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Natural Landscaping: Gardening with Nature to Create a Backyard Paradise
Whether you yearn for a colorful meadow garden splashed with asters and black-eyed Susans, a shady garden filled with graceful woodland wildflowers and feathery ferns, or a poolside planting lush with Japanese iris and astilbes, Natural Landscaping can help you make your gardening dreams a landscape reality. Page after page of this stunning book shows you the beauties and benefits of a natural garden. And a garden that takes its inspiration from nature is a beacon to birds, butterflies, toads, and other wild creatures. Author Sally Roth has a lifetime's experience creating natural landscapes. In this beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated book, she tells you everything you need to know about creating a natural landscape. You'll
* Chapters on meadow and prairie gardens, woodland and shade gardens, water and bog gardens, gardens for songbirds and hummingbirds, and gardens to attract butterflies and moths.
* Step-by-step projects for building special garden features. The easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations take you through the basics of creating such exciting garden additions as a waterfall and a bluebird nest box. You'll learn how to install garden lighting to add a glow to walkways, create a bubbling spring for birds, build a rustic bench, and more.
* Garden plans for such varied gardens as a moonlight garden, a birdseed garden, and a hummingbird garden. You'll find nine beautifully illustrated plans that show you exactly how to create special natural gardens. You can follow the plans exactly or adapt them for your own needs.
* Effective gardening techniques, each explained with step-by-step illustrations. You'll learn the easiest way to strip sod for a new garden, how to saw through a limb without damaging the tree, an effortless way to propagate your plants, and how to control problems organically. With these simple instructions, every gardener-- even a beginner-- can create and maintain a lush natural landscape.
* Profiles of delightful natural landscapes created by gardeners across the country. Each profile features a different kind of natural landscape, from a prairie planting to a butterfly garden to a yard designed just for the birds. The gardeners talk about their inspirations and share valuable tips on how to create your own version.
* Scores of quick-reference charts show you the best plants for every type of natural landscape. No matter where you live, you'll find a selection of the best plants for your area-- whether you're looking for flowers to attract hummingbirds, grasses for a prairie garden, shrubs for your woodland garden, plants to soften a pool's edge, flowers for a night garden, or wildflowers for your sunny meadow garden. You'll find helpful charts of the best plants for each garden style, conveniently located at the end of each chapter.
With lively, authoritative text and more than 250 gorgeous color photos and illustrations, Natural Landscaping is an indispensable guide to a lush, inviting garden that's full of the beauty of nature.
* Chapters on meadow and prairie gardens, woodland and shade gardens, water and bog gardens, gardens for songbirds and hummingbirds, and gardens to attract butterflies and moths.
* Step-by-step projects for building special garden features. The easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations take you through the basics of creating such exciting garden additions as a waterfall and a bluebird nest box. You'll learn how to install garden lighting to add a glow to walkways, create a bubbling spring for birds, build a rustic bench, and more.
* Garden plans for such varied gardens as a moonlight garden, a birdseed garden, and a hummingbird garden. You'll find nine beautifully illustrated plans that show you exactly how to create special natural gardens. You can follow the plans exactly or adapt them for your own needs.
* Effective gardening techniques, each explained with step-by-step illustrations. You'll learn the easiest way to strip sod for a new garden, how to saw through a limb without damaging the tree, an effortless way to propagate your plants, and how to control problems organically. With these simple instructions, every gardener-- even a beginner-- can create and maintain a lush natural landscape.
* Profiles of delightful natural landscapes created by gardeners across the country. Each profile features a different kind of natural landscape, from a prairie planting to a butterfly garden to a yard designed just for the birds. The gardeners talk about their inspirations and share valuable tips on how to create your own version.
* Scores of quick-reference charts show you the best plants for every type of natural landscape. No matter where you live, you'll find a selection of the best plants for your area-- whether you're looking for flowers to attract hummingbirds, grasses for a prairie garden, shrubs for your woodland garden, plants to soften a pool's edge, flowers for a night garden, or wildflowers for your sunny meadow garden. You'll find helpful charts of the best plants for each garden style, conveniently located at the end of each chapter.
With lively, authoritative text and more than 250 gorgeous color photos and illustrations, Natural Landscaping is an indispensable guide to a lush, inviting garden that's full of the beauty of nature.
- GenresGardening
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 1997
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Sally Roth
56 books15 followersSally Roth is an award-winning author of 20 or so popular books about birds, nature, and gardening, including the best-selling "Backyard Bird Feeder's Bible," and a contributing editor for "Birds & Blooms" magazine.
Her latest book is "An Eye on the Sparrow: The Bird Lover's Bible," which uses quotes from the Bible as a jumping-off point for examining the natural behavior of the birds behind those Scriptures. It's a bird book, and it's for everyone, religious or not.
Sally's also an enthusiastic public speaker, whether it's grabbing a stranger on the street ("Hey, want to see something cool?") or talking to an audience of hundreds ("Hey, want to see something cool?"). She'll be appearing in the Michiana area (northern Indiana/Michigan) in early spring of 2013, as well as other places.
She and her husband Matt Bartmann share their home in the high Rockies with two dogs, one cat, a family of pine squirrels, a hard-working packrat named Sisyphus, a spotted skunk who lives beneath the house, a well-fed bunch of birds at the feeder, and a stable of old Volvos.
Come visit us at www.sallyroth.com. We'd love to see you!
Her latest book is "An Eye on the Sparrow: The Bird Lover's Bible," which uses quotes from the Bible as a jumping-off point for examining the natural behavior of the birds behind those Scriptures. It's a bird book, and it's for everyone, religious or not.
Sally's also an enthusiastic public speaker, whether it's grabbing a stranger on the street ("Hey, want to see something cool?") or talking to an audience of hundreds ("Hey, want to see something cool?"). She'll be appearing in the Michiana area (northern Indiana/Michigan) in early spring of 2013, as well as other places.
She and her husband Matt Bartmann share their home in the high Rockies with two dogs, one cat, a family of pine squirrels, a hard-working packrat named Sisyphus, a spotted skunk who lives beneath the house, a well-fed bunch of birds at the feeder, and a stable of old Volvos.
Come visit us at www.sallyroth.com. We'd love to see you!
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 26, 2021
SO MANY good ideas! I will definitely read this again when I'm ready for another project.
August 3, 2013
There's an honesty to this book that I really appreciate. Reading it is like talking with your garden-friendly neighbor. She even tells you how to deal with neighbors who might not appreciate your hard-earned wildflowers...which they might think are weeds. The book's tone is very conversational--this may not appeal to everyone, but I liked it.
An example: "When it comes to ordering from seed catalogs, I always bite off more than I can chew. It's hard to keep a rein on my good intentions when it's wintertime and all the promise of spring is in the pages on my lap. That's why I, like most gardeners, have a treasure chest filled with packets of seed that never made it into the ground" (p.240). My 2010 unopened seed packs would agree with this statement.
I loved that she would write things like, "I know you're supposed to draw out a plan first...but I didn't." Or, that she eyeballs (my preferred system of measurement!) what her paths/structures should look like. The sections on shade gardens and special features are worth reading in particular. Roth has a good blend of know-how that comes from experience, along with the know-how that comes from actually researching plants and landscaping techniques.
If you are interested in attracting wildlife, she has many good suggestions. She's also got good recommendations for landscaping inexpensively, which is always nice (some books lure you in with gorgeous landscapes...and then you start adding it up...ouch!). Overall, a very good read, and one I will refer back to often.
An example: "When it comes to ordering from seed catalogs, I always bite off more than I can chew. It's hard to keep a rein on my good intentions when it's wintertime and all the promise of spring is in the pages on my lap. That's why I, like most gardeners, have a treasure chest filled with packets of seed that never made it into the ground" (p.240). My 2010 unopened seed packs would agree with this statement.
I loved that she would write things like, "I know you're supposed to draw out a plan first...but I didn't." Or, that she eyeballs (my preferred system of measurement!) what her paths/structures should look like. The sections on shade gardens and special features are worth reading in particular. Roth has a good blend of know-how that comes from experience, along with the know-how that comes from actually researching plants and landscaping techniques.
If you are interested in attracting wildlife, she has many good suggestions. She's also got good recommendations for landscaping inexpensively, which is always nice (some books lure you in with gorgeous landscapes...and then you start adding it up...ouch!). Overall, a very good read, and one I will refer back to often.
July 29, 2015
Natural Landscaping is a good resource for the average homeowner, with some land and a desire to scape it with some good design and plant placement principles. Essentially this book is a basic attempt, over 250 color photo and side bar illustrations, of landscape design and planning that many commercial entities would use, scaled for many home owners.
Having a yard in the South, shaded, with its heat and humidity, I have been looking for a solid resource that gives natural design ideas, to work with my landscape, rather than against it, and with plant placement suited for the environment. This volume has fulfilled that need with suggestions and achievable goals that the average, weekend homeowner willing to do the work, should find easy to do.
Chapters include ideas for meadow flowers, shade situations, water features, attracting birds and small wildlife, path features and preparing for non growing season as well. This will be a great resource for years to come, because of the varied options that it provides for the future, particularly for the home yard situations likely to be faced.
Having a yard in the South, shaded, with its heat and humidity, I have been looking for a solid resource that gives natural design ideas, to work with my landscape, rather than against it, and with plant placement suited for the environment. This volume has fulfilled that need with suggestions and achievable goals that the average, weekend homeowner willing to do the work, should find easy to do.
Chapters include ideas for meadow flowers, shade situations, water features, attracting birds and small wildlife, path features and preparing for non growing season as well. This will be a great resource for years to come, because of the varied options that it provides for the future, particularly for the home yard situations likely to be faced.
April 21, 2015
I have many gardening books and this one is my very favorite! I love the author's conversational style. The book is jam packed with information and beautiful pictures. It revolutionized the way I garden. I have always loved nature and gardening. This book shows me how I can happily have both!
June 18, 2009
This one really fit my gardening style and gave me a lot of good ideas. I'm sure I'll be checking it out again.
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March 10, 2009712.6 Rot
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews