"Rarely does a gardening book raise eyebrows, let alone hell."-Diana Morse Fire the Landscaper is a biting critique of current landscape design and maintenance practices. The book explores the health risks, cultural biases, origins, and the insults to Mother Nature caused by our culturally backed, legally enforced obsession with artificial representations of nature.The author, Phil Williams, is a former owner of a successful lawn and landscape company. He exposes the waste, fraud, and downright ridiculousness of an industry focused solely on aesthetics. Through his subsequent training as a permaculture designer, he offers many practical solutions aligned with nature to increase the health and productivity of landscapes, and the world by extension, while simultaneously reducing the workload of upkeep.
What readers are saying. "Rarely does a gardening book raise eyebrows, let alone Hell. Phil M. Williams' "Fire the Landscaper" sounds a battle cry defending private property, homesteading and chemical-free living -- "weeds" and all. A former landscaping mogul, Williams exposes the industry's practice of over-fertilizing and over-mowing lawns, a cycle driven by homeowners chained to such maintenance by Home Owner's Association (HOA) rules or a "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. Williams also discusses questionable landscaper design and pricing practices, to educate consumers about what they're really paying for, from below-grade trees and shrubs to the lack of permaculture-style plantings that can provide food as well as aesthetics. Part biography, part instruction manual for turning lawns into natural and productive garden-spaces, Williams describes the pride and pitfalls of homesteading. From living with nosy neighbors who can't get their heads out of their mole-holes long enough to understand "perfect" lawns require plant killing toxins that impact land for generations, to downright mean folks who can't comprehend that so-called weeds are often edible, and necessary for healthy soil. For the intrepid homesteader, it seems, fighting City Hall often comes with nature-led land management. Williams bucks the system with style, however, and digresses from instructor to insider often. His stories includes a satisfyingly lurid dream sequence worthy of Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" guaranteed to make the reader want to start an illegal mulch pile immediately. Damn the HOA, full speed ahead After all, it's your property, right?" -Diana Morse &#