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
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A picture of Shirley Bovshow's front yard garden from a recent Lawn Reform Coalition blog post.She doesn't miss her lawn!
Has it really been six months since I announced the addition of new coalition member Saxon Holt and let you all know about our Facebook fan page? I’m happy to report the fan page has been a big success, with over 1000 likes and a place to find the latest links on lawn reform throughout the country. Not to mention the occasional sassy debate in the comments section.
We’ve also added a new category of advisory (nonvoting) members, which is a fancy way of saying companies that share our goals. Learn more about Neil Diboll of Prarie Nursery and David and Ava Salman of High Country Gardens here. These additions were particularly thrilling for me as I already use David and Ava’s fabulous site as a resource when I’m working on a garden design.
And now for this 2011’s big news: To usher in the new year, we’ve morphed our website into a blog! Our baby’s only a week old, and the plan is to feature educational articles, how-tos and success stories. Consider this my official invitation to participate as a guest blogger. Posts don’t have to be long and they don’t have to be first run. If you’ve covered a topic related to lawn reform on your own blog in the past and have something relevant to share, just let me know. As I like to think my blog attracts the educated crowd, I’m confident at least a few of you will answer the call.
I’m also in the process of creating a Zazzle store with pins, mugs and t-shirts featuring the logo. Sounds simple, but it’s turned out to be a bit more complicated than I expected so stay tuned. The LRC isn’t an official non-profit and isn’t interested in making money, so the original plan was to sell the merchandise with no mark-up, but it turns out the minimum mark-up allowed is 10%. I’ve been pondering the logic of this. Maybe because they don’t want everyone else’s prices to be too high? Fortuntately, the pins sell for the bargain price of $1.45. If you’re one of those people who didn’t snag a freebee when they were handed out in 2009, now is your chance to own this very affordable piece of lawn reform history.
In its first week, blog posts have ranged from a photo-driven piece from Shirley Bovshow on the beauty of no-lawn landscapes (see photo at the top of this post) to a thorough explanation of why 4-times a year lawn fertilizing is a myth, to a shocking article from Paul Tukey about bees and pesticides - this one you really need to read for yourself.
Please stop by and join the conversation!
Have you noticed this symbol before?
If not, don’t worry; you’re not alone. A few years ago, someone near and dear to me who shall go un-named (hint: rhymes with nusband) was surprised to learn that a fish symbol next to a storm drain means the water flows straight to the San Francisco Bay, with no treatment facilities in between. Here in California and in other parts of the country that suffer from drought, we’ve finally realized the importance of choosing drought tolerant plants to conserve water in the landscape. But the importance of keeping residential water on-site and out of our watersheds isn’t as well understood.
After a few months of silence while the other Lawn Reform Coalition members and I focused on our day jobs, we’re banging the drums again to encourage folk everywhere to downsize, replace or at least take a more organic maintenance approach to the great American lawn. There's a new June update and we now have a newsletter, so visit the website and sign up! And no need to worry about a barrage of emails heading your way; the plan is to publish only two to four times a year.
But wait, there’s more! We’ve replaced our Facebook Group page with a Fan Page (because groups are so 2009). There's plenty of lively discussion, photos and links being posted on a regular basis, and you are officially invited to drop by and join the conversation.
What else? We’ve added our first new member since the coalition’s inception almost a year ago. Garden photographer extraordinaire Saxon Holt is now an official part of the Lawn Reform Coalition. Of course, many of you already know Saxon from the popular blog Gardening Gone Wild, and if not, here’s a little excerpt from his LRC bio:
“In his work he seeks to change the aesthetic of what we expect to see in a garden photograph so that the media portrays authentic and sustainable gardens. The American Meadow Garden and his two most previous books, Hardy Succulents, and Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates, were all awarded prizes by the Garden Writers of America as "outstanding books".
To add a little gushy rider to this bio, like many Northern California gardeners, Plants and Landscapes for Summer Dry Climates is one of my most reached for books, and in fact the binding is actually falling apart I’ve taken it on so many client meetings. While the gardens look real, If I have one quibble, it’s that the plant photographs are almost too beautiful, forcing me to manage client expectations a bit to avoid any disappointment when the slightly beat up real plants arrive from the wholesale nursery.
For those of you wondering what the heck happened to my budding career as a filmmaker, I’ve put my ambitions on hold for a while to concentrate on yet another new project I’m announcing soon. In the meantime, I am addicted to the free website Animoto, where I made the Lawn Reform Coalition video at the top of the page, as well as last week’s Wordless Wednesday vid. If you’re in the market to create something beyond a typical slide show, but don’t want to bother with the heavy lifting, then Animoto is the way to go. Just drop in your pictures, add a little text, choose some music and hit go! A few minutes later, your video is ready. So give it a try on your own blog and let me know - I promise to stop by and admire your results!
Do an image search of the American Dream Home, and this is what you’ll get:
Lawns
Bigger lawns
And REALLY big lawns.
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