Natural Landscaping: Gardening With Nature To Create A Backyard Paradise (Rodale Garden Book) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "A natural landscape nurtures the gardener..." (more)
Key Phrases: prairie garden, native sparrows, oxygenating plants, Field of Flowers, Mary Lee, Mother Nature (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Review

"In Natural Landscaping, Sally Roth creates a very personal vision of nature and the gardener's place in the natural world. She presents a persuasive argument for having birds and butterflies in our daily lives, and offers a wealth of ideas and projects to attract and keep them. The ideas presented in this book apply well beyond the confines of the backyard. After reading this book you might just give your front yard to wildlife, too."--C. Colston Burrell, author of A Gardener's Encyclopedia of Wildflowers

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; Illustrated. edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875967043
• ISBN-13: 978-0875967042
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,078,416 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must for your gardening library, January 3, 1999

By A Customer

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.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent all-around source on the new natural approach, October 28, 1998

By A Customer

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.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites, March 6, 2005

By	Che Zee (Catskill mountains) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natural Landscaping: Gardening with Nature to Create a Backyard Paradise (Paperback)

This was my first gardening book, and I feel so very lucky, because the author's sensibility matches my own, and her emphasis on planting for wildlife makes her a kindred spirit. Here I first learned the definition of a meadow garden, a woodland garden, and even the names of birds and butterflies. I first became aware of Joe Pye Weed and Spicebush, Bee Balm, Milkweed and New England Aster.

Reading this book is like having a wise and non-judgmental master gardener take you under her wing. Sally Roth's passion for the natural world shines from every page. She touches on a wide range of topics, such as: laying out a path; building a bluebird nest box; starting a meadow garden; planting a flowering fence; avoiding the "Elvis look"; monthly calendar for meadow care ; creating a streambed; how to saw through a limb; starting plants from seed; -- all techniques are clearly described and easily understood. There are charts such as "Best Shrubs for Woodland Gardens" and "Best Trees for Songbirds." The book is beautifully laid out, and the color pictures are pure inspiration, especially during the blizzardy days of winter.

The negative comments from the previous reviewer seem overly severe and curmudgeonly. I haven't spotted an invasive species in the suggested plants lists yet, though the author does suggest some cultivated hybrids that I don't choose to use. Of course, there are many more technical, rigorous tomes out there that can and should be added to one's gardening library, (and a hard slog of a read they may be, too!)

I highly recommend this book as a general introduction to natural gardening, one that will inspire curiosity, guide discovery, generate ideas and projects, and make the adventure loads of fun.