Explore back to school deals
FREE Returns
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund / replacement
30-day refund / replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes Hardcover – October 7, 2015


Purchase options and add-ons

This post-wild landscape guide is an "optimistic call to action" to help gardeners create a harmonious environment by incoporating plant communities (Chicago Tribune).

Over time, with industrialization and urban sprawl, we have driven nature out of our neighborhoods and cities. But we can invite it back by designing landscapes that look and function more like they do in the wild: robust, diverse, and visually harmonious. 

Featuring gorgeous photography and advice for landscapers,
Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West is dedicated to the idea of a new nature—a hybrid of both the wild and the cultivated—that can nourish in our cities and suburbs. 
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

From the brand


From the Publisher

Book cover image of Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West

Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

As practical as it is inspiring, Planting in a Post-Wild World is an optimistic manifesto for the post-wild world of planting design.

Image of woodland savanna at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.

Nature as It Was, Nature as It Could Be

Imagine for a moment what it must have been like for the first European colonists arriving on the shores of America. By all accounts, the landscape they encountered was a place teeming with diversity, a place so resplendent and abundant with life that even our most cherished national parks pale in comparison. Botanical records and early diaries give us mere glimpses of the richness that once was. Just beyond the coastal plain, chestnut trees—some nine stories tall—accounted for fully half of the canopy. These giants showered the ground with their mast, sustaining black bears, deer, turkey, and other creatures. Underneath the chestnuts, rivers of ferns, pools of ladies’ slippers and orchids, and sparkling stands of trout lily and false rue anemone— now rare collector’s specimens—covered the forest floor. It was a paradise of native species. But to the early colonists, it was a moral and physical wilderness which required great ingenuity and perseverance to tame.

Image of wild flowers and hay meadows at the Olympic Park European Garden

A New Optimism: The Future of Planting Design

So what exactly is the planting of the future? Look no farther than just outside your front door. Go find a patch of weeds in your neighborhood. Notice the variety of species and how they interweave to form a dense carpet. Or better yet, take a hike in a nearby natural area. Look closely at how plants grow in a meadow or a forest’s edge. Observe the lack of bare soil and the variety of ways plants adapt to their site. Then when you get back to your neighborhood, compare those wild communities to the plantings in landscape or garden beds. There is a difference between the way plants grow in the wild and the way they grow in our gardens. Understanding this difference is the key to transforming your planting.

Image of a rooftop meadow in Manhattan.

Bridging the Gap between Nature and Our Gardens

For too long, planting design has treated plants as individual objects placed in the garden for decoration. Unrelated plants are arranged in ways that are intended to appear coherent and beautiful. To assist designers and gardeners with this difficult task, there are endless books on plant combinations, perennial borders, and color harmonies. The heaving bookshelf of garden books leaves us with endless tips and information, but very little real understanding of the dynamic way plants grow together.

Image of a plants growing robustly in a meadow setting.

The Inspiration of Naturally Occurring Plant Communities

Wild communities differ from our gardens. They are better adapted to their sites, more richly layered, and have a strong sense of harmony and place. For designers, these qualities are highly desirable. But to achieve them, we must arrange plants to interact with other plants and the site, understanding the wide variety of roles plants play in a community. Some cover the ground in large colonies; others exist as solitary specimens. Some take up excess nutrients; others add nitrogen to the soil. Through years of competition and natural selection, plants segregate themselves into these different roles to make the best of limited sun, water, and nutrients. These communities are functional workhorses, performing valuable ecological services that far surpass conventional plantings. The end result is a rich mosaic of species, exquisitely tuned to a particular site.

Image of Mexican feather grass, catmint, and meadow sage growing in a home garden.

Connecting with Our Memory of Nature

We propose a method for creating designed plant communities that work in both urban and suburban sites. The first chapter explains the idea of designed plant communities. The second chapter looks at the inspiration of nature and the dynamics of plant communities in the wild. In the third chapter, we describe the design process: how to understand your site, develop a palette of plants, and arrange and layer plants. Finally, the fourth chapter examines the unique installation and management requirements of designed plant communities.

Our goal with this method is not merely to create more functional plantings, but to make people see again, to make them remember. We arrange plants in ways that will conjure experiences of the ephemeral. It is not the plants themselves that have power; it is their patterns, textures, and colors—particularly those that suggest wildness—that become animated as light and life pass through them.

Image of authors Thomas Rainer and Claudia West.

Authors

THOMAS RAINER is a landscape architect, teacher, and writer. He has designed landscapes for the United States Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the New York Botanical Garden. He has been featured in the New York Times and Landscape Architecture Magazine, and speaks nationally on landscape architecture and planting design.

CLAUDIA WEST is a landscape designer with an extensive background in horticulture, ecology, and environmental restauration. She is a sought-after speaker on topics such as plant community-based design and natural color theory.

Planting
Sowing Beauty
Grasses for Gardens and Landscapes
The Complete Book of Groundcovers
The first to show gardeners and professionals how Piet Oudolf’s gardens and landscapes are made. Learn how to recreate James Hitchmough’s masterful, romantic style. This design-forward guide profiles the best ornamental grasses for use in landscapes and gardens—along with advice for successful cultivation. No matter what kinds of conditions you’re facing—shade, dry soil, heavy clay, excess moisture—there’s a ground cover that will thrive and beautify your garden.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is the universal how-to guide to sustainable landscaping we have all been waiting for. A masterful accomplishment!” —Doug Tallamy, award-winning author of The Living Landscape and Bringing Nature Home

“A real-world guide for creating beautiful, ecologically connected landscapes. There is not a designer or property owner that would not benefit from this approach.” —Larry Weaner,
APLD, founder of New Directions in the American Landscape

“A groundbreaking guide that lays out an alternative to traditional horticulture: designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. As practical as it is poetic, theirs is an optimistic call to action.” —
Chicago Tribune

“Sometimes one comes across a landscape design book that simply demands to be read from cover to cover without pause.
Planting in a Post-Wild World is one such book. Part ecological manifesto, part how-to planting guide, and part artistic statement, Post-Wild is a wonderful and refreshing addition to the world of landscape and planting design literature.” —NYBG's Plant Talk

“We have driven nature out of our cities—but this need not be a one-way ticket. Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, two leading voices in ecological landscape design, present an optimistic call-to-action dedicated to the idea of a new nature—a hybrid of the wild and the cultivated that can flourish in cities and suburbs. The authors speak with conviction and authority, and offer a practical blueprint for the future.” —
The English Garden

“In this award-winning book, landscape architect Thomas Rainer and landscape consultant Claudia West present a groundbreaking new philosophy of planting design inspired by the way plants work together in the wild.” —
American Gardener

“The book outlines how to design and maintain an ecological landscape, and does so in beautifully clear, fluid language that is easy to read and absorb. . . . Let us follow Planting in a Post-Wild World into a future where humans respectfully manage landscapes for our comfort, our quality of life, and our very existence, while acknowledging (in our treatment of them) the inherent value of these living communities.” —
Garden Rant

“Every once in a while a book comes along that can truly be called a ‘game-changer’ and sets people buzzing. This book fits the bill…this is an important book capturing the spirit of the time, and injects new energy into the field of nature-inspired design with plants. It will become indispensable for all garden designers and landscape architects, as well as enthusiastic and knowledgeable gardeners and horticulturalists who wish to extend the creative potential of planting design.” —
The Garden 

“Most garden books simply confirm or amplify what we already know and like about horticulture, but this intelligent and thought-provoking book by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West is the rare exception. Other writers have suggested basing garden designs on the plant communities that thrive in the wild, but this may be the first time the theory and execution of this idea has been laid out so neatly.” —
Country Gardens

“An excellently written, wonderfully illustrated guide to designing, planting, and managing plant installations…The book will interest landscape architects and horticulturalists as well as more casual home gardeners.” —
Choice

“This lavishly illustrated manifesto applies broadly, to everything from water features to rooftops and vast acreages to urban backyards. Using detailed examples and simple graphics, Rainer and West make a convincing case for rethinking our relationship to plant design.” —
Architectural Digest Online

“Two of the leading voices in ecological landscape design set out to celebrate and explain how planting design that recreates and reworks natural plant communities can create landscapes that are resilient. beautiful and diverse. The concepts are explained clearly with well-illustrated examples. Rainer's lyrical, passionate, and persuasive writing could convince even the most skeptical that It’s the right thing to.” —
Gardens Illustrated best book of the year

From the Back Cover

The future of planting design. This groundbreaking guide presents a powerful alternative to traditional horticulture: designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, two leading voices in ecological landscape design, reveal how plants fit together in nature and how to use this knowledge to create landscapes that are resilient, beautiful, and diverse. As practical as it is inspiring, this book is an optimistic manifesto for the post-wild world of planting design.

Product details

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Thomas Rainer
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.