The Fireside Book Review by Bobbie Schwartz, FAPLD
The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Small Spaces Janet Melrose & Sheryl Normandeau
reader New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden Kelly D. Norris
The premise of this book, by two Canadian gardeners, is that small space gardening is about much more than cramming lots of plants into a smaller space. They offer gardening knowledge and advice as well as specialized techniques. The smallest space is often a container. The authors discuss the pros and cons of each type of container, the ideal soil mix, why garden soil shouldn’t be used, the necessity and process of cleaning containers annually, best watering practices, why not to use hydrogel crystals, fertilization and many other aspects of container gardening. They also supply lists of plants by type that do particularly well in containers. Raised beds are just larger containers. There is an extensive discussion of materials for creating them, soil mixes for them, and the square foot gardening method for edibles. I was fascinated by an explanation of hugelkultur as a higher and, usually, even larger raised bed. This method of gardening utilizes what we often call garden waste and has several assets such as warming earlier and not needing as much water. Moving on to the “postage”-sized garden, the authors discuss microclimates and how to take advantage of them, utilizing espaliers (vertical gardening always increases gardening space), planting catch crops (a new term for me), succession planting, underplanting, straw bale gardening, and pallet gardening as well as herb spirals. The subject of the last chapter is vertical gardening: the benefits and the drawbacks, suggestions for training plants to grow on walls, types of supports, which vegetables are suitable, and suggestions for great climbing plants to use as privacy screens. Both authors speak from years of gardening experience on the Canadian plains. While this is a book meant for home gardeners rather than landscape designers, there are always invaluable tidbits to be garnered.
Kelly Norris, the author of this book, is one of those people whose enthusiasm for plants infuses his body and soul and inspires other gardeners and designers to listen carefully to everything he says. I loved his opening statement: “Nature has had a seemingly uncomfortable association with gardening for centuries, even as gardeners have remained in earnest pursuit of naturalistic landscapes. It’s a curious paradox…..We’ve not followed nature as much as we’ve tried to lead it.” As landscape designers, we attempt to beautify a home’s surroundings, thus putting the emphasis on aesthetics but Kelly would maintain that we need to see planting beds as more, as ecological systems that can support positive environmental change, increase plant and animal diversity, and create more resilient spaces. Instead of using plants as furniture, we should be creating spaces with a number of life cycles that repeat themselves year after year. Most of us think only of the space above the ground but Kelly encourages us to understand what is happening below the ground and how plants interact with each other. He emphasizes starting with knowing our soil and lessening the need for fertilizer by choosing more plants that are nitrogen-fixing legumes and by allowing surface organic matter to remain in the garden and decompose (instead of putting it yard waste bags or the compost bin), thus cultivating the microorganisms in the soil. I had to laugh when Kelly discussed how flowering plants attract more than pollinating insects; it means accepting that something will eat their beloved plants. The Phlox paniculata in my front garden is pruned annually by the visiting deer, thus saving me the trouble of doing so in order to keep them shorter and bushier. In a diverse garden, the effects of one herbivore usually go unnoticed. In addition, if we do not add fertilizer, the leaves are usually not as succulently attractive to herbivores. In creating functional gardens, defined as those that are selfperpetuating, Kelly recommends starting with natives and near-natives and then adding some non-natives. That combination results in an optimal abundance of floral resources throughout the growing season. Plant selection should involve more than the particular features of a plant; it should definitely include its aptness for the site so that it will thrive. This somewhat wild garden will be densely planted initially but we need to think of it as an evolution that involves constant evaluation and tweaking. Wild plant communities have layers and visual patterns that relate to the ecological conditions of the site and that is what we want to emulate in our home gardens. Those layers are the matrix, the structure, and the vignette. Kelly defines each of them and then demonstrates how to combine them. If you accept Kelly’s description of the matrix layer, you may never need to mulch again. His detailed plant lists and charts are invaluable. Once you absorb the information and advice in this book, you will be on your way to creating more naturalistic but differently beautiful, ecologically vibrant landscapes.
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