The Home of Gardenblogger Susan Harris
The Garden Designers Roundtable invited the Lawn Reform Coalition to be their guest blogger(s) this month, combining forces to publish 18 articles about Lawn Replacement on the same day, and linking to each other. Great idea, designers! Scroll down for the links to those 17 other blog posts, including one by me on GardenRant. There I report on the disaster I made of my back-yard lawn replacement project – now bare earth fast eroding down the hillside.
I loved the colorful and tidy little mosaic of low groundcovers here in my front yard, all criss-crossed by brick pavers that repeat the brick in the sidewalk and porch floor. I loved it all, that is, until the Thymes started dying off, and the Creeping Cinquefoil overtook the Creeping Jenny – a story of plant failures I chronicled here. (Details about the thymes and other plants from Stepables that I tested in this garden are listed here.)
The goal was and is to find plants that stay low, are evergreen (more or less) and require nothing at all – no watering, no feeding, obviously no mowing, and as little weeding as possible. Also, they have to behave well with each other, not overtake their neighbors. Keeping them all short helps – 3″ and shorter – and also avoiding plants that climb on top of each other, like the cinquefoil did.
So I got rid of the bullying Cinquefoil, and seeded some Alyssym over the remaining Creeping Jenny, which I’m keeping an eye on, hoping it thrives on the shadier side of this little plot. I removed all the (dying or at least not thriving) thyme from the sunnier side and planted 8 new creeping Sedums that I’m trying out for general vigor, rate of spread – important in a groundcover unless you have a large enough budget to accomplish instant coverage – and appearance throughout the year. My tentative conclusion is that creeping Sedums could be a beautiful and nearly maintenance-free alternative to lawns on sunny spots – assuming good drainage for these dry-loving plants. They sure do all that on green roofs. They tolerate little to no foot traffic, of course. Thus the criss-crossing pavers. And no tag football or kids running through sprinklers. Thanks to Sandy McDougall and Ed Snodgrass for all the plants!
Above, from left: S. spurium possibly ‘Dragon’s Blood‘ or ‘Fuldaglut‘ that was a passalong from a neighbor. Next is a patch of S. reflexum ‘Blue Spruce,’ which is beautiful but grows VERY slowly; and above it, the much more vigorous S. rupestre ‘Angelina’. Far right: another chartreuse Sedum - S. makinoi ‘Limelight,’ which has been a slow-grower for me. In the foreground, lots of Alyssum.
Closer looks at (in foreground) S. spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’ or ‘Fuldaglot”. I’ll be getting rid of this because – sorry – its coloring is too similar to soil. It has very little impact here, and doesn’t fill in thick enough to prevent weeds, anyway. Above it is the wonderful ‘Angelina’, which everyone seems to love – for good reason. Just don’t step on it – it’s more breakable than most Sedums.
Above foreground, what’s left of the Creeping Jenny, with Alyssum in bloom.
Bottom left: S. makinoi ‘Limelight’ - gorgeous but slow-growing. Top left: S. floriferum ‘Weihnstephaner Gold,’ which really does have gold blooms and is a moderate spreader. On the right is an Ice Plant doing a bit of reblooming in August. I love Ice Plant but it hasn’t spread much in its first year and it looks pretty bad in the winter.
Above left, some of the S. takesimemese that Ed Snodgrass gave me a big ‘ole flat of, which quickly proved to be the most vigorous Sedum I’ve ever green. Great gold flowers, seen here having having turned brown by August but still looking fine by me. I’ll be using LOTS of this Sedum. On the right is S. album ‘Coral Carpet’ (I think), which is spreading awfully slowly.
It’s funny how these two Sedums look exactly alike except for the color, but are actually two different species. Plus, they perform so differently. Left: S. reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’; right: S. rupestre ‘Angelina’.
I’ve compiled info about all the Sedums I’m growing here on my website – that link includes Ed Snodgrass’s suggestions for covering ground in a variety of situations. He’s the Green Roof Plants guy right here in Maryland, so he trials plants in the same climate as me. Also on my website are links to blog stories about my lawn replacement journey, front yard and back.
Now check out posts about lawn replacement from these Lawn Reform Coalition members:
And these members of the Garden Designers Roundtable:
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I spotted this familiar image while perusing Timber Press’s latest catalog, and proceeded to shriek and run around like an excited 8-year-old. (Just ask the 60+ other gardenbloggers I was with in Seattle – they witnessed the scene and won’t be forgetting it soon.) The book is by Evelyn Hadden of Minnesota with photos by Saxon Holt of California, both of whom are my co-conspirators in the Lawn Reform Coalition. Here’s more about the book, which will be available in February.
I sure wish that back yard looked as good NOW. Horrible summer, ya know.
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TweetThis guy’s great at making the Lawn Reform Coalition’s point. Thanks!
Click here to read the 4,500+ comments on YouTube.
*Unless they’re needed to play on.
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My article about lawns and water for Fine Homebuilding magazine is now available for free in this handy pdf: “Taking Issue” I love the way they illustrated the text and laid it out, and I even love how editor Brian Pontolilo worked his editing magic on it. He was a pleasure to work with, and that’s not something you say about everyone who takes a hatchet to your words, ya know.
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Prairie dropseed at Chanticleer Garden
Last night I spoke to a lovely group of garden clubbers in DC’s outer suburbs, and while it was great fun, I was left with the feeling that I’d failed them – failed to give them the really specific info they need to convert their large lawns into something less resource-intensive. I’d like to be able to rattle off the names of short prairie-type grasses that could be used to replace acres of turf, and explain the exact procedure for converting lawns to an organic maintenance regime.
My own preference would not be to replace lawn with a wildflower meadows, but to switch to a super-sustainable plant like the prairie dropseed you see here, which gets mowed once a year and doesn’t ever need fertilizing. It does, however, require weed-free soil to start with, and a lot of manual weeding for the first year or two. And who’s going to do that? Also, it turns brown in the winter, so would the neighbors complain?
More answers are needed! Answers from horticultural breeders first of all – people like my friend Tom Christopher who’s doing trials with drought-tolerant mixes of fine fescues, and clovers, too. Answers from some Eastern version of John Greenlee, the designer of short meadows in California. He knows his plants, knows design, and has lots of great options for his mainly-Western clients – options that are a lot less radical than installing tall, wildlife-filled meadows. Because even the most eco-responsible homeowner has to deal with neighbors, local ordinances, and the reality of tick infestations. The tick problem was mentioned last night, and it’s not going away any time soon, so we have to deal with it.
Next Time – March 19 at 11:00 a.m. FREE to the public.
But moving on to the next venue for my talk Reducing, Replacing your Lawn, or Switching to Natural Lawn Care. That’ll be at Behnkes Nurseries in Beltsville, MD on Saturday, March 19 at 11:00. And between now and then I’m hoping to come up with some more answers – or at least find some experts to dump my questions on so they can worry about them.
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TweetCall me Susie One-Note (or -Plant Group?) but I can’t stop stopping in awe at groundcovers, like these guys that I’m trying out in my front yard. Below, the Creeping Jenny is always pretty, and the self-seeding annual Alyssum grows wherever I let it.
Below, some just-planted Sedum kamtschaticum variegatum looking like it’s about to bloom – in red. It’s paired with Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’, which is suddenly so popular, and for good reason.
Below, Sedum reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’ has a very similar form, and an equally cool color. And all of these plants are more fun to grow than the crappy turfgrass they replaced.
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TweetOver 5,000 bloggers around the world – including one White House blogger – are observing Blog Action Day today by focusing attention on a subject in need of lots more attention – water. It’s hard for Save the Ocean appeals to compete with Save the Baby Anything messages, though the closer to home the body of water is, the more attention it gets. So fortunately, Save the “Chesapeake Bay” IS a popular message, and the current leadership in Annapolis and the White House have made great progress in reducing pollution. (And Marylanders who care about the Bay, don’t forget to VOTE Nov. 2!)
Water in the Landscape
But let’s get on-topic, shall we? Probably THE most important environmental responsibility we have as landowners and gardeners have to do with water – conserving it as a resource, and making sure the rainwater landing on our property percolates down and is cleaned before it ends up in our waters. So there’s lots to cover, including topics like how to water efficiently and principles of xeriscaping, which are covered here so I won’t repeat them. I’ll just recommend two interesting links about water in our gardens:
More about Scotts
But enough about water; I thought I’d look more closely at the company fighting these clean-water measures. You know, the company that spends $100 million a year on advertising, much of it telling us to “green-up” our lawns in the spring, the worst possible time for our waterways. Thanks to Paul Tukey at SafeLawns, I found some interesting corporate research:
The Scotts Company is the world’s leading supplier and marketer of consumer products for do-it-yourself lawn and garden care. It also supplies a range of products for professional horticulture. Scotts owns the leading brands in every major category in virtually all of the countries where it has a significant presence.
Scotts enjoys a de facto monopoly on lawn care and garden products in the US. In the year ending September 2002, the company enjoyed a market share of 52%, controlling 62% of the consumer market for lawn fertilizers, 59% of the market for growing media/plant food, 43% of the market for grass seed and 41% of the market for controls (i.e. herbicides and pesticides). In addition, Scotts LawnService has now become the 2nd largest competitor in the American lawn service industry.
In 2002 the company’s market share, for lawn care and garden products, in Europe was approximately 25 percent. The company also has a presence in Australia, the Far East, Latin America and South America.
Scotts relies heavily on advertising to create demand for its products. According to the company’s annual report, Scotts’ brands are supported by an annual investment of approximately $100 million in advertising. In the US nearly 4 out of 5 advertising messages in the lawn and garden industry come from Scotts. For 2003, Scotts plans to increase its media spending by another 20%.
There’s more about Scotts here on Corporate Watch – their record on work conditions and environmental issues. I think this bigger picture helps us better understand the Scotts “sustainability” efforts, including their alarmingly successful outreach to (and feeding of) garden writers.
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TweetFor the story of my lawn removal, including all the plants I’ve tried here – and lots of photos - click here.
Below is what the back looked like in May of this year, before the clover killed the Sedum, then expired. I just recently finished removing the remaining clover and trying to cover empty soil with Sedum. Then 6 inches of rain fell in a couple of hours, my stormwater system was loaded (the levy broke!) and a MUD SLIDE ensued. I spent yesterday moving topsoil back up the hillside. Ah, gardening.
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TweetI’ve already covered the ultimate failure of clover as a groundcover in my garden, and now it’s time to dish the dirt on two more plants I’ve tried as lawn replacements and recently 
ripped out. Yes, I’m ready to name names.
Thyme
All five of the types of thymes that I received as samples from Stepables ultimately failed in my garden. Maybe because they don’t like our humidity, or I didn’t give them the right type of soil – I don’t know, but for their crimes of wimpy performance or outright death, they’ve been banished from my garden. But can you blame me? Look at this photo of thyme death, the type that slowly spreads until – well, I actually couldn’t stand waiting any longer, so it’s a goner.
Creeping Cinquefoil
Another sample from Stepables is Potentilla or creeping cinquefoil, and look how pretty it used to be, mixing nicely with Creeping Jenny in my front yard. Well, I’ve learned the hard way that these groundcovers can suddenly go bad, as evidenced by the photo on the right. Bad as in dead, for no known reason, but not before it killed off most of the Creeping Jenny. So, back to square one, with bare earth to cover.
Lessons Learned
Lawn replacement mistakes can be HUGE MISTAKES! Removing large quantities of failed groundcovers and starting over – that’s a big headache for any gardener. Or to be more precise, a big backache.
And while books and articles often recommend selecting several groundcovers that get along well together, finding ones that don’t devour their neighbors is much harder than those authors let on. So I’m experimenting and reporting my results, but who can know for sure that the plants I’m trying will perform the same way in their garden?
I’ve gotta admit, the more I explore alternatives to lawn, the more I appreciate why turfgrass is so damn popular. It’s cheap, relatively easy to grow, and caring for it does NOT require gardening knowledge or bending over.
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