Front Yard Gardens: A Book Review from Serendipity Gardens

What’s a gardener to do when the wind howls and the snow flies in January? Reading an inspirational gardening book is always a good idea. This post is a review of just such a book — Front Yard Gardens by Liz Primeau, a Canadian garden professional and writer. The book, published by Firefly Books Ltd. in 2003, includes hundreds of beautiful photographs, most by Andrew Leyerle.

An updated and expanded version of the book came out in 2010.

I came across this book a few years ago while perusing gardening books in a bookstore. I loved the cover, which depicted several beautiful front yard gardens. (I later learned that the top left photo is of the author’s garden.) Those pictures inspired me to begin thinking about how to transform my front yard into something far more interesting than the small sward of grass it was at the time.

In today’s gardening world, I see many books about replacing lawn with other plants, but at the time I first read this book, it was a novel idea for me.  Based on my experience, Primeau may have been one of the pioneers of the less-lawn movement.

Throughout the book, she also touts the idea of not using pesticides. She points out that not only are pesticides a danger to keep and use, they ultimately harm our gardens and our environment. Such short-term thinking, it seems to me, is the very antithesis of what gardening is about. I have not used any pesticides at Serendipity Gardens since I read this book.

The Book’s Organization

The opening chapters set the stage for moving from grass to a more diverse garden in the front yard.  Chapter 1, “Why We Mow,” explores several possible reasons for North America’s love affair with lawns. Chapter 2, “Lawn at What Cost?” harks back to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962. Few gardeners paid attention to Carson at first, but gradually her ideas took hold. It seems unbelievable now that garden experts once recommended chemicals to kill earthworms because they “were unsightly” … but so it was.

So many years ago, Carson pointed out that we needed pesticides because we had ignored nature’s preference for diversity and opted for the mono-culture of grass. Primeau explains:

“The smooth green lawn that so many North Americans aspire to is in fact an impoverished ecosystem … that will survive only because of the attention you give it.

“A natural, working ecosystem, in contrast, doesn’t need so much human intervention. It operates on its own, powered almost entirely by the sun, which provides energy and drives the water cycle. The plants in a healthy ecosystem have adapted to the location and the nutrients circulate successfully between them and the other residents — the birds, insects, even the soil. Plants die, break down and add humus to the soil. The spider eats the fly who’s after the hibiscus, and the ladybugs eat the aphids sucking the sap out of the honeysuckle, and so the cycle continues.”

The Best Chapters

The chapters that collectively tell more than 60 garden stories are the best ones. Chapter 3, “Evolution of a Garden,” is my favorite. It tells the story of how Primeau took her own grassy front yard and over the time span of 10 years, turned it into a colorful and lively garden that once again attracted wildlife. The amazing before and after photos depict an astonishing and beautiful transformation.

Remaining chapters tell the stories of various types of front yard gardens and the gardeners who created them. It provides gorgeous photographs to  illustrate the stories. Chapter titles include, among others, “Cottage Gardens,” “Small City Gardens,” Minimalist Gardens,” and “Natural Gardens.” The final chapter, “Overcoming Obstacles,” features gardens that thrive where it’s not easy.

The Front Garden at Serendipity Gardens

My own small house is out in the country. It sits about 100 feet from the road, and yes, I do have grass there. But I have way less than I used to. The front yard garden, shown here, is a broad swathe of low-growing, soft-hued plants — blueish green, purple, caramel, and dull red. Primary plants are blue fescue, various huechera, Lady’s mantle, cushion spurge, and lavender, plus a few evergreen shrubs and various ground covers.

The best thing I did was to plant a boarder of sweet alyssum three years ago. Beautiful that first year, it disappeared in the winter. It returned the following spring, though, bigger than before. I helped it out by seeding the garden’s bare spots with more sweet alyssum. The first year of seeding, the alyssum bloomed here and there; the second year, it returned and spread and began to fill in the holes. Now, seven years after I started the front yard garden, it is finally melding into one tapestry, much as hoped it would eventually do. It is a beautiful sight, and its sweet fragrance welcomes visitors. The birds, bees, rabbits and squirrels seem to like it as much as I do.

My inspiration for my front yard garden was Chapter 3 in Front Yard Gardens, and an entry in the book titled, “An English Garden, Texas Style,” from the chapter titled “Fusion Gardens.” (If you look at the photo of the book’s cover, this garden is pictured, top right.)

More about the Book

In addition to all the stories of North American gardens and the accompanying photos, the book also offers information on how to get started, tips of various kinds, plant lists, guidelines for the different garden types, such as natural gardens and woodland gardens, and recommendations on how to build them. In some of the chapters, the author includes garden maps to help the reader visualize the descriptions. Throughout, she writes in a casual, inclusive style, making this a very readable book. I personally have re-read chapters from it several times and looked at the photos more times than I can count.

Common-Sense Gardening

Because the topic of native plants versus “alien” plants is so hot right now, I checked out what Primeau had to say on this subject. Her take, which she defines in the chapter titled “Natural Gardens,” is: “I am pretty much in the middle … In my terms, a natural garden is closely tied to the terrain, climate and native plant life of the site, but the hand of the gardener is inherent in the design. In short, it’s environmentally friendly, common-sense gardening, using plants that thrive in your garden’s conditions and planting them in a design that recreates nature as much as is practical in your neighborhood.”

This, to me, seems like sound gardening advice for any type of garden or gardener, as is the entire text of Front Yard Gardens. I would recommend it to anyone.

Liz Primeau also has a blog called Born to Garden (http://lizprimeau.com).

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