The New American Front Yard: Kiss Your Grass Goodbye

With increased drought conditions and water restrictions, many homeowners are choosing to let their lawns die, but do not know what to do next. People are seeking green and green alternatives that are attractive, affordable and easy to maintain. Redesigning a front yard requires more careful planning than simply ripping out the front lawn and installing substitute plants from the local nursery. Most often this approach results in a hodge-podge of random drought-tolerant plants and is very likely to end up looking messy and disorganized. Simplicity, organization and neatness are exactly why people are drawn to the clean, green look of their manicured lawns and lush, water loving shrubs and perennials. Changing the front lawn aesthetic to a water conserving yard requires a more thoughtful and systematic approach. All green is not green . The typical American front lawn uses a tremendous quantity of water, while also exposing our family and pets to toxic herbicides and pesticides and creating polluted run-off that fl ows into our creeks and waterways. According to the EPA, the gas powered mowers, blowers and trimmers used by the standard landscape maintenance companies generate nearly 40 times more greenhouse gas per gallon of gas than the average car. The new American front yard must be eco-friendly in all aspects. This book is designed to provide the reader with a recipe for designing their own custom, beautiful and eco-friendly front yard. Like a recipe, there can be limitless variations in ingredients, flavors and presentation but the basic steps always apply. The author takes the reader from Getting Started, where she shows how to create a base plan, drawn to scale on grid paper, which will become the foundation for Defining Your Vision, Creating Your Design, Selecting Your Plants, Accessorizing Your Yard, and finally, Installing Your Design.