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

[Jane Cothron]

Oh--how very cool! I've been wanting something with directions and caveats on moving from a yard full of grass to something that's more interesting. Thanks for this.

[OctopusGallery]

I thankfully had no lawn when I moved into my house, saved me a lot of work. Alas, my neighbor still has one. She's got a mow, blow, and go crew that likes to blow clippings all over my driveway and carnivorous plant bog. Perhaps I can use this to convince her.

[Michelle]

Lovely photos. I havw been looking for an alternative to lawn that is dog friendly. The only ideas i have had so far involve mulch or gravel over the entire yard. I saw this in arizona and it was beautifully done with native xeric plants throughout. However, i live in maryland and dont think it could be successfully done and be in tune with the surroundings. If anyone has done anything that works for a dog friendly (she needs space to run!) lawn alternative, i would love to know about it.

[Kris Peterson]

This book comes out at a very opportune moment for me. I've spent the last few days staring at the lawn at our "new" house (we've been here a year now), trying to decide where and how to take my next whack it. I removed a small portion of lawn in late Summer last year, filling in with Rosemary, Thyme and miscellaneous drought-tolerant shrubs but this place is a little over 1/2 an acre with LOTS of grass and it's much more daunting than my last effort with a postage-size yard. I can't believe I once wanted a place with 2 acres...

[Sallie Sills]

We replaced our entire front lawn with native wildflowers a few years ago in Bozeman, MT. We now are in a new place in NY and I would love some ideas and inspiration for our new front soon-to-be-smaller lawn.

[Les]

Over the years I have managed to rid my garden of all of its lawn areas. They only thing left is the city property (though I am responsible for it) between the sidewalk and the street, but I turn a few more sq. feet of that into garden each year.

Last summer I went on a garden tour and one of the homes had a no-mow lawn made entirely of mondo grass. I found it way cool, here is a pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atidewatergardener/5802148985/

[Liza]

My husband and I are in a constant battle over the lawn. We have grass, grass and more grass. He even gets a lawn service to treat it a few times each spring! I am so in favor of getting rid of most of it. This book would be a great help in getting us spurred on to rip up the yard! I need some concrete plans of action that are beautiful and acceptable enough to not irk the neighbors in my very suburban hood.

[Michelle]

I would love this book. I have been chopping away at the grass all my life!

[Peter Hoh]

There's a lot less lawn at my house since I started to garden, but I haven't yet convinced my wife to let me replace the front lawn.

My goal is to replace the lawn with ground cover, rocks, and paths. And then to get two large planters, in which I'll plant -- and maintain -- a perfect, tiny lawn.

[Carole Bryan]

I have been working on this for years! The plan was to have all the grass gone before all the boys moved out...didn't make it but still trying. My "sod dump" in the back has turned out to be a great compost pile. Every blade that I remove is one that I don't have to mow (or pay someone to mow)!

[Michael - Plano Prairie Garden]

I am interested in this book. I removed my lawn and planted prairie grasses and flowers, but I am always considering new ideas.

[Carol]

My husband asked me, "Is it my imagination, or is it taking me less and less time each year to cut the grass?" I have gotten rid of about half of it, but would love some more inspiration.

[Mary Gantz]

Books like this that show beautiful alternatives to lawns are just what we need to convince people of the aesthetic appeal. I would love to win this book!

[commonweeder]

I am slowly removing lawn. Barrenwort. Shrubs. and thyme in the lawn. Very British.The book looks beautiful and inspiring. It would add to the momentum.

[Alicia]

I would love to win this! A neighbor down the street recently filled her font yard with native plants. At first everything was tiny, but it filled in beautifully over the years.

[becky edmondson]

I gotta say, IMO Lorrie Otto was really the original no-lawn revolutionary, who turned her suburban lawn in Madison, WI,into prairie in 1970. She surely was the first to battle pin-headed town officials about mowing her abundant yard--and she won.

[Tiffany]

I am so excited about this book! I have two and a half acres of useless lawn. I have a permaculture site plan worked out and will need to spend the rest of my life putting it all in and eradicating all this useless, time consuming grass.

[Marie Tulin]

Gee, I don't think my poem is so good that it needs to printed twice. When I went to look for it, I didn't see it....so I pasted it again.

Maybe, though, my message can be re-stated:
it is a process that takes some guts!
Marie

[Marie Tulin]

Second message that makes no sense: my poem's not here at all. It was probably too long.
sigh.
Marie

[Angela]

We eliminated the 'lawn' under our big cedar tree and replaced with bark -- best move we ever made.

[Linda Brraid]

Looking to plant a couple trees to shade the house. And I want an arbor, and a rose hedge, and herbs and vegs mixed in with perennials,,,, and somebody to do all the work!

[A. Marina Fournier]

I thought that garden photo looked familiar! Thanks for validating what passes for my memory any more.

In my Santa Cruz home, we removed the "hardscape" to find on one side, the buried former driveway, and on the other, really good soil. At that time, my son (18 on the 28th!) was too young for me to feel comfortable playing in the unfenced front yard. There were three boulders that had to be put in the small lawned area in the mid-back yard, where if he fell off them, no sudden trip to the ER would be needed. On the driveway side, half-barrels were laid out with citrus or roses in them, and one Wintersweet plant.
On the other side, with the Canary Island Date Palm (male) in the center, and a downspout in an unfortunate location (set to destroy our foundation) we put in a drip irrigation system, underneath the weed cloth and "gorilla hair", with roses having been pre-placed before anything was laid down. There was also a "dry creek bed" meandering from that downspout out to the curb, which was practical in Bay Area winter, and decorative in summer. At the curb, and up the sidewalk to the house were placed lavendars and a few rosemary, which only got seasonal rain and runoff from the drip system (in other words, hardly any).

[Natalie, the Chickenblogger]

I want to kill some lawn.
And I want to read this book!

[adela]

I would LOVE to have this book! it looks so beautiful! winning this book would change my life!

[SJ]

I have had a no mow front and back yard for 12 years now. What prompted me was having to load the lawnmower in the pickup truck once a week and drive round the front with it because the gangway between the back of the house and front was too narrow to wheel it down without having pull it sideways. Got real tired of doing that for a whole season. It kept catching on the chain link fence!