Nature, Gardening, Ecology & Environmental Sciences, Plants & Fungi, Ecology, Landscape & Environment - Social Aspects
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
For the environmentalist as well as the garden lover, this book delightfully conveys the pleasures of ecological landscaping. Field and Forest is for those readers who love plants and want to know more about our native plant communities, how they relate to one another, and what each of us can do to help preserve and restore them. Jane Scott's innovative book looks into such puzzles as: Why are certain plants found only in certain habitats? Why and how do plant communities change? What has been the effect of human activities on plant communities? Field and Forest features an entire section - five full chapters - on ecological landscaping. Jane Scott discusses how to recreate native plant communities in your own garden and how to look to nature for garden design ideas. She also includes plenty of practical, down-to-earth advice on maintaining a natural garden, as well as things to watch out for when buying native plants from nurseries. Another helpful section focuses on the names and classifications of plants, to help naturalists and gardeners identify the species likely to be encountered on neighborhood strolls and countryside hikes. This book will not only make such excursions more rewarding, it will teach you how to recreate some of what you see in your own backyard. Field and Forest is both a reference and a handbook, and is illustrated with one hundred of the author's lovely line drawings.Editorials
Library Journal
Scott's Botany in the Field ( LJ 5/1/84) described the ecology of American plant communities, with emphasis on the effects of introduced species and other human interventions. Much of this material is reprinted, with light revisions, in Field and Forest , yet this book has a new tone of urgency. Scott hopes that further degradation of native ecosystems can be reduced through natural landscaping and ``releasing'' forests and fields from introduced species. Unfortunately, the new chapters on natural landscaping are frustratingly skimpy and do little to relate the average yard to the complex and often fragile plant communities described in earlier chapters. Scott herself seems more interested in rehabilitating undeveloped areas. Her advice on gardening for wildlife and selecting native plants from suppliers who do not collect from the wild can be found in many other recent books on wildflower and native plant gardens. Recommended mainly for libraries that lack Botany in the Field. -- Beth Clewis, Prince William P.L., Va.Booknews
Originally published in 1984, now an alternate selection of the Garden Book Club. The theme of this book has come into its own, and writer/gardener Scott provides a guide to the landscape, plant communities, ecological landscaping, and plant identification. Includes the author's own line-drawing illustrations and appendices listing resources. Paper edition (7379-6), $16.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
August 1, 1992
Publisher
New York : Walker, 1992.
Pages
195
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780802711939