Thanks for visiting LessLawn.com. I'm Evelyn J. Hadden, a gardener and freelance writer in Plymouth, Minnesota.

I recently moved to a 5-acre lot on the outskirts of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area, and I've spent the winter planning how to fill out the existing landscape (mainly old fields and some wetland) with native shrubs and trees to create more habitat for the resident animals and more year-round interest and privacy for the resident humans.

Our previous home occupied a small lot (50 feet by 140 feet) in an older neighborhood of Saint Paul, and during our five years there, I gradually replaced all but a tiny strip of lawn. You can read about how building that garden enlivened my landscape and my thinking in the book Apprentice to a Garden.

Since our current landscape is larger, I plan to keep a roughly 25 foot by 50 foot area of lawn near the house; the rest of the lot will include wild areas like a small poplar forest, patches of red pines, and thickets of native shrubs, and also more civilized areas such as a "useful plants" garden, a rock garden, a couple of patios, a camping spot (with firepit, if zoning regulations allow), a walled garden, a small orchard, and an arbor in a hickory grove. Of course, you gardeners know that we all dream big, don't we?

People are drawn to gardening for various reasons. I garden for the same reason that I explore wild places... to learn how nature works. That is, to understand how natural places are organized and how they function, to learn to see the beauty in them, and to attempt to model that grand artist Nature as I try to transform my ex-lawn into a landscape.

There are many styles of garden, and every gardener has a unique approach. My personal gardening style is probably best described as natural landscaping. It is:

• naturalistic: I like a tangle of plants and prefer long-lived, structural trees, shrubs, and wildflowers rather than large-flowered hybrids and long-blooming bedding plants.
• low-maintenance: I'd rather spend my energy in creating and improving than in maintaining.
• do-it-yourself: I enjoy doing the work myself, even though I rarely get it "right" the first time.
• chemical-free: Good smells and tastes are even more important to me than neat looks. I take pleasure in a certain amount of time spent digging out weeds.

These personal inclinations and values drive my research and my writing, but it's not my intention to be disrespectful of preferences or values that differ from mine. My goal is to offer useful information, and my hope is that you'll find some value in what you read at this site.

You don't have to believe as I do to be drawn to natural landscaping -- it's a modern style for people who prefer to spend daily time in a natural setting, and it also works well for busy folks who want a garden but don't have the time or money for a more traditional one.

If you're a neat and tidy gardener, you may need to adjust your aesthetics to engage in this type of gardening. You'll have to judge for yourself if the rewards are worth the change.

Thanks for visiting this site, and feel free to send me your questions and comments.

--Evelyn J. Hadden, Editor