It’s out of place and yet aggressively cultivated. Laws have been written to maintain it at the expense of biodiversity and greater ecosystem function. Lawn is ingrained in suburban and urban psyche as the ideal, default landscape. It’s easy to denigrate not because it makes those concerned about habitat, climate, and health feel better, but because it’s ubiquitous as wall-to-wall carpeting versus having a design purpose. There’s no war on lawn — there’s a war on nature. Lawns don’t welcome us, they alienate us from the planet. Once heralded as a great democratizer in a vast urban park, heavily-managed, resource-intensive lawn is what separates us from one another — a vast moat of nothingness that offers little to the community. We can do better, rethink pretty, and curate healthier neighborhoods via designed, artful habitat landscapes. Lawn is out of place. Lawn is a weed.
…won’t be how pretty our gardens looked; our legacy will be how gardens and other managed spaces woke us to a revolution of belonging in this world, and a renaissance of ethical thinking that helped us evolve into our fullest potential as stewards of life and as gardeners of our own hearts.”
Benjamin Vogt has spoken to arboretums, botanical gardens, nature centers, multi-million dollar corporations, master gardener symposiums, home and garden shows, city parks and rec, and regional native plant societies. With a focus on accessible and equitable online lectures that reduce our carbon footprint, Benjamin is eager to share the empowering potential of lawn-to-meadow conversions in urban areas. And dad jokes.
This site exists to encourage and empower you to take charge through personal research and discovery. As new studies and tools become available we will continue to update our resources to help you design, manage, and advocate for your lawn-to-meadow-garden conversion. Use the below pages, in this order, then also see how a garden in Indiana was created using the principles of Prairie Up.
