Field and Forest: A Guide to Native Landscapes for Gardeners and Naturalists (The Naturalist's Bookshelf)

Covers North American habitats and plant communities, offers tips on designing and maintaining a natural garden, and shows how to restore a natural landscape and grow native plants in a garden

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.