Accent on Natural Landscaping

We don’t often get to see Lorrie Otto’s name in the news, so I just had to share this reference with you. The Atlantic news article entitled “The Life and Death of the American Lawn” was long, covering several subjects relative to America’s changing attitude regarding landscaping and lawn and the use of potable water for landscaping. I was astounded to realize that annual watering of grass requires 9 billion gallons a day to keep green here in the United States.

The article pointed out that the immediate change has been due to the drought conditions being experienced by some of the Western and Southwest states, but it also mentioned the “anti-lawn sentiment that has been long-simmering among environmentalists, among journalists, and among activists.” The author Megan Garber mentions Lorrie with the likes of Michael Pollan who wrote two books, Second Nature  and The Botany of Desire, against lawns; Sara Stein who wrote Noah’s Garden and Rachel Carson who wrote Silent Spring. Then she wrote:  “Lorrie Otto, who founded the anti-grass movement that became known as “Wild Ones,” condemned lawns as “sterile,” “monotonous,” “flagrantly wasteful,” and, in all, “really evil.”

More information about Lorrie Otto on whose philosophy Wild Ones:  Native Plants, Natural Landscapes was founded.