Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape

Landscape designer Owen Wormser explains how to replace the deadscape we call lawn with low-maintenance, eco-friendly meadows. This is a how-to book on meadow-making that's also about sustainability, regeneration, and beauty.

In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. It is garden landscaping that is beautiful, all year round.

Meadows establish wildlife and pollinator habitats, are low-maintenance and low-cost, have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn.

Wormser describes how to plant an organic meadow garden or traditional meadow, that’s right for your site. His book includes guidance on:

• Preparing your plot
• Designing your meadow
• Planting without using synthetic chemicals
• Growing 21 starter native grasses and wildflowers, including butterfly weed, smooth blue aster, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, and many more.

He also includes tips on building support in neighborhoods where a tidy lawn is the standard, and how to become a meadow activist.

To illuminate the many joys of meadow-building, Wormser draws on his own stories, including how growing up off the grid in northern Maine, with no electricity or plumbing, prepared him for his work.

"This focused and easy to read book is full of useful and practical information. It contains advice on how best to prep, plant and maintain meadows, along with a list of tools you’ll need, and even guidance on how to become a meadow activist."—Permaculture Institute