Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West

Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West 

This book came out in 2015, and the subtitle is Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes.

Right from the start, one can tell that this book has a different philosophical underpinning than other books on landscape design.

And I love that they incorporate the word community; Thomas and Claudia are trying to get us to think about our gardens as communities.

If we could begin to see our gardens and the plants in them in the way that Rainer and West do, we would be much more sensitive to concepts like density and diversity in our plantings.

But don't let those terms throw you; Thomas and Claudia are all about extracting design principles that help gardeners focus on wise selections and year-round interest, all through the lens of community. If we could all do a better job of understanding the way plants behave in the wild, our gardens would benefit greatly.

Here's what they write at the beginning of their book because I think it sets the tone for what they are trying to accomplish:

"The way plants grow in the wild and the way they grow in our gardens is starkly different. In nature, plants thrive even in inhospitable environments; in our gardens, plants often lack the vigor of their wild counterparts, even when we lavish them with rich soils and frequent water.

In nature, plants richly cover the ground; in too many of our gardens, plants are placed far apart and mulched heavily to keep out weeds. In nature, plants have an order individual harmony resulting from their adaptation to a site; our gardens are often arbitrary assortments from various habitats, related only by our personal preferences....

In fact, the very activities that define gardening – weeding, watering, fertilizing, and mulching – all imply a dependency of plants on the gardener for survival.

Gardeners are often frustrated when some plants spread beyond their predetermined location and surprised while others struggle to get established....

Further complication is the availability of plants from every corner of the globe...

So how do we shift the paradigm, making desirable plantings that look and function sympathetically with how they evolve in nature? By observing and embracing the wisdom of natural plant communities."

You can get a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $18.