Book Review: Reimagining the California Lawn

For those considering getting rid of their lawn, two things often stand in the way: imagination and horticultural know-how.  Reimagining the California Lawn:Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs by Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O'Brien from Cachuma Press addresses both.

As a residential landscape designer, I’m finding more and more clients open to the idea of eliminating or at least reducing their turf grass.  When the discussion turns to what to do instead, however, I’m often met with a blank stare. Because most of us grew up with a traditional landscape centered around a lawn, it can be overwhelming for even the most sustainably-minded soul to envision an alternative. That’s good news for the garden design profession (cue Snidley Whiplash moustache twirling), but bad news for the vast majority of gardeners who prefer to do things on their own.  Reimagining the California Lawn is a great place to start, as it provides a range of options, from greenswards, (defined as “a sweep of…grasslike plants that provides a surface accessible to varying degrees of foot traffic"), to kitchen gardens to the tapestry gardens popular in many sloped East Bay front yards. 

Greensward

Rosalind Creasy's kitchen garden

Tapestry Garden

The book includes in-depth information that goes beyond plant design, such as advice on integrating hardscape and instructions on removing an existing lawn.  Detailed plant lists are incorporated throughout.  For those of you who find inspiration in pictures more than in words, you’ll be happy to know that photographs are plentiful.

The second challenge is horticultural know-how. You might be all set to turn your lawn into a low-water paradise, but what plants do you choose?  As in their instant classic California Native Plants for the Garden, the authors include an extensive collection of plant profiles, each with a photograph; in fact, the profiles make up three quarters of the book. Information for each plant is thorough, including climate zones, soil types and most importantly, water requirements.

Plant profile picture of a thyme lawn

Things I liked:

• The book includes a solid section on environmental reasons that goes beyond water conservation as to why California gardeners should rethink large lawns. If you pick up the book but are still on the fence, or if you have other family members to convince, these facts may be your tipping point.
• The authors recognize that California has many environmental challenges, and lawns have their good points too.  For example, in fire-prone areas, lawns are an effective firebreak, and in California, fire is a trump card.
• Similar to their earlier California natives book, a terrific selection of plant lists organized by both cultural conditions and aesthetics is included. I regularly refer to the native plant lists in their previous book and can’t wait to delve into these.
• An extensive reference list at the end of the book is helpful if you want to explore a specific topic in more detail.  (Confession: I also like this section because the Lawn Reform Coalition is listed as one of the resources.)

Quibbles:
As this book covers a range of topics related to lawn alternatives in great detail, you won't be surprised hear I believe they got a few things wrong.

• As an advocate of sheet mulching, I'm pleased a section on this process was included, but I feel what was presented was somewhat incomplete and not entirely accurate. Through reading, classes and personal experience over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to sheet mulching, but the book's interpretation makes the process seem overly complex while simultaneously leaving out important details (amount of cardboard overlap, how to handle borders, modifying irrigation). Photos or diagrams would be helpful here.  More importantly, instead of the usual suggestion of finishing with 4” to 6” of mulch, the book recommends shooting for an astounding finished layer of 12” to 24”.  Admitedly I did not research this to see if other sources concur, but I find it highly unlikely the average suburban homeowner would be ok with the expense and visual results of such a thick layer of mulch, let alone be willing to wait for the layer to break down so the lawn was ready to be replanted. I'm also surprised manure was recommended with no reference to compost as an alternative.  The suburban neighborhoods I design for would certainly complain if a client covered their lawn with a  2' high pile of mulch that included fresh manure.
• I was disappointed to see a photo of blue fescue as a front yard lawn substitute in the design section.  This plant is short-lived in many California gardens, and must be cut back regularly and divided every few years to be viable - and frankly, doesn't look that great much of the time. While some of these drawbacks are mentioned in the plant profile, such a fickle and labor-intensive plant is a poor choice as a large scale groundcover and the enticing photo is misleading. To be fair, I’m guessing the authors struggled to find photos to depict a large range of successful lawn alternatives and wanted to show some variety.  As a recent author myself, I’m entirely sympathetic.

There are a few other instances, but my quibbles are insignificant compared to the wealth of inspiration and hard data provided by the book.  The authors display an astounding level of expertise, and offer a level of detail well beyond the range most gardening books.  To see what others say, check out this review on Sunset's Fresh Dirt blog.

Thyme lawn photo courtesy of John Evarts. All other photos courtesy of Saxon Holt.

Note: I did not purchase this book but was given a review copy by the publisher.

Comments

[Debra Lee Baldwin]

Good. It's finally out. I've been telling people about this book ever since I heard it was in the works, over a year ago. I'm a huge fan of Carol Bornstein's earlier book on natives, and have heard her speak several times. I get asked all the time how to remove a lawn (in order to replace it with a succulent garden) and now, rather than saying "it depends," I can simply refer them to this. And to you, blue-eyed Sue, if they live in the East Bay!

It's every bit as excellent as California Natives, and I think was probably a harder book to write. And guess whose book is listed first as a reference on designing succulent gardens?

Just amended this to say yours, Debra in case that wasn't clear.

[Kaveh]

I got this last week. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and read it yet but the one little thing that drives me crazy about it is that for all the photos they use common names for the plants.

Call me a plant snob but it drives me crazy that if I see a picture of something I like I then have to go look up the common name to get the actual name of the plant.

Kaveh, I was a little surprised as well as I mentally categorize this book as a "highbrow" garden book and would have expected them to lead with botanical. Whether to use common or botanical, text vs. captions, was much discussed when Rebecca and I were writing our book. Including the botanical name provides more information but can really slow down the prose if the main intent of the section is to provide design advice. Because they have such awesome, specific lists at the end of most of the design sections, in this case I think they made the right choice. And of course the plant profiles are all alphabetized by botanical name. I hope you'll find time to read it! I think you'll come away with a lot of good ideas.

[Kaveh]

Yeah it isn't a big complaint. I just can't remember the last gardening book I read that used common names in that way. I found it kind of jarring. I look forward to reading it when I have some free time.

[lostlandscape (James)]

What a coincidence. Bart O'Brien was last week's speaker at my native plant meeting. It was an easy crowd to sell on the idea of removing a lawn, but the book's focus wasn't on California natives and the wide selection of plants didn't go over quite as well with that crowd. He showed a slide with the common blue fescue and admitted as much that it didn't stay looking good for many years. But then he showed a patch of 'Siskiyou Blue' that had stayed looking great for decades. I wonder which kind the book showed? (I've only flipped through this book.)

The book only identifies photos by common name, so I'm not sure. Supposedly Idahoensis is a tougher variety, but it doesn't have the dramatic pop of some of the bluer cultivars like 'Siskiyou Blue' or 'Elijah Blue'. I've cut it out of my plant palette completely as it's just too unpredictable and clients often end up disappointed. I've started using a California native, Calamagrostis filicifolia, instead. Not as blue, but a lovely habit. Haven't had any in the ground for much more than a year so I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform over time.

[ryan]

I've been meaning to check this book out. Easily half of our jobs these days involve sheet mulching at least some amount of lawn and I teach a class on the subject at Heather Farms. It seems like a good one for the recommended books list, though I'll probably be agreeing with your quibbles.

I'm horrified at the idea of them saying 12-24" on top of the cardboard or newspaper. That's ridiculous, like you said for both the expense and the visual results. I've successfully sheet mulched lawns with newspaper and 2-3 inches of mulch when for some reason I wasn't even adding the 2-3 inches of compost. It can be kind of a tough topic -- I hear myself get a little fudge-y when I get to that part of the class and there are always a lot of questions -- but it sounds like this book doesn't do all that great a job for this really important topic. Sheet mulching saves so much time and energy and money. So I'll probably recommend the book with some qualifications.

Their book on Cal Natives as one of my absolute favorites. It'll be interesting to see if this one enters the canon too.

I like your sheet mulching page. And your review of this book is much better that the Sunset review which just reads like an advertisement.