Community Eco-Gardens: Landscaping with Native Plants

by Dennis Swiftdeer Paige

Overview

Part how-to, part personal narrative, this book provides a practical guide for creating native-species ecogardens. It chronicles the author's 20-year journey of environmental awakening. With the help of the greater community, a neglected five-acre condominium landscape is transformed into a stunning range of multi-seasonal prairie, woodland and wetland micro-habitats. This illustrated account describes the process of ecological reconciliation and traces his discovery of the higher self along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476640884
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	11/30/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	234
File size:	83 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dennis Swiftdeer Paige is an environmental educator and native landscaper. The winner of several awards in native landscaping and habitat preservation, he lives in Conifer, Colorado.
Dennis Swiftdeer Paige is an environmental educator and native landscaper. The winner of several awards in native landscaping and habitat preservation, he lives in Conifer, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Douglas W. Tallamy
Preface
 1. Layering the Foundation
 2. What’s Done Can Be Undone
 3. Bringing a Vision Home
 4. Feel the Berm
 5. Little Jurassic Parks and the Spread of Native Rain Gardens
 6. Relating Trees to a Sense of Place
 7. Creating a Bioswale and Woodland Grove with Mother Earth’s Blessings
 8. Way Over My Head and Body
 9. Rescuing Nature and Friendships
10. Incongruous Entranceway Landscapes Receive Native Facelifts
11. Shady Woodland Wonders Replace the Barren Scotch Pines
12. If You Build ­Micro-Habitats, They Will Come
13. Stewards of the Land Are Still an Endangered Species
14. Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
15. Lessons in Not Becoming Disheartened
16. Fueling Other Minds to Go Native
17. Eyes of the Beholder
18. Passing the Torch and Shovel
Epilogue: Catchers in the Rye
Appendix A: Town Square Condominium Native Plant Introduction List (1996–2015)
Appendix B: Workable Guidelines for Creating ­Eco-Gardens and ­Micro-Habitats
Appendix C: Where to Buy Native Plants
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In Community Eco-Gardens, Dennis Paige asks us to re-evaluate our infrastructural aesthetic and grow to appreciate, find comely, and grow to love a diversity of free-living forms and arrays. He suggests we create places where it is not the specific plant we insert in the ground that matters, but the spawn of those plants that, with others and care, coalesce over time to produce a beautiful, healthful community of plants and animals. He proposes that a world of natural beauty and healthy soil, loved and intimately cared for, can once again allow the land to drink from the heavens, nurture life that bears tomorrows, and embed us again living beauty. If we take seriously Dennis’s proposal our souls could learn to cleave to life and creation and our posterity might yet have another chance at Eden.”—Gerould Wilhelm, Director of Research, Conservation Research Institute, Lombard, Illinois.

From the Publisher