[.ca] Natural Landscaping: Gardening With Nature To Create A ... (ISBN 0875968856)

From Amazon.com:
Natural Landscaping is an intelligent and quietly compelling guide for naturalizing the garden. Country Living Gardener editor Sally Roth relies on decades of organic gardening experience, personal anecdotes, and a belief in working in concert with Mother Nature to restore native ecosystems. In the tradition of gardening manuals, she offers best-of lists for everything from grasses for prairie gardens to flowers for a night garden to plants to soften a pool's edge, always stressing the overarching importance of flora-fauna harmony. She also includes helpful tips and sidebars on bird-nest materials, unique ground covers, building dry streambeds, and making homemade sap for butterflies. There's a solid chapter on wall and path design and welcome field-guide information on water wildlife, birds, and butterflies. Roth's tone is warm throughout, and she further personalizes the book by including sidebars about other gardeners and their gardens. Grassland, woodland, and freshwater-area ecosystems are covered, although information on coastal or arid areas is absent. For readers in the Southwest, Desert Landscaping would be a better choice. The real shine of Natural Landscaping is in the details on creating a natural habitat that is self-contained and self-perpetuating. For instance, one can plant a butterfly bush to attract butterflies, but what perennial will butterflies lay their eggs in for next year? Instead of fighting a never-ending battle of trapping and killing moles, let these insect-eating creatures tunnel their homes and aerate your soil. Your first impulse may be to tidily clear away fallen wood, but why not position it ornamentally and nourish the soil at the same time? The book is full of this kind of sensible wisdom. It's clear Roth has taken her lessons from Mother Nature seriously. --Karen Karleski

too muddled to be useful or recommended:
I speak on the subject of natural landscaping frequently - I've been doing this for years. I always search out useful references so audiences can go home and apply what we've discussed. I would not recommend this book. This book muddles the concept of "natural" and "native" to the point that an inexperienced gardener is likely to plant invasive, non-native plants and never realize they have created a disaster where they hoped to create environemental harmony in their yard. Awhile after the fact they may realize what has happened - I speak to disappointed homeowners often. Diekelman's book of the same title is much better, especially for folks in the Midwest. It is somewhat techincial, so may be a little dense for beginners, but at least it won't cause mistakes, disappointment and regret.

a must for your gardening library:
I originally bought this book ONLY because Ms. Roth is a local writer and I had enjoyed her newspaper columns and also went to a few lectures that featured her. As I have matured as a gardener I am very cautious about spending my garden dollars. I assumed that this book would be one of the "fluffy" books similar to my first garden book purchases. I was surprised at the depth of information and wealth of ideas. In talking to other gardeners or anyone else interested in nature, I always recommend this book as a must for their gardening library. I have probably reread the book 3 times since I purchased it and always pick up something new.

Good ideas:
This book offers some basic ideas in landscpaing your property in order to maintain a natural look. It offers beautiful uses for wet areas instead of trying to correct it.

Excellent all-around source on the new natural approach:
There are a number of books out on natural landscaping - a fast-growing field - but this is the first one I found which included useful information on the whole spectrum of related issues: style, philosophy, horticulture, and wildlife habitat and feeding. Chapters on woodland and prairie gardens are excellent. There are good lists of native plant nurseries; sound information on water features; and inspirational but not too idiosyncratic commentary by the author - just about everything someone needs to get started. And as someone who has already worked with this style for some time, I can also say it's useful for the experienced gardener. Besides, I like the author's style - she is a serious garden writer who can relate to those of us who don't go about designing in the traditional way with grids, etc. Highly recommended. The only reason I didn't give it four stars was that in a couple of cases, I had questions about the execution of certain plans which were not answered in the text or drawings. Still, that sort of detail can be gotten around given the clear principles outlined in the various projects. If you can just have one book on the subject, this would serve you well.