Gardening On The Edge

The subject of this book is gardening. The publishers have provided no further information on this title.

This lavishly photographed book, written and curated by internationally respected gardening author Christine Reid and shot by renowned photographer Simon Griffiths, focuses on 18 stunning gardens from around Australia situated on a natural 'frontier'-rainforest, desert, bushland, saltbush plains, a volcanic crater, the ocean's edge, a harbour. The featured gardens have been created or restored in locations where the surrounding natural landscape is as significant as the cultivated and designed elements. In its images and stories Gardens on the Edge is much about the diversity and character of the Australian continent as it about the gardens. The accompanying stories not only explore the establishment of the garden, but also reference Australian history and geography, and cover issues ranging from dealing with droughts and climate change to restoring a long-neglected kitchen garden.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Daily life for most of us, particularly Americans, frequently achieves a pace that becomes busy to the point of being harried. As one activity spins into another, each day distinguishes itself little from any other day. In a like manner, our immediate surroundings of buildings, products, or media set a uniform scene for our lives. Meanwhile, the sameness spreads from one place to another relentlessly leaving cities and suburbs where once could be found bucolic countryside, native landscape, and wildlife habitat. Many people seek an escape. That escape need not be far away. It can be as close as a home garden, particularly one based upon a natural design that belongs where it is located. Particularly well suited to providing an escape from the mundane is a garden filled with native plants that belong in the general area of the site and that are chosen to specifically fit the conditions of the site. By being within such a garden, the authenticity of its site lets both people and wildlife know that they are home. A garden that provides such authenticity finds itself resting gently on the land gracing the site with a natural style that belongs. That garden breaks away from some of the conventions of design promoted by various media and the horticulture industry that intend first to sell profitably produced plants and landscaping material across the nation. Media promoted gardening styles, including the plants in them, besides intended for use just about anywhere come in and out of fashion and use. One years set of must-have plants and landscaping materials promoted by the media replaces another in succession. Meanwhile, the horticultural industry, naturally in pursuit of as much business as possible, touts varieties of plants for garden use that are adaptable to as wide an area as possible. As a result, similar-looking gardens or at least the plants in them appear across the country and even around the world often out of context of the area in which the garden grows. Having the latest plants and garden style at a minimum provides a point of conversation for the gardener and visitors to the garden even if much the same plants and landscaping appear across town or across the continent. Just as uniformity in garden styles and ubiquitous plants seem nearly to overtake suburban and urban areas, a movement to landscape with native plants has begun to gain acceptance. Any gardener can be a part of this. The effort to include native plants reflects a desire by some gardeners and landscapers to create a garden anchored with a sense of the place that includes the garden. This new direction may be happening just in time. More and more native habitats disappear leaving fewer places for the native plants that lived there, not to mention the wildlife that joins them. Both native plants and wildlife need new places in which to live. Home gardens that incorporate places for native plants and wildlife may be those sanctuaries. All gardeners are in fact gardening on the edge of an era in which widely dispersed cultivated gardens may be the key in continuing the existence of some plants and maybe even some of the other living things that go with them. In order to show an example of how a new garden style incorporating native plants can be done in nearly every garden, the story of the evolution of the gardens at Windflower Grove has been used for illustration. Growing on the tallgrass prairie of central Iowa along a woodland edge, the gardens continue to be the authors own life work, which continues on as it has for over sixty years. Many specific methods proven in the gardens to work for growing native plants are shared in order to make inclusion of native plants a little easier for others. Gardening with inclusion of native plants and encouragement of wildlife gradually evolved over the years at Windflower Grove into a garden style that can be described as heritage habitat gardening. Specific rules of the style are few and flexible in o

Daily life for most of us, particularly Americans, frequently achieves a pace that becomes busy to the point of being harried. As one activity spins into another, each day distinguishes itself little from any other day. In a like manner, our immediate surroundings of buildings, products, or media set a uniform scene for our lives. Meanwhile, the sameness spreads from one place to another relentlessly leaving cities and suburbs where once could be found bucolic countryside, native landscape, and wildlife habitat. Many people seek an escape. That escape need not be far away. It can be as close as a home garden, particularly one based upon a natural design that belongs where it is located. Particularly well suited to providing an escape from the mundane is a garden filled with native plants that belong in the general area of the site and that are chosen to specifically fit the conditions of the site. By being within such a garden, the authenticity of its site lets both people and wildlife know that they are home. A garden that provides such authenticity finds itself resting gently on the land gracing the site with a natural style that belongs. That garden breaks away from some of the conventions of design promoted by various media and the horticulture industry that intend first to sell profitably produced plants and landscaping material across the nation. Media promoted gardening styles, including the plants in them, besides intended for use just about anywhere come in and out of fashion and use. One year's set of must-have plants and landscaping materials promoted by the media replaces another in succession. Meanwhile, the horticultural industry, naturally in pursuit of as much business as possible, touts varieties of plants for garden use that are adaptable to as wide an area as possible. As a result, similar-looking gardens or at least the plants in them appear across the country and even around the world often out of context of the area in which the garden grows. Having the latest plants and garden style at a minimum provides a point of conversation for the gardener and visitors to the garden even if much the same plants and landscaping appear across town or across the continent. Just as uniformity in garden styles and ubiquitous plants seem nearly to overtake suburban and urban areas, a movement to landscape with native plants has begun to gain acceptance. Any gardener can be a part of this. The effort to include native plants reflects a desire by some gardeners and landscapers to create a garden anchored with a sense of the place that includes the garden. This new direction may be happening just in time. More and more native habitats disappear leaving fewer places for the native plants that lived there, not to mention the wildlife that joins them. Both native plants and wildlife need new places in which to live. Home gardens that incorporate places for native plants and wildlife may be those sanctuaries. All gardeners are in fact gardening on the edge of an era in which widely dispersed cultivated gardens may be the key in continuing the existence of some plants and maybe even some of the other living things that go with them. In order to show an example of how a new garden style incorporating native plants can be done in nearly every garden, the story of the evolution of the gardens at Windflower Grove has been used for illustration. Growing on the tallgrass prairie of central Iowa along a woodland edge, the gardens continue to be the author's own life work, which continues on as it has for over sixty years. Many specific methods proven in the gardens to work for growing native plants are shared in order to make inclusion of native plants a little easier for others. Gardening with inclusion of native plants and encouragement of wildlife gradually evolved over the years at Windflower Grove into a garden style that can be described as heritage habitat gardening. Specific rules of the style are few and flexible in o

A guide to gardening in the Intermountain West, which includes parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.