Garden, Not Lawn

I've been looking through Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass by Liz Primeau, and am finding myself really interested in the idea of replacing my lawn with a garden. I've been feeling pulled to stop putting my time, energy, and money into maintaining a lawn that every year gets more unhealthy. Primeau believes that lawns are dysfunctional, impoverished ecosystems that only survive because of the attention we give them. She says that a natural, working ecosystem doesn't need human intervention. It operates on its own, adapts to its location, improves the soil, and attracts birds, insects, and worms. Heather Coburn of Food Not Lawns says that "lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects. In addition, the pollution emitted from a power mower in just one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles. In fact, lawns use more equipment, labor, fuel, and agricultural toxins than industrial farming, making lawns the largest agricultural sector in the United States". Cheeseslave posted on her blog as well today about the detriment of lawns.

Primeau suggests creating a "natural garden", one that is closely tied to the terrain, climate, and native plant life of the site. This type of garden, she says, "is environmentally friendly, common-sense gardening, using plants that thrive in your garden's conditions and planting them in a design that recreates nature". It makes sense to me: native plants increase biodiversity, provide habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies, conserve water, eliminate the need for chemicals, are easy to maintain, the list goes on.

As I look outside at my lawn and ahead to another summer of watering, weeding, mowing, and weedeating, I think I'll keep reading about native plants and front yard gardens. I'm really going to need help in the landscaping department!

Do any readers have insight and/or resources about lawn, native plants, or how to replace our lawns with gardens?