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16 reviews for:
New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden
Kelly D. Norris
3.7 AVERAGE
16 reviews for:
New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden
Kelly D. Norris
3.7 AVERAGE
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
Pros: beautiful photos, helpful plant listings, overall concept of how to put together a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly garden that is keyed to your site's soil, water, and light conditions.
Cons: mainly the quality of the writing: frequent misused words and occasional strange sentence constructions made this a bit of a slog to read.
Overall: the book is useful as long as you're willing to ignore pretentious writing style.
Cons: mainly the quality of the writing: frequent misused words and occasional strange sentence constructions made this a bit of a slog to read.
Overall: the book is useful as long as you're willing to ignore pretentious writing style.
This beautiful book focuses on leaving nature to nature and not forcing it to grow how we require it to in regimented lines or patterns. Wild plants grow where they know to grow and ought to grow. A big focus, of course, is on the medium in which they grow. Soil is so crucial. We can grow wonderful lilies in brutal Saskatchewan, for example, yet they do poorly at our Mediterranean home. But in the Mediterranean of course there are many, many fruits and herbs which do spectacularly well in heavy red clay. It's important to learn what our plants need where they grow best and nurture them in situ. The weird covid 2020 season prevented most of us from traveling so my focus was what on grows here and learn more about what had been taken for granted. As a master gardener I should know better!
The section on plant architecture is fascinating as well including plant hardiness and competition. Starting small is crucial, too, as gardening can seem daunting on a large scale. Attracting beneficial insects (repelling harmful ones), birds and animals should also be a consideration. Stunning photographs of many plants are contained in this book such as delphiniums, lilies, columbines, foxglove, coral bells, spurge and coneflowers.
Ecology is becoming more and more important to people and this is discussed wonderfully here. You will find information on preparing to plant and planting including helpful charts as well as what to grow in which location (i.e. hot and sunny, damp and shady). One of my favourite sections is on shrubs as they seem to be less understood (at least in my area). The green garden section is stunning as well. I've been fortunate to visit many gardens internationally and some of the prettiest have been layers of green and wild gardens.
Those who love gardening ecologically or dream of it, do read this book. It is truly inspiring. The photography is breathtaking...hard to believe people live in such beauty! You will learn a lot, too.
My sincere thank you to Quartro Publishing Group - Cool Springs Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this gorgeous book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.
The section on plant architecture is fascinating as well including plant hardiness and competition. Starting small is crucial, too, as gardening can seem daunting on a large scale. Attracting beneficial insects (repelling harmful ones), birds and animals should also be a consideration. Stunning photographs of many plants are contained in this book such as delphiniums, lilies, columbines, foxglove, coral bells, spurge and coneflowers.
Ecology is becoming more and more important to people and this is discussed wonderfully here. You will find information on preparing to plant and planting including helpful charts as well as what to grow in which location (i.e. hot and sunny, damp and shady). One of my favourite sections is on shrubs as they seem to be less understood (at least in my area). The green garden section is stunning as well. I've been fortunate to visit many gardens internationally and some of the prettiest have been layers of green and wild gardens.
Those who love gardening ecologically or dream of it, do read this book. It is truly inspiring. The photography is breathtaking...hard to believe people live in such beauty! You will learn a lot, too.
My sincere thank you to Quartro Publishing Group - Cool Springs Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this gorgeous book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.
informative
medium-paced
This book is full of great information for designing a 'natural' styled garden. However, I think there are other books that do a better job. This was written very densely. The style feels inaccessible and doesn't do a good job feeling approachable. I found it hard to retain information even when I knew the basics.
I also wished he provided more encouragement on adding natives to a natural planting. He mentions some non-natives are good for hard to fill spots or occasional aesthetic preferences. But more frequent mention of selecting native plants where possible and encouraging wildlife interaction would have added to this content.
I also wished he provided more encouragement on adding natives to a natural planting. He mentions some non-natives are good for hard to fill spots or occasional aesthetic preferences. But more frequent mention of selecting native plants where possible and encouraging wildlife interaction would have added to this content.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
I know there are some people that don't believe in giving a star rating to a book which was not read in full and to those I say, "Look away!" :-)
This book was a big, fat DNF for me which is too bad because I was excited to read it since I am a landscape maintenance professional and passionate about the subject. My problem with this book is that it is written in a very inaccessible style with language so dense that I found my mind wandering each time I tried to read it. In addition to the style, I found that a quarter of the way through the book very little had been actually said that couldn't have been said in a few better worded paragraphs.
I realize that since my dislike of this book related to the style in which it was written, others may enjoy reading it just fine. Don't let my opinion dissuade you. Let me just suggest that you try picking it up through your local library, using cloudLibrary, as I did. As for me, I am moving on to other things. Any plants which die due to my not finishing this book and realizing they are not a good fit for the planting area be damned!
This book was a big, fat DNF for me which is too bad because I was excited to read it since I am a landscape maintenance professional and passionate about the subject. My problem with this book is that it is written in a very inaccessible style with language so dense that I found my mind wandering each time I tried to read it. In addition to the style, I found that a quarter of the way through the book very little had been actually said that couldn't have been said in a few better worded paragraphs.
I realize that since my dislike of this book related to the style in which it was written, others may enjoy reading it just fine. Don't let my opinion dissuade you. Let me just suggest that you try picking it up through your local library, using cloudLibrary, as I did. As for me, I am moving on to other things. Any plants which die due to my not finishing this book and realizing they are not a good fit for the planting area be damned!