The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden

Here's a test: ask any householder about their "landscape" and I will bet you get a list of flowering plants and possibly some small shrubs and a particularly lovely tree or two. Speaking broadly, almost since the time humans established permanent dwellings, plants have been seen as decoration. That's it. Eye candy.We gardeners in western South Dakota remember the truly stirring comments of Doug Tallamy, Ph.D. who spoke to us about his experience and philosophy expressed in his book, Bringing Nature Home (which should be on everyone's bookshelf). He suggested broadening the traditional definition of `landscape' to describe an organic, vibrant, vigorous, ecological, living whole. We do this, he said, by understanding the importance of and support of all the life systems in our environments. Thus we are encouraged to accept, for example, the important place of myriad insects to feed the birds and native plants to draw those insects, to put into play the vigor of living species that co-evolved. The great truth is the realization that we cannot garden selectively...everything in our landscape has a place and is connected for the health of the whole. This is easy to say; it is hard for some of us to do.Timber Press has just released a book by Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy, The Living Landscape. Let me state without hyperbole: this is the best gardening book I have ever read. Darke is a landscape consultant who combines art, photography, ecology and stewardship of living landscapes with years of experience as Curator of Plants at Longwood Gardens. He has partnered with Tallamy who brings passion and experience in many areas of ecology and whose research, according to the author notes, "...is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities." There it all is: the crucial connection of insects, plants and diversity of animal communities in our gardens.Although Darke's photographs are stunningly beautiful, this is not JUST a coffee table book. The Living Landscape describes, illustrates and promotes landscape "layers" and their functions as horticulture, as botany, as ecology, as biology, and as a challenge for educated stewardship.Chapters titled "The Community of Living Organisms: Why Interrelationships Matter More Than Numbers" and "The Ecological Functions of Gardens: What Landscapes Do" including "Applying Layers to the Home Garden" are bookended by discussion of the various layers, in the wild and in our home gardens - tree canopies, herbaceous plants, wet edges (stream and pond sides), the dynamic edge which we here in the Black Hills would call the forest interface, meadows and grasslands and layers of time and community and more.The authors have included comprehensive lists of selected plants for all areas, including 13 pages of plants for the Midwest and mountain states. The book delivers solid scientific information based on the vast experiences of the authors.The bonus for beginning gardeners is that the information is delivered with the authors' passion for understanding how landscapes really work and illustrated by photographs that are as instructive and applicable for persons on the East coast as they are for those of us in the Upper Midwest. This works because, in my view, principles - ethical principles - are illustrated, not simply sites.The bonus for experienced gardeners is that the authors lead with experience, research, and science, and in the process, at least in my case, deliver hearty portions of opportunities to experience reverence for life, a phrase brought into public use by the famous polymath, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who received the Nobel Peace prize in 1952. In `Civilization and Ethics' he opined that observing the world (landscapes) around us "...affords me my fundamental principle of morality...that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life..."This book, while teaching us, surely, calls us to expand and embrace a greater view of Nature, much as Aldo Leopold did in Sand County Almanac.This is a book I have been waiting for. It broadens our definition of a garden, any garden. It empowers the gardener with new vision, understanding and vocabulary and places him smack in the center of the ecological dynamic to ponder this question: as gardeners do we only decorate or do we also understand, support, and appreciate the living layers of our gardens?Cathie Draine

The media could not be loaded. I heard Douglas Tallamy speak at the Native Plants Conference this Spring, and I've been eagerly awaiting his new book since.As a professional gardener at a top US Japanese garden, as well the writer of a garden blog focused on creating your garden sanctuary, I don't grow only native plants. In fact long ago, I was one of those turned off by the whole native plant movement.I have gradually over the years been turned into a convert. I now fully recognize the value of native plants in the landscape. It was Doug's monumentally important book Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded that solidified my evolving views of how and why I should be pursuing my career and calling.His new book is lives up to his last."The Living Landscape" is more of a continuation of "Bringing Nature Home" than a replacement for it.If his first book made the case for using native plants in the landscape, this book shows you how in a general sense. This is not a "paint by number book" for creating a native landscape, but it is a broad and detailed covering of how and why it can be done. This also is not a dumb down book for the beginning gardener. By the same token, I can't imagine a better first book for someone looking to begin landscaping their home to read.I recommend it without reservation.Doug's coauthor, Rick Darke (author of "The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest") brings not only his writing voice but also his excellent photography. Don't get me wrong this is a heady book with some pretty in depth concepts, but it also features an abundance of beautiful pictures. So much in fact, it almost qualifies as a Coffee table book.Chapter 1 - Layers in the Wild Landscapes - This 74 page chapter covers looking at wild landscapes through the view of the different layers in the garden. Not only the vertical layers of the woodland but also horizontal layers where different landscape types meet and layers through time. It was a ironic that the day I posted a blog post on layers in the woodland, that I received this book in the mail that explained the concept I was trying to communicate in a more in depth way.Chapter 2 - The Community of Living Organisms - This 15 page chapters basically sums up most of the important concepts of the 1st half of "Bringing Nature Home". It will be a worthwhile review for those who have read that book, while readers who have not should read it slowly and take in the important message it presents.Chapter 3 - The Ecological functions of the Garden - 11 pages. Another short but important chapter. It helps to broaden our view of how our landscapes can provide benefits other than just looking pretty. It covers topics such as species conservation, carbon sequestration, moderating temperature, watershed protection, air filtration, etc.Chapter 4 - The Art of Observation - This 10 page chapter could be better in my mind. I like the color examples given, but I feel more depth and breadth of this topic could be covered. It is still worthwhile to most readers.Chapter 5 - Applying Layers to the Home Garden - This massive 156 page chapter is the meat of the book for people wanting examples on how the concepts in the book apply to their landscapes. There are lots of examples and beautiful pictures of applying the information in the 1st chapter on Layers especially to the author's landscapes. Again, it does NOT give Step by Step instructions so some people may be disappointed here. There is enough meat in the examples, that practical advice can be extracted and applied to your landscape. It may take a bit of study though.The last part of the book may be the most helpful for some people. It includes a listing of plants and their different benefits and uses by region in the US. The Regions are Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest and Mountain states, Pacific Northwest, and New England. These lists mostly cover natives, but some include exotic plants mainly to point out those that provide little value to our ecosystems. Overall the lists are good but I have a few comments about specific regions.Mid-Atlantic - This is the only one that is personally done by the authors. The other regions were written by other experts. This region gets the most detail and if I lived in this region I would be thrilled by the detail of this list.Midwest and Mountain states (hmm, Indiana and Colorado has same plant list?) - This list was written by an author of a book on Ohio birds. It looks pretty accurate and detailed for those of us in the Midwest. I am not quite so sure I would be happy with this information if I lived in the Mountain states.Overall this is a fantastic follow up to Bringing Nature home. It definitely stands on it's own. If it is viewed as an extension of that book, it is a lovely and worthwhile addition to any gardener or landscaper, or just anyone interested in preserving our living landscape.