Low-Maintenance Alternatives For Your Yard

Lawn Gone provides a wealth of practical advice for reducing and/or eliminating a lawn and all the maintanence issues it requires. The authors provide clear, concise information that, according to 2 landscaping specialists I’ve talked with, is completely accurate. Penick also includes enough photos to enhance and illustrate the information while at the same time not turning this into just another picture book. What I particularly love about this book is that instead of dispensing unrealistic advice and showing the reader perfect yards obviously maintained by professionals, Penick provides information that anyone can put to use. Great resource!!

This book was helpful while we were redoing our front lawn. Has helpful index in the back. Not perfect, doesn’t have everything we tried to look up. But gave us some ideas. Seems up to date. Pictures help to identify kinds of plants. Handy.

For way too long, lawns have been a way of life. Originally they were planted to show the owner could afford such luxury and then everyone had to follow this trend. But lawns are a terrible choice for animals and people. They are a monoculture of non-native plants so help cause native plants and animals go extinct. Mowing and fertilizing them contaminates the earth with gas residues, pesticides, artificial fertilizers that kill soil organisms that nourish our plants. Mowing also contributes carbon dioxide to the environment, helping to raise the temperature of the earth. And grass is a water hog and also lets rain runoff.

And grass is not very exciting to look at and doesn’t serve many purposes in enriching our lives.

But help is here. If, you have decided you need to eliminate or reduce your grass, this book is for you. You will get great ideas for grass alternatives and then be able to follow the simple directions for grass removal.

And even if you are not ready to remove your grass, this book is eye candy for gardeners. The author writes in an engaging style that makes for very fun reading. I ended up finishing it up in one reading session.

Speedy Service!

I liked that the book listed recommended plants by zone. I also liked the photos and different approaches for replacing lawn.

Review “Lawn Gone” by Pam Penick

“Lawn Gone” is a manual for changing from the standard, water hungry, time demanding, flat green landscape to a wide variety of useful areas and/or decorative garden plots. Throughout the book are thousands of suggestions for what to replace your blue grass lawn with, and how to do it. The pictures are beautiful and make me want to tear out my lawn and replace it with those images. The author strongly urges anyone wanting to make these changes to sit down and lay out detailed plans before starting.

There are excellent suggestions as to plant choices, providing you check with your local experts before planting things that won’t grow in your area, or that will grossly overgrow in your area. There are excellent suggestions as to a multitude of useful areas from edibles to childrens’ play areas to peaceful areas for relaxation or mediation, to just comfortable, grass free, private sitting areas. There are plentiful warnings as to Home Owner’s Associations, City Ordinances, thug plants, and precautions to check local conditions and plantings before putting a Zone 9 plant in Zone 4. In fact there is a special chapter devoted to HOA’s and city ordinances. The author mentions the cost of such changes several times, but the home owner is wise to price check his plans before embarking on an expensive project.

The are many suggestions for yards that have become shaded by tree growth. This is a much needed discussion, well handled.

The author lives in Texas, and the book is a little slanted toward the Central Texas and the SW, although she has made suggestions for Wisconsin and the Northwest. It is a little light on suggestions for the Midlanders and prairie folk, although many of the suggestions would work there as well.

This is a useful guide to upgrading your landscape with thousands of suggestions. The book is motivating, as well as well organized for application. The book is well written and a good read.