Reimagining the California Lawn features water-conserving plants from around the world and offers design ideas and practical solutions to help you create a vibrant garden that complements our mediterranean climate. From greenswards and meadows to succulent and kitchen gardens, this book presents alternatives to the traditional lawn that can reduce water use, beautify the landscape, and attract birds and butterflies. The authors of
Reimagining the California Lawn, Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O Brien, are visionary horticulturists who wrote the award-winning book
California Native Plants for the Garden. With this new publication, they share their passion for water-wise plants and landscapes to help Californians discover the many possibilities and pleasures that come with reimagining the lawn.
If you are thinking about removing or reducing your lawn, this inspiring book is the perfect companion to help you begin the process. Its detailed text provides information about how to plan, install, and maintain an attractive landscape that can replace your lawn and describes hundreds of water-thrifty plants from California and other mediterranean climates of the world. Reimagining the California Lawn is illustrated with more than 300 color photographs and offers a variety of plant palettes to choose from as you begin the process of creating a more sustainable landscape.
Californians are avid gardeners, and for good reason. Throughout much of the state, outdoor gardening activities are enhanced by mild weather, frost-free nights, and relatively fertile soils. Like elsewhere in the country, water-loving lawns have been a major element in our gardens. Turfgrass lawns seduce us with their seeming simplicity and versatility, but as the Introduction to this book makes clear, our reliance on them comes at a high price. After considering the resources and maintenance that most California lawns demand—from heavy irrigation to regular applications of fertilizers to frequent mowing with power equipment—one conclusion becomes inescapable: we need to find alternatives to turfgrass that are more environmentally sound. If you are one of the many gardeners who is thinking about removing or reducing your lawn, we invite you to spend some time with "Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs." The engaging text describes hundreds of water-wise plants from California and other mediterranean climates of the world and provides information on how to plan, install, and maintain an attractive landscape that can replace your lawn. The book is packed with ideas and advice and richly illustrated with more than 300 color photographs. It offers a variety of practical designs and plant palettes to choose from and was written by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien, authors of the award-winning title "California Native Plants for the Garden." These three authors are innovative horticulturists, educators, and designers who share a deep respect for California's legacy as a pioneer in the landscape industry. They have created "Reimagining the California Lawn" to help us embrace and implement new paradigms for gardening in the 21st century.
