03-06-23 Lawns into Meadows: Rebuilding Biodiversity
Guest Owen Wormser, Landscape Designer, Abound Design
Imagine planting native wildflowers in pots on a terrace or transforming a section of your high-maintenance lifeless lawn into a low maintenance meadow habitat, rich with biodiversity. Recent satellite photographs show that lawns now occupy 45.6 million acres, about three times the size of New Jersey, making the American lawn the largest irrigated crop in the U.S. in terms of surface area. Perfectly manicured grass lawns were marketed as an essential feature of the American dream in the 1940’s and 50’s. Today, lawn maintenance demands evermore precious resources – time, money and water. Lawns require labor, expensive motorized equipment and fuel consumption. They also involve toxic treatment applications – synthetic fertilizers, weed killers and insecticides – that poison life.
In this episode landscape designer Owen Wormser explains how to replace the deadscape we call lawn with beautiful, low-maintenance meadows, that sequester far more carbon than a lawn. Owen is the author of Lawn into Meadows: Growing a regenerative landscape, an award-winning book published by Chelsea Green. Owen received a degree in landscape architecture in 1998 before founding his own landscape business, Abound Design. He offers consulting, installation and sustainable landscape design services inspired by permaculture and deep ecology. His work serves as a means for sharing his deep connection with nature, while further cultivating that connection within himself. He actively practices the skills and perspectives necessary to effectively weave people and the natural world back together.
MEADOW GARDENING RESOURCES
Purchase Owen’s book, Lawn into Meadows – https://stonepierpress.org/store/lawns-into-meadows-second-edition
Visit Owen’s Abound Design website – https://abounddesign.com/
Download the Meadowscaping Activity Guide from Kids Gardening – https://kidsgardening.org/the-latest-meadowscaping/
Shop for seeds and plants at American Meadows – https://www.americanmeadows.com/
View this Pesticide Action Network webinar on Pesticides and Climate Change – https://www.panna.org/resources/webinar-recording-pesticides-and-climate-change
PerusePollinator Pathway native plant lists – https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/native-pollinator-plant-lists
Take the NO MOW MAY Challenge – https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/rethink-your-lawn
Follow ReSeedingRI on instagram.
Join the Story Walking Radio Hour group on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/StoryWalkingRadio
Learn more about Food Forest Abundance – https://foodforestabundance.com/get-started/?ref=WENDYFACHON
Learn more at www.storywalking.com , https://netwalkri.com email wendy@netwalkri.com or call 401 529-6830. Connect with Wendy to order copies of Fiddlesticks, The Angel Heart or Storywalker Wild Plant Magic Cards.
Subscribe to Wendy’s blog Writing with Wendy at www.wendyfachon.blog.
Join Wendy on facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/StoryWalkingRadio
