Gardeners, with all good fortune and flora, are endowed with
love for a hobby that has profound potential for positive
change. The beautifully illustrated
Designing Gardens with
Flora of the American East approaches landscape design
from an ecological perspective, encouraging professional
horticulturalists and backyard enthusiasts alike to intensify
their use of indigenous or native plants. These plants, ones
that grow naturally in the same place in which they evolved,
form the basis of the food web. Wildlife simply cannot
continue to survive without them-nor can we.
Why indigenous plants, you may ask? What makes them so
special to butterflies and bees and boys and girls? For
Carolyn Summers, the answer is as natural as an ephemeral
spring wildflower or berries of the gray dogwood, "As I
studied indigenous plants, a strange thing happened. The
plants grew on me. I began to love the plants themselves for
their own unique qualities, quite apart from their usefulness
in providing food and shelter for wildlife.
Emphasizing the importance of indigenous plant gardening and
landscape design, Summers provides guidelines for skilled
sowers and budding bloomers. She highlights . . .
- The best ways to use exotic and non-indigenous plants
responsibly
- Easy-to-follow strategies for hosting wildlife in
fields, forests, and gardens
- Designs for traditional gardens using native trees,
shrubs, groundcovers as substitutes for exotic plants
- Examples of flourishing plant communities from
freshwater streams to open meadows
- How to control plant reproduction, choose cultivars,
open-pollinated indigenous plants, and different types of
hybrids, and practice “safe sex in the garden
From Maine to Kentucky and up and down the East Coast,
Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East lays
the "gardenwork" for protecting natural areas through the
thoughtful planting of indigenous plants. Finally we can bask
in the knowledge that it is possible to have loads of fun at
the same time we are growing a better world.