One of SVT's goals as a regional land trust entrusted to protect the habitat of the Sudbury, Assabet & Concord Rivers valley is to educate landowners, particularly those around bodies of water, brooks, and rivers as to best practices for minimizing the impacts landscaping practices on our watershed.
Below are a number of resources that we invite you to review and share with others.
Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
http://www.mass.gov/envir/mwrc/pdf/More_Than_Just_Yard.pdf
Ecological Landscape Association
P.O. Box 1561
Greenfield, MA 01302-1561
617-436-5838
http://www.ela-ecolandscapingassn.org/
River Stewardship Council's Organic Lawn Project
The Organization for the Assabet River (OAR)
http://www.assabetriver.org/GWRecharge/LID-demo.htm
The Lawn Institute. Redesigning the American Lawn. Hartford, Con.: Yale University Press, 1993
Healthy Lawn, Health Environment- Caring for Your Lawn in an Environmentally Sound Way. Public Information Center PM-2113, USEPA, 401 Main Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20460
Daniels, Steve. The Wildlawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn. New York, NY: Macmillan USA, 1995.
Jenkins, Virginia Scott. (2000) The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington DC.
The Living Lawn Project. www.livinglawn.org
“ELA's Guide to Healthy Landscapes:From the Ground Up: Site and Soil Preparation," Volume One, 2003
The Organization for the Assabet River (OAR)
http://www.assabetriver.org/nutrient/lawns.html
Cullina, William. Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Cullina, William. Native Trees Shrubs and Vines. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
DeGraf, Richard M. Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Attracting Birds, Second Edition. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2002.
****Note that this book lists some plants considered invasive in our region!****
Dirr, Michael A. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Fourth Edition. Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishing Company, 1990.
Flint, Harrison, L. Landscape Plants for Eastern North America, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY
Hightshoe, Gary L. Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Urban and Rural America. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988.
Sternberg, Guy and Jim Wilson. Landscaping with Native Trees: Northeast, Midwest, Southeast Edition. Shelburne, VT: Chapters Publishing, 1995
Taylor, Sally L., Glenn D. Dreyer, and William A. Niering. Native Shrubs for Landscaping. New London: Connecticut College Arboretum, 1992.
New England Wild Flower Society. http://www.newfs.org/.
Massachusetts Native Plant Committee. http://www.massnativeplants.org/.
Native Alternatives for Invasive Ornamental Plant Species,
www.caes.state.ct.us/SpecialFeatures/NativeAlternatives.pdf
A Guide to Invasive Plants in Massachusetts, Weatherbee, P.B., P. Somers, T. Simmons, 1998, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough, MA 01581, 508/792-7270, x 200.