Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change
$34.85
“Shows us that guiding natural processes rather than fighting them is the key to creating healthier landscapes and happier gardeners.” —Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home
Larry Weaner is an icon in the world of ecological landscape design, and now his revolutionary approach is available to home gardeners. Garden Revolution shows how an ecological approach to planting can lead to beautiful gardens that buck much of conventional gardening’s counter-productive, time-consuming practices. Instead of picking the wrong plant and then weeding, irrigating, and fertilizing, Weaner advocates for choosing plants that are adapted to the soil and climate of a specific site and letting them naturally evolve over time. This lushly-photographed reference is for anyone looking for a better, smarter way to garden.
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125 reviews for Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change
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$34.85
Simon –
There’s a spectrum in the world of natural garden design. At one end are people who design gardens in a naturalistic way (densely packed, in layers) but don’t necessarily use native plants. Visionary Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf is one who comes to mind. At the other end are the restoration ecologists. They restore habitats without concerning themselves with aesthetics.
I stand in the middle of this: I want to use native plants to create habitats and gardens. In other words, I want to create landscapes that are as beautiful to nature as they are to us.
This is why I’m such a huge fan of Larry Weaner and his book, Garden Revolution: How our landscapes can be a source of environmental change, which is co-authored with Thomas Christopher.
If you’re going to create gardens that are sensitive to nature, there’s a harsh fact: you have to go against the grain of a lot of traditional horticulture. While smart gardeners match plant to place (sunlight, moisture, soil etc) they will to some extent fight nature. For example, they might amend soils to make it fit the plant they desire and they will likely mulch and weed to stop the plant they planted popping up elsewhere.
I’m not judging this (well, I am a little if lots of oil-based chemicals are involved), but I am saying that if you’re designing with nature, your approach is different.
Weaner, who was a pioneer of ecological landscaping, particularly in the north-east of the United States, isn’t shy about making that distinction. He does so particularly well in this book and in his educational arm, New Directions in the American Landscape. I have completed his seven-part course for professionals on ecological landscaping. This is man who knows of what he speaks.
He’s up-front about challenging traditional horticulture, even when the planting is in a naturalistic style. The kind of gardening, he says, is about maintaining the designer’s original intention, which is likely against the way a garden evolves. It’s “a relentless struggle with the site’s attempts to express itself.”
So he went back to re-learn garden design, this time with ecology as his teacher.
If you’ve been reading my articles (on my Grounded website) on weeding or on place, for example, you’ll see we’re on the same page. In this book, Weaner gives a how-to, from the principles through to the techniques. Indeed, it’s a Cole’s Notes version of the course I completed.
What I particularly appreciate about Weaner, living and working as I do in Haliburton County, Ontario, is his recognition that woodland-based landscapes, including shrub-based gardens, are valid. (The natural garden community has been hugely influenced by prairie-style gardening, which is suitable only for some sites in the Highlands.) The same techniques apply when it comes to plant choice and design – but we get to create gardens that fit in particularly well with the Haliburton Cottage aesthetic.
This is a beautiful hardback book, filled with lots of photographs. It’s an inspiration. Weaner proves that when gardening for the environment we can go beyond pretty – we can fine-tune our aesthetics to create a garden that is beautiful to us and beautiful to nature too.
Rigel –
I borrowed this book from the library, then realized I needed it in my own library so I could grab it anytime. Great resource, a wonderful read, and full of photos for reference. Happy to have bought it.
Rachel Summers –
I was expecting a picture book but this is so so much more. I got the kindle version so my Alexa app could read it to me while I gardened. Lots of great advice for working at scale and on a budget. Oh and the pictures are great, too.
SADOT OCON MORALES –
Excelente libro de referencia, lo utilizo de apoyo para la materia de Ecología del Paisaje, brinda una visión holistica del proceso de diseño para el ecosistema.
Russ Cohen –
I just finished reading Larry’s book, “Garden Revolution”, and highly recommend it. I got quite a few tips and insight from it, in spite of the fact that Larry’s projects incorporating native plant species are quite different from mine. A visually-appealing landscape, brought about by the use of (mostly) native plants, is Larry’s prime focus; virtually no mention is made of the edibility of any of the plant species Larry incorporates into his designs. On the other hand, I am most interested in planting edible native species, and how the landscape looks is of secondary concern to me. Also – Larry’s book focuses mostly on his work for private clients, whereas I am partnering with municipalities, land trusts, schools and colleges to add native edibles to appropriate places on their landscapes. Nevertheless – his book’s chapter called The Garden Ecologists Primer, on how to evaluate your site and determine which plants are appropriate to it, is just as valuable to what I am doing as to his work. (BTW – for more info on the edibility of native, and other plants, you might enjoy reading my book, Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten).