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

by Rick Darke, Douglas W. Tallamy

“This thoughtful, intelligent book is all about connectivity, addressing a natural world in which we are the primary influence.” — The New York Times Books Review

Many gardeners today want a home landscape that nourishes and fosters wildlife, but they also want beauty, a space for the kids to play, privacy, and maybe even a vegetable patch. Sure, it’s a tall order, but  The Living Landscape  shows you how to do it. You’ll learn the strategies for making and maintaining a diverse, layered landscape—one that offers beauty on many levels, provides outdoor rooms and turf areas for children and pets, incorporates fragrance and edible plants, and provides cover, shelter, and sustenance for wildlife. Richly illustrated and informed by both a keen eye for design and an understanding of how healthy ecologies work,  The Living Landscape  will enable you to create a garden that fulfills both human needs and the needs of wildlife communities.
 

Genres: Gardening, Nature, Nonfiction, Plants, Ecology, Science, Reference

392 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2014

About the author

Rick Darke is a landscape design consultant, author, lecturer, and photographer based in Pennsylvania who blends art, ecology, and cultural geography in the creation and conservation of liveable landscapes. He has studied North American plants in their habitats for over three decades, and his research and lectures have taken him around the world.
In 1998 he received the Scientific Award of the American Horticultural Society.

Reviews

[Steven McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first: this is not really a how-to book. It is more about ecological design principles, than detailed directions. Yes, there are plant lists with details in the back, and brief discussions of how to set priorities. This book is really an effort to explain why the home gardener might want to incorporate more native plants and a more naturalistic design into their home landscape.

The authors fall into a common trap. In their desire to include beautiful photographic examples, they emphasize large rural properties at the expense of smaller urban and suburban properties. Rick Darke's 1.5 acre property is 10 times the size of my own. Most people cannot easily translate across that large a difference.

Also, while there is modest ackowledgement that landscapes are different in other parts of the country, this book really is about the Mid-Atlantic region in which the authors live. Homeowners in other geographic regions will find themselves wishing for an analogous book for themselves.

All that said, This is a wonderful, well-written and beautiful book. I read it cover to cover, and it is well-organized. The ecological principles are not unique to the Mid-Atlantic stated, so this book does have great value to determined homeowners across much of the US.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I've been gardening since I first inherited a tiny rose garden in my first "grown-up" house when I got married a few (ehem) years ago, I started studying native plants more seriously five years ago when we moved into a house on a heavily wooded, steeply sloped lot which seemed obviously ill-suited for a grass lawn. Mowing is horrible, the grass dies in the shade even when we mow it high as advised by a natural lawn company, and I cannot get right with killing the moles that live here because of the feast provided by invasive Japanese beetles.

This book has risen to the top of my favorites list because of its comprehensive and practical advice about the benefits of feeding the bugs, and specifics on how to provide the landscape layers to do it. This is the book that made me see all those non-native yews and roses as a food desert (not *dessert*!) for native insects, and the domino effect this has on the entire food chain. Consider this stunning statistic from the book: "...it takes 6,240 to 10,260 caterpillars to fledge a single clutch of chickadees..." Since chickadees need caterpillars to feed their fledglings, and most insect herbivores are "diet specialists," those adorable and tiny birds need many, many interacting species to survive. The book has a wonderful resource at the back where plants suited to the general areas of the U.S. are listed by "landscape and ecological function." This is only possible because of the wonderful partnership between co-authors Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy, a landscape designer/plant ecologist and entomologist/ornithologist/behavioral ecologist.

If you are motivated to support the web of life in your backyard, this is an excellent book to read and then reread. This book, along with a guide to plant species that are well-adapted to the conditions in your garden (I found Alan Branhagen's Native Plants of the Midwest: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden, Allan Armitage's Armitage's Native Plants for North American Gardens or Lynn Steiner's Prairie-Style Gardens: Capturing the Essence of the American Prairie Wherever You Live to be useful), may be all you need to start creating a functional ecosystem wherever you are.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really beautiful book about creating a landscape for nature, not just for show. Extremely well researched and illustrated with beautiful pictures. The writing is excellent--it has as much information as a textbook, but is easy to read.

Highly recommended.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It is another good example of modern gardening books where the authors are emphasizing using native plants in the landscape. What drew me to the book is excellent photographs and the fact that the authors spend a considerable amount of time on the woodland habitat. My property is heavily wooded with trees and it is difficult to find good gardening books that pertain to this specific environment. This book will not disappoint the woodland or shade gardener.

The book has a particular focus on maximizing habitat restoration for wildlife on suburban properties and seemed to have a heavy emphasis on what will bring birds to the garden.
The concept of layering is a technique that is repeated throughout the book, specifically, the authors encourage filling in the ground, herbaceous, shrub, under-story and canopy layers as much as possible in your landscape.

The real value of the book to me is the excellent photos of plant combinations. All of the photos are taken from the two properties of the authors. The subtext of the photos give you ideas of what combinations can work well in your own yard. I spend just as much, if not more time reading the lengthy text under the photos than the regular

One interesting addition was the slighlty confusing, large chart in the back of the book of selected plants and the functionality that they support. It was a nice effort, but it chart does not include
zone information, no light/water requirements and doesn't really tell you if the plant is going to survive on your property or not. For that information, you'll need to cross-reference with another book. True, this information can easily be found elsewhere, but it would have still been nice to see the author's experience with the selected plants in this regard.

The only reason I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that I happened to read this book right after reading Larry Weaner's Garden Revolution. Although Weaner's book is more focused on design, and I still preferred Garden Revolution to this book. If I hadn't read Garden Revolution first, I would have given this book 5 stars.

[Carmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book contained a lot of interesting information about a topic that is important to me, it wasn't as useful as it could have been. I'd say it would be a fantastic resource for native gardeners in the mid-Atlantic states, and a less-good (but still valuable) one for those living in other parts of the U.S. That's because the authors live and garden in the NE so that is where their depth of knowledge and experience lies. Yes, there is a section at the end with plant recommendations for the entire U.S.—but the section for New England is much more extensive AND includes the authors' notes on the selections. The other sections don't. So that's disappointing.

However, it is valuable for me to have learned more about how a landscape functions (or doesn't), and the complexities of creating a functional landscape, so it was definitely worthwhile for me to read it. The authors are very knowledgeable and I respect their efforts to educate and inspire the rest of us with this book.

The Living Landscape is an in-depth examination of designing for biodiversity, yet it is not a how-to book, except for one small section toward the end. It was a great relief to at last get to this nuts-and-bolts info, because despite 250 preceding pages of photos and grounding theory, I STILL had no clear idea as to how to proceed in creating a layered and functional garden!

Now if only there were an equivalent in-depth book written especially for native gardening/landscape creation in the midwest....

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because one of my plant heroes, Adrian Higgins the Washington Post gardening columnist, wrote that it showed how to incorporate native plants into a home garden. I found the book to be very beautiful, but not a workable roadmap for people with not-farm-sized yards -- "home gardens" in the title is a little misleading. The native plant utopia Adrian, Rick, and Doug are living their best gardening lives in looks beautiful, but their multi-acre meadows suffused with self-seeded swaths of Eastern Redbuds will not fit on my front yard... Sigh. That being said, the pictures are so pretty; it teaches a lot about layering plants to recreate a forest-like habitat -- canopy, understory, ground layer, etc.; and there's a glossary so you can look up plants that are sold as seedlings and see pictures of what they look like when full grown.. There were also many pictures of plant combinations that were really cool.

I haven't been able to find a book with native plant design advice and examples for small gardens. I think if these gardeners who are proponents of planting native plants would provide actionable designs for sustainable yards, there would be a lot more around! JUST SAYING. Apologies for my sass. Here are some templates that are available online:

https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/Conservation/...

http://lgnc.org/pdfdocs/brandes_book.pdf

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the detailed explanations of the functions of the vertical and horizontal garden layers. This book focuses primarily on the woodland garden while including some information on meadows and wetlands. I adored the many beautiful photographs, but longed for “arrows” pointing to which plants were being discussed in each caption. The appendix of trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns, and herbaceous plants helpfully spelled out their ecological and landscape appeal, though I would have liked growing conditions included. Overall I would highly recommend this as a great perspective on creating highly functional and enjoyable outdoor spaces.

[Amanda Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collaboration between Rick darke and Doug Tallamy. The two have very different styles when it comes to both writing and native gardens, and Darke's writing comprises most of the actual "gardening" section of the book. I had trouble connecting with him as an author and gardener. The parts that were written by Tallamy were, as usual, exactly what I was looking for in this book. I'm sad that there wasn't more mention of his (Tallamy's) methods, his gardens, and how to control extensive areas with mature invasive species present. On to the next one!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to learn how to landscape with nature in mind. The great American lawn with shrubs up near foundation of house is typical. Living with nature in mind still makes a beautiful gardens this book offers.
This book is primarily the northeast of United States as their focus. Netgalley offered access to this book for honest review.

[Sarah]

great inspo book. lots of pictures, all beautiful. wonderful information. really enjoyed the functions of plants section. I could see keeping this on my bookshelf just for that.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the message but struggle to figure out how to use much of what is discussed in this book. Richard Darke and Doug Tallamy encourage the use of native landscaping plants as a way to create a diverse community of plants, animals. and bugs by showing their exquisite beauty through out the four seasons. They also demonstrate how the native landscape has multiple overlapping layers of sun/shade, wet/dry, short/tall which creates the intricate beauty we see. This is all great but the authors only show us large mature spaces and how to refine them. They fail to cover more naturally open spaces or smaller lots. In addition, in their zeal to promote readers to use native plants and to create natural landscapes, they use a tone that is condescending and require a rigidity that may put many readers off. For example, they state they have eliminated all hardscaping from their property with the exception of one stone wall. How could stone walls, decorative borders, a pergola, small patio and the like really hurt the ecological balance that they are trying to achieve? I wish America would forego the suburban grass lawn monoculture but this book is probably too hard core to promote a rebellion.

[Barbara Figlewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having first read Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy, I was anxious to read more to seek ideas for gradually changing our landscape to maximize use of natives. In this book, I learned much about layering - and about understanding that. my goal should be the building of an ecosystem, rather than just the purchasing of an accumulation of native plants.

Looking at photos of how Doug and his wife changed the landscape around their home gave me ideas, though it did create some anxiety about not having the huge acreage they have in which to work miracles. It was inspiring, however, to see the gorgeous photos of so many birds and insects that now visit their property because the humans in residence have provided trees and plants which provide food and cover.

One of the best parts of the book is the array of charts at the back, graphically detailing the landscape AND ecological value of plants, shrubs, and trees per U.S. region. I use these charts to help guide my shopping choices to get the most “bang for the buck” for the habitat I am trying to create.

This book is a follow-up to the Call to Action suggested in Bringing Nature Home. People interested in balancing a native ecosystem with an established landscape will be thrilled to experience and read this book.

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, finally, finally......a book that provides a conceptual framework for home garden design (based on natural forest growth) emphasizing native species. I've been staring at my gardens for years trying to understand what it was I didn't like....and now I know. My yard has 70 to 100 ft tall Longleaf Pines....and perennials.....but nothing in between and nothing at the ground level. Once I understood basic forest structure (i.e., canopy, understory, shrubs, herbaceous plants and ground layer) everything crystallized. I had recently read Tallamy's book "Nature's Best Hope" (awesome read) and had undertaken examining native species I could use in my gardens.......but with the addition of the knowledge gained from the Living Landscape I have a much better sense of a path forward. Aside from the fact that both authors write well.....the structure of the book, the photography and the plant guides at the end all make this a must have for any gardener looking to improve their habitat using indigenous plants and thoughtful design techniques. Best of all....you better appreciate how plants and insects and animals all benefit from the effort. If only someone had taught me these things in high school or college!!

[R C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in part by this book. I had hoped to come away with a better understanding of how to physically create and design a more biodiverse home garden. What I did do was learn more about the ecology of home gardens and the importance of biodiversity in the home garden. Lots of pictures of eastern US homes did not help me to design my pacific west home garden. There is a helpful appendix with recommended plants for the region, but there are complete plant guides more specific to my location. Expect to understand ecology not garden design.

[LeastTorque · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice summary of the important principles of planting for wildlife and was more of a listing of the various plant layers with lots of photos rather than a deep discussion of their purpose. Having read other books by both authors, I was hoping for more text, but my bad. The book is totally east coast centric so look elsewhere for PNW except this does have a great PNW native plant list with benefits from Jane Hartline. We have many native plant books but always nice to see Jane’s take as our local expert. We have been to Jane’s property and nursery and have plants she propagated.

[Carolyn Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book so much I decided I needed to own it, rather than keep renewing my library copy. The two authors each have their own strong suit - Doug Tallamy in ecology, and Rick Darke in landscaping. They both speak from years of experience, and though this book was originally published in 2014, the information is as timely as ever. Tallamy speaks of the importance of the relationships among species and how native systems provide for the best possible survival of all, including what is essential to us humans. One example that made an impression on me was the number of caterpillars it takes to raise a clutch of Carolina chickadees, which are tiny birds and very common in my area. It takes between 6,240 and 10,260 caterpillars to fledge a single clutch of chickadees, and chickadees are not alone among birds feeding caterpillars to their young. A much larger woodpecker requires many more. I had never really realized how important insects and caterpillars are to bird populations, and the staggering numbers involved. Rick Darke brings his knowledge of landscaping and design to show how we can help provide these systems in a beautiful way. I liked their definition of native: a plant or animal that has evolved in a given place over a period of time sufficient to develop complex and essential relationships with the physical environment and other organisms in a given ecological community. Not all native plants contribute a lot to biological diversity. There are ones that contribute far more than others in supporting diverse species, and oaks in particular are the best. There are handy charts at the back of the book that list plants for various regions of the U.S. and how they contribute to both landscape and ecological functions. The importance of layers in the landscape is emphasized, with the example of the deciduous forest as a guideline: the canopy, understory trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and vines, and the ground layer (as well as below ground). The charts lay out the plants in roughly these categories.

The book's mission is to encourage home gardeners to realize how their efforts can contribute to sustaining biodiversity, add to corridors for species, provide shelter for wildlife, support pollinators, recharge groundwater and replenish oxygen in the atmosphere, and sequester carbon. Meanwhile in doing so we can add beauty, color, framing, and fragrance, and create outdoor living spaces and natural retreats with shading and screening and other landscape functions.

The book is filled with beautiful photographs. I will say that most of the photos are from areas where the authors have their own professional and personal gardens, experience, and research. This is in the Mid-Atlantic area of the U.S. While I'm technically in the southeast, my elevation puts me in more of the Mid-Atlantic when it comes to ecology, thus I found the photographs were very reminiscent of my own landscape environment. For someone in the desert southwest, this book would have less resonance.

What this book is not is a how-to on growing the many plants mentioned. The reader can certainly get an idea of the type of landscape these plants can thrive in and which plants go together beautifully, and there are thorough captions that not only name the plants and fauna but what their presence indicates. Armed with ideas of plants gardeners might want to search out, they can easily find growing and propagating recommendations elsewhere. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in even adding a few plants around their yard, deck, or patio to understand how we can contribute to preserving biodiversity and ecosystems while increasing our enjoyment of nature and adding beauty to our surroundings. It is especially helpful for those in the eastern half of the U.S.

[Kristie J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first saw this book, I was a bit overwhelmed simply due to the thick size, however there are lots of pictures, so it actually reads pretty fast. The writing is a bit textbook-like, so it's drier reading than Tallamy's other book (Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard). There are beautiful pictures of native plants and wildlife in real gardens, with many pictures from Darke's own garden. It's a different kind of garden book because it is more like an inspirational idea book, illustrating what can be achieved using native plants. There are no suggested garden plans and few details about the plants and how to grow them. The back of the book contains several tables with lists of native plants for various regions of the country and is a very helpful reference. I'm sure I will return to these charts many times.

My favorite part of the book was the explanation of the five layers in a living, natural landscape: canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs, herbaceous, and ground layer. That's a great framework for designing a garden and something I will definitely use and not forget. The five layers work beautifully together and now that I understand them, I'm sure I will see them everywhere.

[James The Outdoor Asian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a productive vegetable and fruit gardener, I admittedly had little training on landscape. Our gardens are pragmatic...but maybe lacking in visual harmony with nature. I was recommended this book from a friend, a professor in urban architecture.

This book will provide you with a sound framework for analyzing the vertical and horizontal layers of natural landscaping, deriving the role of local plants, developing the natural interdependence and food webs amongst the layers - arriving at the Erhlich axiom: that species in an ecosystem grow to a state of redundancy (like airplane rivets and bolts) bounded by their functional role. The book opens the eye to the functions of various ecosystem landscapes - which is important for us gardeners in understanding microclimates and shaping/planning aspects; it also cultivates an appreciation for observations in gaining the characteristics and therefore dynamic aspects of a landscape. Finally, the last 200-pages populates regional banks of canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants for the reader to evaluate for their preference.

This is a useful book for those in urban environments who are simply enthralled by nature and the environment, but also for the pragmatic land owner at the edge of sub-urban and natural or agricultural zones, seeking to get the most out of their space by working with nature.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a followup reading for me after Bringing Nature Home. This book touches some on the value of native plants, though not as in depth as Bring Nature Home, but largely focuses more towards thinking about design. Its not really a "how to" (and I'll admit I had been hoping for a bit more detailed instruction) but more general descriptions. It starts with talking about the different layers that naturally exist in wild landscapes and then talks some about those layers in a garden setting. It is beautifully illustrated throughout providing both wild and managed garden examples as well as pictures of the wildlife in those gardens. My true favorite part however were the charts in the back that provided lists of different types of native plants and the benefits they provided (when do they flower, are they a host plant, do pollinators like them, are they used for nesting, etc). I think its a great read and resource for those interested in utilizing more natural native landscaping, but don't expect it to have all the answers.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as a reference book as I try to nativize my yard. It has excellent pictures and descriptions of the reasons native plants are important if you want to maintain/create food webs. It has beautiful pictures of many of the suggested native plants.
What I did not care for is that the concept of layers in the landscape really works best if you have a large property on which you can form the layers. This is not ideal for people with small yards unless you need very little lawn space. You also can't just "have" canopy trees under which you plant your understory trees, shrubs, and ground plants. Big trees take decades to grow, so other types of landscaping are needed in the interim. It also seemed that the book focused on a largely shady type of yard, and it's hard to do native prairie in anything but full sun.
SO, if you have several acres with mature trees and want to plant plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region, this is a great resource.

[Julian Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expect a series of meandering but elegantly written essays on the topic alongside Rick Darke's beautiful photographs. There is a lot of focus on ecology, but not a lot of practical focus on design.

The necessity of balancing human and environmental needs is discussed, but the solutions presented can be boiled down to 1) plant mostly plants that are native to your region 2) reduce hardscape and 3) consider ecological layers and processes.

Much of the book focuses only on plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region, and the book also has limited applicability to small urbanized spaces. I would have liked to see more discussion of how to choose plants for microclimates, soil types, compatibility, etc.

If you do read this, I don't recommend reading it as an e-book because the captions are often misplaced and the pictures aren't very high resolution. It would probably be a much more pleasant experience reading it as a print book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource if you’re interested in designing a functional, ecologically productive landscape. I’d recommend reading Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home first, for the big ideas. (I also recommend his book Nature’s Best Hope.) The Living Landscape is a beautiful book with lots of inspiring and encouraging pictures, but it’s not a how-to manual, so if you’re looking for a starting point to choose plants or learn garden design techniques, this isn’t it. That said, what you will get is a better understanding of plantings that function in the way they would in nature; a better understanding of what land stewardship could look like for an average ecologically-minded homeowner; and a lot of examples of successful mostly-native plantings with identification and explanation that will hopefully encourage you to build a better yard.

[Hester · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photographs in this book are so beautiful. I learned tons from this book on how to design gardens that simultaneously support ecosystems and human happiness. There are great charts in the back that explain the ornamental and environmental benefits of various native plants.

My one complaint is that Rick Darke says that we don't need purely native gardens to support ecosystems, and he instead is interested in ``functional landscapes." I never, however, learned what he meant by this statement. Did he mean that it is a good idea to have clover and croci in lawns because they support pollinators, even if the plants are non-native? Is it because there aren't many mid-Atlantic plants that act as evergreen screens? I wish I knew what he meant.

[MI A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book breaks down the concept of designing for habitat via the method of layers (overstory, understory, etc). I would argue that this text is less a "how-to guide" and more of an "introduction to concepts." The regional plant list at the end is a great reference and is this books second strongest reference tool, the strongest being the large volume of pictures with detailed labels that can serve as design inspiration for anyone based in the Mid-Atlantic region. I would love to see a synthesis of this book and Planting in a Post-Wild World where the layered methodology is clearly outlined and a plant list based on layers is provided.

[Kathy (McDowell) Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth it for the absolutely stunning photos alone! If you're anything like me and trying to provide for as many birds and pollinators as possible, while striving to plant only native plants, then this book is for you. In fact, the wealth of information in this book alone could have saved me countless hours reading and researching to find the perfect plants for the wildlife areas around my home. Wherever you live in the United States, this book will help you decide which native plants and trees will attract the most birds, butterflies, and caterpillars.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Co-authored by Doug Tallamy, this contains many of the same gardening for wildlife with native plants information as his other books. The actual plants mentioned and photographed are native to the Eastern United States, so not as helpful to us Westerners. But there is a very useful appendix of plants by region in the back of the book, identifying both ecological and landscape functions (i.e. food and nesting sites for birds, shade for humans). Regions are Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Midwest and Mountain States, and New England.

[Lada · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is like an informative article in a glossy magazine full of beautiful photos that go on and on. It makes a really strong case for incorporating natives into the layers of the home garden. The authors draw heavily on their own large and beautiful gardens (and nearby ones) so everything is in the midatlantic region. There are plant lists for other regions in the appendix, but ecosystems in other climates are not discussed or pictured. I hope to one day find a book this good for California.

[Henry Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really gorgeous book emphasizing native plants and plantings that encourage wildlife. I found the photos and Darke's general recommendations about how to combine and design extremely useful and inspirational.

Those who live outside the mid-Atlantic will find it less useful. Virtually all the plants discussed and photographed are from that area. The book does include native plant lists from across the US, but the rest of the book is heavily focused on the PA/DE/MD/VA area.

[Mhd]

I read a lot of this book but not all. It's a bit difficult to describe...it seems like chapters that stand alone and have different relationships, sometimes tenuous, to the general topic. What I call "design" is is not the same at that of the authors. It's a philosophy book more than a how to. Some of the chapters were easily 5-star, while others were quite easy to start and soon skip on to another. Please see my highlights for some ideas I found most useful.

[Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's some rather dense scientific sections of this book (which I happened to enjoy, but was also preaching to the choir) convincing us to use native plants in our residential gardens, but the full color pictures/spreads and examples of landscape design using native plants is a revelation and inspiration. It is also helpful to see so many examples of native plants, not just on a list, but in an actual maintained landscape.