Customer Reviews

The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I waited a few years for this book to finally come out after hearing Mr. Greenlee give a talk at the SF AIA. It is everything I recall him promising, but way better. He not only discusses the beauty and environmental sense of meadow gardens, but gives good INFORMATION on site prepraration, design, and maintenance. As a landscape architect, I would strongly recommend anyone considering a meadow-inspired garden to actually read the text (which is well written). Too many coffee table books are crap reads, this one is markedly better and the best of its kind. I'm SO glad I kept looking for it and was able to pre-order.

The photos in this book are lovely - inspired alternatives to lawns and endless mowing. Planning, planting and maintenance are nicely described.

However, the enormous majority of photos and gardens are California or the southwest (there is one photo from the midwest, none from the east). Most the planting suggestions work only in zones 8 and up. As a result, the book has limited usefulness to those of us living in the rest of the country.

This book will make you want a meadow. I can't imagine how anyone could see these gorgeous images and read the author's argument for replacing traditional lawns and not want to start right away. The photographs are beautiful and the writing is very well done. I learned so much and I feel ready to plan a meadow of my own. My only wish is that the book covered more geographic areas...the vast majority of the gardens are Californian, but I am sure that is at least partly due to the fact that meadows as a landscape are not embraced all over the country (yet).

Though I pre-ordered this book and waited for three (3) months for the release, I now realize that I have actually been waiting for this book for years! After reading the American Meadow Garden, I feel positively free to dig up my lawn and replace it with a wonderland of ornamental grasses and native perennials.

I have been gardening on the East Coast for over 25 years and have been huge fan of John Greenlee's West Coast work. His other reference work on ornamental grasses is a staple in my gardening library. In that text, as in his new book he is always careful to address all regions and environmental conditions that horticulturists might face.

I have contemplated meadow gardening before, actually for a long time, as it is an age-old method of xeriscaping. I know full well that it is a nice thing to do for the Earth. I've researched the benefits, even visited sites such as Kurt Bluemel's design at the River Farm Meadow in Virginia that happens to be elgantly featured in this book ([...]). It always seemed like a nice place to visit and I really WOULD like to live there except for one hitch.

Truthfully, I've always worried about what the neighbors would say if I had huge stands of ornamental grasses and a soft, wispy palette of butterfly attracting perennials with no suburban turf. What would they say if I didn't meet neck and neck with the Saturday morning mower-brigade? Would the mulch guy stop sending a fruit-log at Christmas if I stopped ordering my annual 12 yards? How would visitors feel if I gave up on keeping tidy paths and elongated turf vistas in the traditional methods of Gertrude Jekyll and Rosemary Verey?

Who cares what they think; I hate fruit cake anyway! I have found a new truth. I will woo them all with my new effort that will be carefully mapped from my Greenlee guide. I will spend the winter contemplating the release of my inner passion to have my very own meadow. I now have a comprehensive plant list specific to my region and garden conditions. All that information, coupled with inspiration and confidence, I am now armed and looking forward to shopping for my new mini-ecosystem. Fingers crossed that I find the things that I truly want! Only question left is how I'll spend my Summer Saturdays. Perhaps collecting wildflowers in my yard with the faint background noise of "other people's mowers." Hope they catch on and buy the book!

I am enjoying the new crop of gardening books because most of them no longer masquerade as odes to gardening. Instead, authors and publishers make certain that books on horticulture empower readers to garden successfully. No matter how complex the topic, gardening advice now takes the form of an easily digestible manual, usually integrated into a reader-friendly text. The American Meadow Garden is a bold step in re-defining our outdoor environment. Here is a book that informs and instructs us how to use a meadow garden as an alternative for a lawn. Neat green lawns are becoming an albatross and an anachronism. Evolving lifestyles, shrinking natural resources, and a deepening concern about the chemicals that pollute our water table are causing some horticulturalists to re evaluate the role that lawns play in the quality of our life.

John Greenlee is a respected horticulturalist and writer who suggests using meadow gardens as an alternative to green lawns. This is not the stereotypical meadow with cows grazing. The author presents us with a relatively new concept for North America: a field of ornamental grasses punctuated by naturalized bulbs and native flowering perennials. The design of an urban park, influenced by this principle, already exists at the Lurie Gardens in Chicago. Mr. Greenlee believes that this landscape treatment is far more satisfying than either a lawn or a traditional mixed flower border and that it combines the best attributes of both. Furthermore, he argues, a meadow is more ecology-friendly than a lawn because it consumes fewer resources.

A meadow garden should not intimidate, as it does not need to be all encompassing and expansive. This substitute for a manicured lawn may be small enough to insert into any size garden plan. There it will serves as a place for the eyes to rest, or as a transition between formal garden and the wider landscape..

The scope of information covered by the author is vast yet distilled, so that the reader can learn without becoming overwhelmed. One chapter deals with grasses that work best for landscaping fields. Another chapter discusses the purposefulness of a meadow, because some grasses can be useful in dealing with issues such as slopes, drought, marshlands, and drainage.

A subsequent chapter introduces the art of designing with grasses. Some varieties work better as brushstrokes, others as groundcover, some as filler, and others as a background. In addition, much attention is also devoted to wild flowers and naturalizing bulbs. These plants work well among grasses to add continuous color, throughout the growing season. The last chapters that round out the book include a photo essay on drought tolerant meadow gardens, a user-friendly encyclopedia of grasses, and a chapter on how to undertake a meadow project, complete with a formula for calculating the number of plants needed.

A review of this book would be inadequate if it did not pay tribute to the visuals that illuminate its pages. Saxon Holt is an established and award winning horticultural photographer. The author is fortunate that Mr. Holt has taken a subject, ostensibly still limited in its appeal, and has propelled it into consciousness with photographs that are extraordinary. The luminescence and ethereal texture of the grass meadows captured in these images are a convincing testimonial that such gardens merit serious consideration.

Allan Becker reviews books on garden topics[...].

This is a terrific book for those who have been wasting their time, our resources and endangering our aquifers. Restrictive neighborhood covenants may have to be modified BECAUSE wherever possible a return to native plantings will go a long way to resolving the three problems above. I have a pasture that has begged to be replanted as a meadow. The only thing that held me back is not enough information as to how to go about this. The answers are here for the serious individual to break the restraint of maintaining lawns, etc. Matt Cohen MDZen of Watering Your Garden

California does get a lot of attention in the book. That's where the author has his business. The people here who complain about the California focus do have a point worth making, so I'm not trying to argue with them.

On the other hand I got a lot of value from the book even though I'm in a completely different climate. It's a beautiful book with outstanding photography. The design and planting and maintenance advice applies to just about any region.

I'd guess that two-thirds of the grasses featured in the book can be grown in areas with cold winters, although zones four and lower have far fewer choices. One part of the part details specific grasses and includes their hardiness zones.

For most readers it's simple enough to make a list of a hardy grasses for your area, and then use those species in ways that are explained and pictured in the book.

My complaint is that the price of the book is nothing compared to the money that I'll spend on orders for the grasses I now want to try.

My main reason for writing this review is to say that it should be useful to many people all around the country who want to replace some of a traditional lawn with ornamental meadows. Most of the book is practical for most of the U.S.

The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn is a key acquisition for homeowners tired of the expense and ecological disaster of maintaining a lawn. It tells how to create a natural alternative that works - a meadow that's actually a mini-ecosystem in which grasses blend with colorful perennials to form a wildlife-friendly and attractive environment. Color photos throughout and specific keys to design and sustainability make this is a fine pick for any general lending library.

If you love the more wild look of nature instead of the traditional garden, you'll love this book. The pictures are clear and the many grasses are identified throughout the book. Granted most of the book is aimed for the California area, but, you could research the best grasses and plants for your area to come up with the beautiful gardens in this book.

These types of gardens, once established, are easier to take care of than traditional gardens. I'm very pleased with this book!

I liked the author's view to open our communities to the beauty of nature. A meadow is very appropriate to keeping our wildlife thriving. It definitely makes the traditional lawn look boring. The chapters reveal the beauty that a meadow provides and gives detailed explanations on how to make it happen...I hope our youth catches the butterfly and the dragon flies that a meadow will nourish. I trust that we use only native plants in this meadow. The insects will thrive once again.