These books are grouped in categories to help distinguish their purpose and focus. Of course, many books do not fit neatly into a single category, so you can also filter them by topic or subject matter. To search by author, enter his or her last name into the keyword search field.
All of the books here are valuable resources for learning. While this list is long, we have not included every publication on the subject of native plant landscaping, but only those we feel are the most useful, well researched, and based on sound ecological science. Enjoy your reading!
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Beauty of the Wild — by Darrel Morrison One of this country’s preeminent landscape architects, Darrel Morrison has a deep understanding of how plant communities and ecological systems provide both the inspiration and the knowledge base for the design of beautiful places. He does not propose that we try to recreate the wild, but rather that we learn from its wisdom and complexity as we create landscapes molded by human hands.
In a career spanning more than six decades, he has embraced the constant learning associated with being both a superb practitioner and teacher of landscape architecture. Early on, he contributed to the ecological restoration of the Curtis Prairie at the University of Wisconsin. This was followed by his distinguished tenure at the University of Georgia, coupled with his own practice in the state’s Piedmont region. Later, moving north to New York City, he designed native landscapes for both the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York Botanic Garden. His work includes many other projects representing different habitats and regions across the United States.
Both biographical and inspirational, this book gives us a window into the evolution of ecology-based landscape design in the United States over the past century. Simultaneously, it outlines a valuable philosophy of design based on nature— without suggesting that we can, or should try, to mimic it exactly.
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