Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands

Jack Ahern

ISBN 10: 1625346336 / ISBN 13: 9781625346339

Published by University of Massachusetts Press, US, 2022

About this Item

Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are special places known for their distinctive flora, including pine-oak forests, sandplain grasslands, and sand dunes peppered with bearberry shrubs. Unfortunately, this unique sense of place is under threat. In recent decades, contemporary landscape practices have come to depend on environmentally stressful fertilizers and irrigation systems, replacing this sensitive ecoregion's native flora with generic turfgrasses and popular commercial nursery trees and shrubs that could exist anywhere.Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands seeks to reverse this damaging trend by offering landscape professionals, local officials, and homeowners a sustainable approach to landscape design based on the ecoregion's native plants and plant communities. Presenting detailed discussions of Cape Cod's natural history, Jack Ahern focuses on the principal plant communities that define its landscape character and that are well adapted to local soils and growing conditions, including climate change. The book also includes strategies for ecological planting design and a portfolio of ecologically designed landscapes from the region.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781625346339

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, US
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625346336
• ISBN 13: 9781625346339
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 26.67W x 1.78H x 21.59D centimeters 26.67 centimeters width by 1.78 centimeters height by 21.59 centimeters depth
• Weight: 253 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are special places known for their distinctive flora, including pine-oak forests, sandplain grasslands, and sand dunes peppered with bearberry shrubs. Unfortunately, this unique sense of place is under threat. In recent decades, contemporary landscape practices have come to depend on environmentally stressful fertilizers and irrigation systems, replacing this sensitive ecoregion’s native flora with generic turfgrasses and popular commercial nursery trees and shrubs that could exist anywhere.

Design with Nature on Cape Cod and the Islands seeks to reverse this damaging trend by offering landscape professionals, local officials, and homeowners a sustainable approach to landscape design based on the ecoregion’s native plants and plant communities. Presenting detailed discussions of Cape Cod’s natural history, Jack Ahern focuses on the principal plant communities that define its landscape character and that are well adapted to local soils and growing conditions, including climate change. The book also includes strategies for ecological planting design and a portfolio of photographs of active ecologically designed landscapes. 

About the Author

JACK AHERN is professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.