Review
"In a book long awaited by green mavens and horticultural enthusiasts, Greenlee's dynamic garden designs are paired with Holt's splendid photographs in a beautifully produced, information-packed volume that looks at meadows in the context of garden spaces large or small."
(
Booklist )
"This is the rare species of garden book with a continental-wide scope from a West Coast point of view." (
San Francisco Chronicle )
"If you've ever thought of abandoning your lawn but haven't yet,
The American Meadow Garden will surely inspire you to action … Take a long look at your lawn mower, and then go buy this book." (
American Gardener )
"After you read this book, you'll wonder why you ever entertained the idea of a lawn." (
Garden Design Online )
"Finally, John Greenlee—who is part of America’s trinity of Gramineous Gods—has mapped out his lifetime of experience creating successful meadows. I highly recommend this treasure trove of a book." (
Denver Botanic Gardens blog )
"You’ll be rethinking labor-and-resource-intensive lawns after a couple of minutes with
The American Meadow Garden." (
Oregonian )
“This is not a book about how to create the purist’s wildflower meadow, but breaks new ground in showing how garden plants can be used to create a meadow-like environment. Saxon Holt’s photography is beautiful, and Greenlee’s prose the right blend of informative and occasionally provocative.”
(
Gardens Illustrated )
“As you turn the pages you will start to imagine that you are sprawled out in the meadow of your dreams, the grasses swooshing over your head … It’s not every book that lifts you from your reading nook and opens wide the vista of the heavens.”
(
Chicago Tribune )
"A paean to grassy, no-mow landscapes that shiver, shimmer and wave … Greenlee’s easy prose welcomes all comers to aim higher than slabs of pool-table green."
(Ketzel Levine
NPR.org )
"[This book] is the gold standard when it comes to meadow gardening … I've read endless articles on meadow gardening, and none have given me the depth of information that made me feel confident that this would not be a maintenance nightmare."
(
Detroit News )
“With Holt’s photographs, this is a large and colorful showcase of Greenlee’s extensive knowledge and great passion for gardening. His enthusiasm [is] infectious …gardeners … will find this book extremely helpful and inspirational.” (
Library Journal )
About the Author
Saxon Holt has combined his career as a photographer with a lifelong love of gardening. His work has appeared in dozens of books and gardening magazines. He is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, the American Society of Picture Professionals, and the Garden Writers of America Association, from which he has received three awards for his photography.
John Greenlee has been creating grass ecologies in gardens of all sizes all over the United States and Canada since 1984. He owns Greenlee Nursery, the oldest grass nursery in California. He has appeared frequently on television and was named horticulturist of the year in 2002 by the Southern California Association of Horticulturists. His previous book is
The Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses (Rodale 1992). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from Cal Poly, Pomona, California.
