From Publishers Weekly
Lawns are celebrated in America as a mark of civility and achievement: nature bowing to the well-gloved human hand and the lawn mower. But American fanaticism about the well-kept family turf does not always serve the best interests either of the turf or of the American. A product, in part, of a 1991 Yale graduate seminar, "The American Lawn," this work of scholarship and suggestion seeks to improve our attitudes and our front yards by cutting down on pesticide use, replacing power mowers with the hand-held kind, adopting types of grasses best suited to one's habitat and maybe even allowing a true-blue meadow to develop, clover and all. Lawns are impositions of will, not of nature, and the idea of returning will to nature--or collaborating with it more respectfully than we have--will not appeal to everyone. But the idea is sensible and fair, and this book--also sensible and fair--may, with luck, help to spread it around. Bormann is an emeritus professor of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University; Balmori is a lecturer at Yale; Geballe is assistant dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
As the title indicates, the emphasis here is on shaping a new aesthetic for a new ecological ethic. The idea is not to do away with the lawn but to design and manage it to reduce its present damage to the environment. However, the authors (Yale Univ. Sch. of Forestry and Environmental Studies) also propose two alternatives to the conventional lawn: "freedom lawns," which would allow natural, unrestricted growth of grasses and low-growing herbaceous plants, and total replacement with new landscape designs. Rede signing is wide-ranging, balanced, and imaginative, but, unfortunately, short on practical details on implementation. This is a good buy for academic and larger public libraries, but don't throw away your other lawn-care books. For a popular book on the same topic, see Sara Stein's Noah's Garden, LJ 4/1/93.--Ed.- Richard Shotwell, MRA Laboratories Inc., North Adams, Mass.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Anne Raver, New York Times Book Review
"extremely readable . . . the origins of the addiction to lawns, and why Americans should kick the habit."


Book Description
The authors in this book argue that our dedication to maintaining beautiful lawns is contributing to the serious environmental problems facing the planet, and they offer strategies for creating and caring for aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sound lawns. This new edition updates the original text and adds a chapter and illustrations showing what progress has been made in the ecological management of landscapes over the past decade.


About the Author
F. Herbert Bormann is emeritus professor of forest ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Diana Balmori holds appointments as a lecturer in the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale University School of Architecture. She is also principal at Balmori Associates, Inc., New Haven, a landscape and urban design firm. Gordon T. Geballe is associate dean and lecturer in forest microbiology at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Americans enthusiastically plant, weed, water, spray, and mow 31 million acres of lawn. But is our dedication to these lawns contributing to the serious environmental problems facing the planet? The authors in this book argue that it is, and they offer strategies for creating and caring for aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sound lawns. This new edition, which is being reissued in a more artistic format and with many additional illustrations, updates the original text and adds a chapter showing what progress has been made in the ecological management of landscapes over the past decade."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Anne Raver

extremely readable . . . the origins of the addiction to lawns, and why Americans should kick the habit.

ACCREDITATION