Lawn Alternatives

Gorgeous grasses in the garden

by Rebecca Sweet 3 September 2011

If you’re familiar with my blog, you know I love grasses.  And luckily they’re becoming more and more common in most every nursery, with many selections to choose from.   Yes, grasses are all the rage and for good reason. Why?  Generally speaking, grasses will grow in just about any type of soil, most are [...]

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Garden Designers Roundtable – What’s lawn doing in Hell?

by Rebecca Sweet 22 August 2011

Let me state up front that I’m not a hater when it comes to lawns.  There, I’ve said it. If you have a lawn and you or your kids actually use it, then it’s okay in my book.  Especially if you don’t have unrealistic expectations that you need to saturate your garden with chemicals to keep [...]

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So you want to create a no-lawn front garden?

by Rebecca Sweet 22 May 2011

As a garden designer, I’ve noticed a growing trend over the past few years: more and more people are wanting to replace their unused, water chugging, labor intensive front lawn with a beautiful low-water, low-maintenance garden. These days it seems no-lawn gardens make up about 75% of my business.  The remaining 25% are people who’d [...]

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Design tips for a low-water ‘Meadow Garden’

by Rebecca Sweet 15 October 2010

Today I’m participating in a massive, worldwide blogging event called Blog Action Day, where the topic we’ll all write about is Water. As any California gardener knows, water is our most precious resource.  In this post, I’m going to show you how to create a lawn-and-chemical-free meadow garden teeming with life, color, scent and natural [...]

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I used to have a Lawn, but now I have a Lawnlet

by Rebecca Sweet 22 July 2009

If you MUST have a lawn, here’s some ideas on how to reduce the impact it has on the environment while still providing you an area to play croquet….

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