Designing Gardens With Flora of the American East
About the Book
The newly revised (2024) and beautifully illustrated Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East approaches landscape design from an ecological perspective. Co-authors and landscape designers Carolyn Summers and Kate Brittenham encourage professional designers and backyard enthusiasts alike to intensify their use of indigenous or native plants. These plants form the basis of the food web. Wildlife simply cannot continue to survive without them—nor can we.
This book, newly revised with full-color photographs, will help to introduce our wild flora into designs for common garden landscapes, such as foundation plantings, mixed borders, and mini-meadows to beautify underutilized yards and shrink suburban lawns. Emphasizing the importance of “keystone” plants for gardening and landscape design, this book provides guidance and plant lists for beginning gardeners as well as experienced designers.
Buy your hardcopy or ebook today on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your favorite local indie bookstores.
Book Highlights
- In-depth scientific explanation of the need for indigenous plants in cultivated landscapes
- “Keystone” plant lists appropriate for northeastern gardens, including numbers of pollinators supported by each
- Concrete design guidance – including actual designs coupled with trees, shrubs, ground covers, and other showy substitutes for invasive plants
- Best practices on
– Controlling plant reproduction
– Choosing cultivars or hybrids
– Explore the joys of “safe sex in the garden”
Gardeners are endowed with love for a hobby that has profound potential for positive change. Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East lays the “gardenwork”— for “by preserving natural areas through the thoughtful planting of indigenous plants, we may bask in the knowledge that it is possible to have loads of fun at the same time we are growing a better world!”