Above: Sara & Evan Cooper’s front landscape as of summer 2025, three years after starting the transition from turf grass.
Lawn to Meadow:
A Light and Gradual Transition
Larry Weaner, FAPLD & Sara Weaner Cooper
No chemicals, no smothering, no scraping and hauling, no early-stage ugly phase.
Sounds too good to be true.
Yet by gradually applying a series of light-touch actions, you can achieve this transition organically without breaking your back, sparking ecological angst, or infuriating your neighbors. These actions can include strategic plant selection, timed mowing, selective height cutting, pH manipulation, organic herbicide application, and a phased planting approach. In our first session, Larry will illustrate case studies that exemplify the technical underpinnings behind this approach from a landscape designer's perspective. Next, Sara will discuss her lawn to meadow conversion from a homeowner’s perspective. Her meadow, now in its third growing season, has been featured in the The New York Times (2024) and the BBC (2025). Together, they will illustrate how the experience of meadow making can be transformed from daunting to uplifting.
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 | 6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Category: Home gardener
Fee: $35
Click Series Overview below for details about:
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Student & Wild Ones member discounts
Group and Gift Orders
Student Scholarships
Registration open & recording viewable for 3 months after live date.
Instructor Bios:
Larry Weaner, FAPLD, founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982 and New Directions in the American Landscape in 1990. His nationally recognized work combines horticulture, landscape design, and ecological restoration, and spans more than twenty U.S. states and the U.K. He has been profiled in national publications. Larry’s approach to landscape design appeals to audiences nationwide. He has presented at American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) national and state meetings, Cultural Landscape Foundation tours, the Garden Writers Association National Conference, the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the New York Botanical Garden, and the National Arboretum in Washington, DC, among others. His book, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change (Timber Press 2016), co-authored with Tom Christopher, received an American Horticultural Society (AHS) Book Award in 2017. In 2021 he received the AHS Landscape Design Award and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) Award of Distinction.
Sara Weaner Cooper, New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL)'s executive director, began her role with NDAL in 2018 as educational program coordinator. She holds a M.A. in anthropology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in anthropology and education from Bryn Mawr College. One of her passions and long-term goals is to work with schools on eco-cultural land stewardship curricula. Her and her husband Evan Cooper’s home landscape was featured in a BBC article in 2025 and The New York Times article by Margaret Roach in 2024, which illustrates an experimental yet highly successful organic transition from lawn to native meadow. Sara has presented about this transition for the Ecological Landscape Alliance’s Annual Conference, Grow Native MA, and the Southern Adirondack Audubon Society. In 2024 NDAL received the American Horticultural Society (AHS) Award for Horticultural Innovation, which recognizes an individual/organization “whose innovations have made the field of horticulture more sustainable and accessible to all.”