Building a Healthy Lawn: A Safe and Natural Approach [Paperback]

Stuart Franklin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1988

Included are chapters on mowing, watering, fertilizing, soil building, equipment selection, seeding, weed control, diseases and insects, ground covers, and mulches.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Lying on your back on a newmown lawn is the quintessential summertime pleasure. Traditionally, however, lush lawns have been achieved only by using heavy doses of chemical weedkillers, pesticides and fertilizers, elements many homeowners have come to distrust and environmentalists to condemn. This breakthrough book shows how to grow a lawn that is beautiful to look at yet safe for kids, pets, picnics and badminton -- and neither expensive nor time-consuming to maintain.

Professional landscaper Stuart Franklin wrote this book in response to numerous customer questions. In clear, direct language, he explains exactly how a lawn grows and how to care for it. He then shows the homeowner how to move away from reliance on hazardous chemicals.

The secret, he explains, is to build healthy soil and roots. The homeowner must work with the lawn, not against it, in mowing (don't cut the grass too short) and watering (water deeply, but not too often). There are 900 billion organisms living in a cubic foot of soil, and Franklin explains how to put them to work for the homeowner.

Included are chapters on mowing, watering, fertilizing, soil building, thatch, equipment selection, seeding, weed control, diseases, and insects. There is a chapter on groundcovers and mulches, because a lawn may not be suitable for every area. A reference section lists and illustrates desirable and undesirable lawn grasses.

A useful calender of month-by-month lawn care specifics completes the book, making it the only guide even a beginner needs to achieve the emerald green lawn of the American dream.

About the Author

Author Stuart Franklin's expert guidance and advocacy of natural lawn care is present in his book, Building a Healthy Lawn. His vast knowledge on lawn and gardening practices has evolved from 20 years of experience and from owning and operating a lawn fertilizing company in western New York. A 1973 graduate of Syracuse University, Stuart lives in Williamsville, New York with his wife Jean and three children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; 1 edition (January 10, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882665189
• ISBN-13: 978-0882665184
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine book for anyone interested in a nice lawn, August 17, 2000

By 

Brian Darrow - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building a Healthy Lawn: A Safe and Natural Approach (Paperback)

I was quite starved for information to help me repair drought damage to my front lawn as well as seed a new lawn from scratch in the backyard. I read the book from cover to cover quite quickly and I feel somewhat enlightened. The concepts put forth by Stuart et al for maintaining a healthy lawn are quite simple to understand and execute. Each aspect from choosing a grass type to how to effectively seed and then eventually maintain your lawn is covered in detail in its own chapter. One aspect of the book which I particularly enjoyed was the explanations of exactly what you need to do to cause problems in your yard. I think sometimes its just as important to be informed how to to screw up as it is to do things right. Sometimes people can accidently kill their lawns without the knowledge of exactly what they are doing wrong. The book covers the functions of different chemical approaches to lawn care, but maintains that natural care is the most cost effective and safest way to maintain a lawn in the long term. I was very impressed by the book, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on lawn care basics and Organic methods., October 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Building a Healthy Lawn: A Safe and Natural Approach (Paperback)

This book teaches proper lawn care in an extremely easy-to-understand manner. It tells you all about the right and wrong ways of mowing, and how much of a difference it can actually make to the health and appearance of your lawn. It lets you in on the secrets that professional lawn people use. Most importantly, this book tells you how to care for lawns with little or no Pesticides. I think every homeowner with any sense of environmental responsibility should read this book before they mow their lawn again.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is phenominal, July 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Building a Healthy Lawn: A Safe and Natural Approach (Paperback)

This book is SUCH an easy read. It explains everything you'd need to know in plain english and gives many real life examples. I've just started to put what I've learned in the book into practice and I can't wait to see the results.
Two things would have made this a better book: 1) a tearout that can be used as a quick reference guide and 2) it really could use to be updated. It was written in 1986 and many organic and chemical products have been introduced since then that I would like to get his take on.