Despite all the pessimism surrounding the future of the world's drinking water, many predicaments can be remedied with simple conservation methods. Home-based water conservation starts with How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass, the only North America-wide guide on how to convert your yard from a water-sucking source of pollution runoff to a flourishing, productive showcase of natural vegetation. While 1.3 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe drinking water, 60% of ours goes into conventional turf-grass lawns and ornamental, exotic gardens.
Runoff from chemical treatment of lawns and gardens has seriously compromised groundwater supplies everywhere in the United States and Canada. We have put garden cosmetics ahead of our health.
How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass teaches how to conserve water and prevent the pollution of groundwater. It covers how to cut, roll up and compost turf-grass lawn (and water-sucking, ornamental "exotic" garden plants) and how to replace them with gorgeous native ground covers: flowers, shrubs, trees and grasses that will need no fertilizers, no chemical controls for pests, no mowing and, after the first year, no watering. This is a vital publication for all North Americans who are concerned about water scarcity and water quality.
| Preface | 7 | |
| Introduction | 9 | |
| Chapter 1 | Water, Water, Everywhere | 11 |
| Chapter 2 | Out of the Forest and Onto the Lawn | 20 |
| Chapter 3 | Go Eco, Go Biodiverse, Go Water Friendly, Go Native! | 25 |
| Chapter 4 | Eight Steps to Going Native | 34 |
| Chapter 5 | In With The New | 55 |
| Chapter 6 | Specialty Gardens | 59 |
| How to grow a butterfly garden | 59 | |
| How to grow a bird garden | 61 | |
| How to grow a woodland garden | 66 | |
| How to grow a meadow garden | 69 | |
| Chapter 7 | The Foristic Provinces | 72 |
| The California Floristic Province | 74 | |
| The Pacific Northwest | 82 | |
| The Western Mountains and Basins | 90 | |
| The Southwestern Deserts | 99 | |
| The Great Plains | 109 | |
| The Eastern Woodlands | 119 | |
| The Coastal Plains | 128 | |
| Resources and Supplies | 137 | |
| Further Reading | 159 | |
| Index | 163 |
Overview
Despite all the pessimism surrounding the future of the world's drinking water, many predicaments can be remedied with simple conservation methods. Home-based water conservation starts with How to Get Your Lawn Off Grass,...