Owen Wormser

A useful and practical guide for how to turn a lawn (or failed lawn) into a meadow, which is largely self-sustaining, supports pollinators, and serves as a carbon sink.

How Meadows Store Carbon
Field Study
Design Plans
Meadow Plants
Prep Work
Planting Guide
Upkeep
Community Building (e.g. communicating with neighbors, in person or via a sign, that you're not just letting your lawn get scraggly - the meadow is intentional but takes time to develop)
Questions
Seed Suppliers

Quotes/notes

A meadow is what can happen when you give the earth a chance to heal itself. (4)

Mowing lawns...[is] a major source of pollution...lawn mowers emit ten times more hydrocarbons than a typical car for every hour of operation. (13)… (meer)

There's some really good stuff to think about in this book, much of which has been thought elsewhere at greater length and in greater detail. Owen Wormser's unique vision is considering planting MEADOWS. With grass. Not just a random collection of pollinator-attractive plants. I am really happy to be invited to THINK about this.

This ties into some of my most puzzling concerns: what grasses are native, how do I identify them, what collections of native plants are found in the ecosystem of an oak savannah and how do I rehabilitate the degraded remnants of this plant community? There are not enough hints, let alone outright answers to these questions.

Still it's a good start. Doug Tallamy's books are unquestionably better on the why-to grow native plants and why-not-to grow lawns, but here's Owen Wormser with meadows and that's a good message. I am glad that my public library had this book available to borrow.… (meer)