Product Description

If there's one lesson every homeowner must learn, it's this: The traditional lawn is a huge, time consuming, synthetic-chemical sucking mistake. The time has come to look for new ways to create friendly, livable spaces around our homes. In The American Meadow Garden, ornamental grass expert John Greenlee creates a new model for homeowners and gardeners.

For Greenlee, a meadow isn't a random assortment of messy, anonymous grasses. Rather, it is a shimmering mini-ecosystem, in which regionally appropriate grasses combine with colorful perennials to form a rich tapestry that is friendly to all life -- with minimal input of water, time, and other scarce resources. Kids and pets can play in complete safety, and birds and butterflies flock there. A prairie style planting is a place you want to be.

With decades of experience as a nurseryman and designer, John Greenlee is the perfect guide. He details all the practicalities of site preparation, plant selection, and maintenance; particularly valuable are his explanations of how ornamental grasses perform in different climates and areas. Gorgeous photography by Saxon Holt visually illustrates the message with stunning examples of meadow gardens from across the country.

We've reached a stage where we can no longer follow past practices unthinkingly, particularly when those practices are wasteful and harmful to the environment. It's time to get rid of the old-fashioned lawn and embrace a sane and healthy future: the American meadow garden.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7229 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 280 pages

Review
"John Greenlee's opening lines … open up the imagination to the practical and eye-pleasing alternatives to a monochromatic (and water-hogging) sea of turf." (Flower )

"In a book long awaited by green mavens and horticultural enthusiasts, Greenlee's dynamic garden designs are paired with Holt's splendid photographs in a beautifully produced, information-packed volume that looks at meadows in the context of garden spaces large or small."
(Booklist )

"Full of inspiring ideas, Greenlee explores how to combine a spectacular variety of grasses with other plants to make the most of their natural forms, fragrance, leaf, and bloom." (Valerie Easton Seattle Times )

"Here is an entirely new approach to garden-making. It’s enticing and informative—and it’s presented with polish and pizzazz. No wonder they call Greenlee the Grass Guru."

(Pacific Horticulture )

"This is the rare species of garden book with a continental-wide scope from a West Coast point of view." (San Francisco Chronicle )

"Although Greenlee believes every yard should be a meadow, he's also practical. Do the research. The result: less money spent on irrigation and chemicals, and more birds and butterflies in the garden. Not to mention the beauty of the natural meadow." (San Bernadino Sun )

"If you've ever thought of abandoning your lawn but haven't yet, The American Meadow Garden will surely inspire you to action … Take a long look at your lawn mower, and then go buy this book." (American Gardener )

"Are you bold enough to try your hand at a meadow garden? The time for bringing back nature is now!" (VA Master Gardener Newsletter )

"After you read this book, you'll wonder why you ever entertained the idea of a lawn." (Garden Design Online )

"Finally, John Greenlee—who is part of America’s trinity of Gramineous Gods—has mapped out his lifetime of experience creating successful meadows. I highly recommend this treasure trove of a book." (Denver Botanic Gardens blog )

"The meadow garden undoubtedly represents a different aesthetic in landscape design … Greenlee's book is a very good place to begin." (Monterey County Herald )

"You’ll be rethinking labor-and-resource-intensive lawns after a couple of minutes with The American Meadow Garden." (Oregonian )

“Greenlee’s book will lay out a vision for the American yard that is so clearly superior that it will become the new standard. Read this book and find out how your neighborhood will look in about 10 years.”
(Wenatchee World )

“This is not a book about how to create the purist’s wildflower meadow, but breaks new ground in showing how garden plants can be used to create a meadow-like environment. Saxon Holt’s photography is beautiful, and Greenlee’s prose the right blend of informative and occasionally provocative.”
(Gardens Illustrated )

“It’s one thing to hear about the ecological benefits of replacing lawns with meadows. It’s another thing to see it done effectively.”
(The State )

“As you turn the pages you will start to imagine that you are sprawled out in the meadow of your dreams, the grasses swooshing over your head … It’s not every book that lifts you from your reading nook and opens wide the vista of the heavens.”
(Chicago Tribune )

About the Author
Saxon Holt has combined his career as a photographer with a lifelong love of gardening. His work has appeared in dozens of books and gardening magazines. Mr. Holt lives in northern California and works out of a unique "outdoor studio." He is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, the American Society of Picture Professionals, and the Garden Writers of America Association, from which he has received two Quill & Trowel awards for his photography.

John Greenlee has been creating grass ecologies in gardens of all sizes all over the United States and Canada since 1984. He owns Greenlee Nursery, the oldest grass nursery in California. He has appeared frequently on television and was named horticulturist of the year in 2002 by the Southern California Association of Horticulturists. His previous book is The Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses (Rodale 1992). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from Cal Poly, Pomona, California.

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Customer Reviews

Inspirational
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).

Inspiring without lacking content
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.

Ahhhhh! Finally a true guide for the modern-minded gardener.
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!