Your Natural Garden: A Practical Guide to Caring for an Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden

by Kelly D. Norris

A valuable and artfully crafted guide to tending a naturalistic garden.

From plantsman Kelly Norris, author of New Naturalism, comes a much-needed handbook to maintaining today’s natural gardens. Naturalistic plantings, overflowing with biodiverse communities of plants, are filling front and backyards around the globe with colorful blooms, easy-care plants, and wildlife habitat. But caring for a naturalistic garden is vastly different than caring for a traditional home landscape of carefully manicured plants separated by mulch and regularly primped and pruned. In Your Natural Garden, tending your garden properly means understanding its connection to the greater natural world and using garden care methods that mimic nature instead of controlling it.

Page by page, you’re guided through all the seasons of a naturalistic garden’s life and the tasks and to-dos that come with each of them. Including how to:


Encourage and establish complexity in a new garden
Promote growth and variation by letting your plants self propagate
Determine when and what to edit, and when it’s best to let chaos rein
Decide if and when weeding is necessary
Foster the insects and other animals that rely on your plants
Understand succession in the naturalistic garden and why it’s important
Know when it’s time to cut back your garden and how to do it right

Verdant photographs accompany the text throughout, offering examples of well-tended naturalistic plantings and the tasks that are needed to properly care for them.

Genres: Nature, Gardening, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

Published January 14, 2025

About the author

Kelly D. Norris is one of the leading horticulturists of his generation. In his interdisciplinary studio, he explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art.

An award-winning author and plantsman, Kelly’s work in gardens has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden from Cool Springs Press launches in late 2024.

He’s also the founder and curator of The Public Horticulture Company, an emerging ecological landscape startup based in Des Moines, Iowa. The studio also produces the New Naturalism Academy, a virtual school for enthusiastic designers, as a commitment to continuing education and lifelong learning.

He is the former director of horticulture and education at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, where for eight years, he directed efforts in design, curation, programming, garden, and facility management after serving as the owner’s representative to nearly $20 million in capital projects.

Kelly travels widely to explore and study plants in nature. He lives and works at Three Oaks Garden (Des Moines, Iowa), a creative refuge and planting field on a hill above the Des Moines River.

Reviews

[Steph Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no way to describe this book other than a poem. It flows, moves, and inspires. I borrowed it from the library and was so disappointed to return it. This book is going on my “purchase” list so that I can pick it up anytime and enjoy it.

[Jennifer P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos and great concepts about natural gardening, especially in the context of climate change. I docked a star because the writing doesn’t need to be as dense as it is. I occasionally amused myself by translating sentences into plain English as I read them. I also think the subtitle, A Practical Guide.. is a misnomer. It’s not so much practical as visionary. On that count I enjoyed it very much. To be truly practical, though, it needed to use plain language and connect the overarching concepts to more recognizable examples, directions, and instructional media.

All said, I love the work of this landscape artist and I greatly appreciate his vision of what gardens can be.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. Great photos. I would have loved for more of the photo captions to share what plants were in the images.

[Grady J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really delightful and engaging book on ecological gardening. Norris approaches the topic as a gardener first (rather than an activist, scientist, conservationist) which provides some great benefits for those who have engaged a lot of literature already on the field. I very much enjoyed and was enriched by his encouragements towards the aesthetic questions when planting for wildlife. They have already made designing my next planting an envigorating task! I also enjoyed his more socratic form of communication and how he is able to relay ecological ideas through encouraging questions and reflection. If you're looking for concrete step-by-steps, this isn't the place to start, but it encourages the development of the gardener in a different way than DYI manuals might. Plus the photography is GORGEOUS. Seriously stellar.

[Cherryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your Natural Garden" is a stunning visual feast that offers both inspiration and guidance for creating a harmonious, nature-friendly outdoor space. Author Kelly D. Norris takes readers on a journey through a variety of landscapes, showcasing how to design and maintain a garden that not only looks beautiful but also supports local ecosystems and biodiversity.

While the book may not delve deeply into the practicalities of gardening, its strength lies in its ability to evoke a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world. Norris's photographs are simply breathtaking, and the accompanying text provides valuable insights into plant selection, habitat creation, and sustainable gardening practices.

I found myself poring over the pages of "Your Natural Garden" for hours, drawing inspiration from the diverse range of gardens featured within. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to create a space that celebrates the beauty and diversity of nature.

** Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review **

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully illustrated book but I didn’t find it very practical. I loved the photos of various natural gardens but I found the book to be very wordy and esoteric without giving basic helpful information. I was hoping for step by step photos and instructions for installing a new natural garden where there is currently grass, for instance, instructions for seeding a meadow garden, and lots of recommended plants. There is no talk of plant recommendations and it’s mostly essays about her opinions on gardens, pesticides, design, color, etc. I have to admit to skimming most of the text and just enjoying the photos, but I would have preferred more photos and shorter, more informative text. It’s still a beautiful book.

I read a temporary digital loan of this book for review.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your Natural Garden was a stunningly beautiful book that did a good job of giving overview into the thought process and some of the maintenance elements/decisions you make when thinking about your garden or personal landscape as a part of the environment. It didn't have enough practical detail to serve as a "one and done" resource, but I appreciated the birds eye view perspective. I have a lot of books about prairie/meadow gardening (I live in the Midwest) - this one also had some interesting information on woodlands that I found helpful. And always -- with any beautiful book full of stunning photographs of others' hard work, it serves as great motivation to get out and do a little work among the flowers and the grasses.

[Denny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely pictures, and the overall idea of a natural gardening aesthetic is certainly a nice concept. But don't expect to find any practical or specific advice in here. The author makes broad generalizations (I didn't count, but I bet the word "consider" is used at least 100 times) and makes bland statements about the importance of color, flow, seasons, etc., without really telling you how to execute those ideas.

[Lauren Csaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous pictures of beautiful naturalistic gardens. The text however did not live up to the subtitle. I would not say this is “practical guide” in any way. Rather it’s very philosophical, poetic…a 10,000 foot view of the topic rather than a book of practical advice on how to make and tend an ecological garden.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd love to visit the author's Iowa garden.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and poetic writing. Very little actual helpful information for a gardener trying to learn.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some part of this book are SO GOOD. The pictures are gorgeous, and I agree with so much of what he has to say. I read it from the library and have considered getting my own copy for inspiration.

However, some of the choices are just... well, "gratuitously pretentious" is the best sum-up I've got. God. The writing style is dense and academic to the point of absurdity. The Aesthetic is similarly elevated, with baffling amounts of white space around teeny tiny font. (You want a physical copy for photos and an ebook for avoiding the eye strain headache. I am in my thirties.) And calling it a "practical guide" is absolute bull.

Publisher, I don't care how stubborn Norris is, you have done us all a disservice by allowing the above. :(