The Great Unlawning of America has been underway for some time now. As we have just crossed the threshold of the spring equinox earlier this week, I want to celebrate how far we come. I also want to give us all a forceful nudge to help us stay the path with the many millions of acres of progress we have to go in this work to trade lifeless monoculture chemically dependent lawns for happy healthy habitat.
This work was given a beautiful boost back in 2020 with the publication of Owen Wormser’s book Lawns into Meadows, Growing a Regenerative Landscape (updated second edition out now in paperback!) out now from Stone Pier Press.
Based in Western Massachusetts, Owen is the founder of Abound Design providing design & consulting for regenerative, sustainability-focused landscapes. He is also the co-founder, with traditional and clinical herbalist Chris Marano, of the non-profit Local Harmony, focused on encouraging and creating community driven regeneration.
In his work and in his book Lawns into Meadows, Owen supports his life long understanding that the world naturally tends toward abundance. In his mind, the rich life that results from turning irrigated turf grass into the diversity and nurturing power of a meadow is the perfect illustration of just this.
In honor of the vernal equinox pulling us into the light, enjoy this conversation with Owen.
You can follow Owen's work online at Abound Design, at the non-profit Local Harmony and on Instagram @lawns_into_meadows
You can purchase the expanded and updated second edition (in paperback) of Lawns Into Meadows here: bookshop.org/p/books/lawns-into-meadows-2nd-edition-growing-a-regenerative-landscape-owen-wormser
All photos courtesy of Owen Wormser, all rights reserved.
JOIN US again next week, when to close out Women’s History Month, we are back in conversation with garden designer Leslie Bennett, of Pine House Edible Gardens and Black Sanctuary Gardens, based in Oakland, CA. Leslie’s newest book Garden Wonderland brings together all of Leslie’s wisdom, spirit, experience, and paradigm shifting passions! That’s next week, right here, listen in.
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Thinking out loud this week....
I want to thank all of you who sent kind notes, comments, and supportive prayers my way last week around the passing of my father on March 4th. They meant a great deal to me – the beneficial mycorrhizae supporting this next cycle of my life – of any life.
I was the middle daughter of three and all of us were with my step-mother circling my father in love and care across the days of his passing. As a wildlife biologist, a plant savvy human, and a powerful community activist involved in the care and keeping of everything from the water, to the soil, to the fire, to the people of every community he ever lived in, my father of all people I know understood the mysterious wisdom of the cycles of life, of seasons, of growth and decline and regrowth. I am so glad he got to read and see my love and admiration and growth born of his teachings and tending reflected in my most recent book, What We Sow.
I am so grateful to have been raised and grown by such a man. An incredibly human and imperfect person as well as a very very good, curious, generous, and whole hearted man.
In times of great loss, it is the garden I turn to – it is the garden as well as my human loves that reminds me of the toa of compost and beauty and truth of regeneration. The garden and other great loves who hold me until I can hold them again. Is there any greater source of generosity? Greater inspiration for gratitude? Not in my life.
Happy healthy spring gardeners – it is a cheerful time, but also a moody time in my experience – the coming and going of stormy skies, of hints of warmth and bloom flirting back and forth with the last vestiges of winter. That unexpected hail storm or snow storm or flood that knocks you back just when you thought you were on the other side…..but hold fast. Spring will prevail into summer – she always does. That right there is the truth of faith.
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