

WIN THIS BOOK
Just leave a comment about lawns or alternatives thereto, and I'll choose one at random.  Entries close Friday at midnight Eastern.

Comments

[Barbara Dellinger]

I Would love to have this book! I am lucky to have 1/3 acre...but am so done with the watering (dragging the hose across the yard) and the mowing and the weeding. A few veggie beds have taken up some of the yard but I need inspiration for the rest!

[Marie Tulin]

Where did the lawn go?
Let me count the ways
North, South, East, West
Replaced by groundcovers
I love the best.

Microbiota, carex large and small
Japanese grasses, “Homefires” plox,
Gotta love them all!

Two front yard maples gone
(the grass never grew)
Nor anything else, so what’s new?
Replaced by special shrubs that glow,
Coppertina, fothergilla and rhus “Low Grow”

[Marie Tulin]

Part 2
Confession: there remains an oval of grass,
(too weedy to be called turf)
Brightened by dandelions, coarsened by weeds,
Graced by white clover that pleases my bees

Gave up the gas mower, got a Neuton
Damn, is that battery already gone?
Still love my green patch
That sets off the blossoms ,
Cools my toes , but needs no hose
Envy me, for this is Boston

Winning this book would affirm my goal
And what’s been accomplished,
But…. be not proud my soul!

For though I yearn for recognition,
When the mower dies, I’m still bitchin’
Lord, help me reduce my greensward strife
Warning grass! Here comes the knife!

[Michael Meister]

We have been gradually replacing the grass in our yard with mostly native plants and paths. And we bought a Fiskars manual reel mower last year to keep the remaining grass under control. We are always looking for ideas for replacing the remaining grass.

[Cathy Moylan]

Sob story: The Sycamore on the sidewalk in front of my house crushed the clay sewage pipe going into my house, flooding the basement with about 6 inches of...manure. Yard has been excavated...twenty years of gardening gone. My beautifully nurtured soil is now buried under rubble. Time to begin again. Did I win? If not, i am buying this book!

[Sally in SC]

Where can we buy this book? Amazon has it listed from Apex books at $999.99!!!

[Evelyn Hadden]

Sally, thanks for asking!

The book is going to publish in a couple of weeks, but you can pre-order it now from any online bookseller or from your local bookstore. (The Amazon page currently has a glitch, but I've notified them and it should be fixed in a couple days at most.)

You can also support Timber Press by ordering it directly from them at this page: http://www.timberpress.com/books/beautiful_no_mow_yards/hadden/9781604692389

[Linda]

We'll be moving soon, and will be getting rid of most of the lawn in the new place (it will have a permaculture forest garden instead). We'll still need a bit of lawn for our dogs to play on though, so we're looking into alternatives. Preferably a grass that's low water, and a bit tougher than the usual variety that they tend to rip to shreds.

[Beckie]

My lawn is an eye sore and I need to replace it with a new lawn or..........

I need ideas!

[Lynne Cason]

I'd love this book! I have several gardens but a lot more grass to move out! This book will give me more ideas on what to do. So far we're also working on de-grassing the ditch out front where our rose garden is. We plan on putting in low growing clovers, birdsfoot trefoil and other natural flowers as well as planting some squil. But we also have lots of work to do in the front of our large property.We've already expanded the two cottage gardens, but it's a large area.

[Evelyn Hadden]

For Sally and others who may have tried to order through Amazon: their glitch is now fixed, pre-ordering works. Hope you will enjoy the book!