A "Natural" read...

A "Natural" read...

By MIKE WALKER

Natural Florida Landscaping
By Dan Walton and Laurel Schiller
Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 2007

Florida is known for its unique natural environment and diverse ecology but as human construction spreads further and further into even what were once remote reaches of the state, Florida is also becoming known for its pristine green lawns and concrete sidewalks.

I have seen, via Google Earth, a bird's-eye-view of relentless bright green lawns going on for miles in south Florida where each house looks the same as the one next to it and the goal appears to have a yard which looks like AstroTurf . . . and I have also witnessed this same quest first-hand with many lawns in Gainesville.

While there may be a sense of pride found in such a "perfect" lawn, the use of non-native plants and grasses is a difficult affair at best which also encourages greater use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers plus the application of large amounts of water. All these conditions are harmful to the natural environment to a degree and especially in our current situation of low rain, the use of well or city water to coax a lawn to health is not the best use of water resources. Given all that, what alternatives are there to the typical American lawn though?

In their book Natural Florida Landscaping, Dan Walton and Laurel Schiller present a comprehensive overview of methods for designing and maintaining a more natural yard fit for Florida's native plants and climatic conditions. Highly experienced landscapers and nursery-owners, Walton and Schiller provide a wealth of information on appropriate plants for all of the ranges of Florida, innovative ways to incorporate such plants into a creative yard design, examples of different types of yards, and general advice on the routine care of a natural yard.

The first two chapters of the book, "Change Your Mindset" and "Rethinking Your Florida Yard" may sound like the authors are only out to preach a sermon on ecology, but actually are great introductions to both why and how to create a natural yard in our state. The third chapter then deals with how to create a plan for using natural landscaping while the fourth and fifth chapters concern the specifics of various plants and their care.

While their book is rather thin at only 110 pages including the index, Walton and Schiller nonetheless present a lot of useful information and do so in an easy-to-follow manner that is never overly technical nor too simple or lacking in detail. Color photographs of example yards and plantings are included in the middle of the book and drawings of landscaping examples greatly help the reader understand the approach the authors are taking and how the finished product looks in a real-world setting. Perhaps most helpful though of all, the chapter on selecting plants has an extensive chart of different plants the authors suggest and this includes the common and scientific names of the plants, climatic range, average height, and other essential information. From this chart, the reader can easily determine whether or not a certain plant will be appropriate for his needs and also for the type of conditions he has in his own yard. The nuanced understanding the authors have of not only plant species but how these all interact with each other and with natural conditions including insects and other predators helps ensure that the correct plants for the given environmental conditions of a yard can be picked: too often, we see with native and non-native plants alike poor examples in people's yards because these plants were either the wrong choice for the soil and climatic conditions at hand or just did not get the proper care to further their health. A lot of the content of Natural Florida Landscaping addresses the overall situation of Florida soils, weather, and other factors to prevent mistakes of this nature.

I very much admire Walton and Schiller for their devotion to naturalistic yards and their empathy for creating not only environs pleasing to homeowners but those which can encourage animals to use yards as their habitats: many of us have bird-feeders to draw songbirds but other additions such as a small pond can attract dragonflies, frogs, and other pleasent animals. While few of us want rattlesnakes or other dangerous animals living right up next to our homes, I feel there is something of a duty to provide a habitat for harmless animals in our yards given that every lot cleared of its natural plant-life destroys an extant home for many animals. Naturalistic landscaping allows for a better living situation for humans that also provides back some of what we have taken to enable our own homes to those creatures that have lived in Florida for eons.

If I have any complaints about this book, they are somewhat odd ones: Natural Florida Landscaping is priced at a mere thirteen dollars-a steal given its wealth of information and an example of Pineapple Press's longstanding tradition of having very fair prices. However, something is lost for this economy: while ample color photos are included in a special section of plates in the middle of the book, I feel even more photos-whether black and white or color-would have been useful given the instructional nature of this book. While the overall quality of the book is very high, there appear to be some instances where a little more attention to detail in the graphic design and layout would have been helpful: sometimes the text felt crowded and there are places where a table format such as that used for the extensive table of plants mentioned above could have been used to make information incorporated into the text more clear. I would also have liked some more plan illustrations of various landscaping ideas, but again, given the price one can hardly complain.

Natural Florida Landscaping is a great addition to the home library of anyone considering any type of modification to his or her yard or garden. If you read this book through, which is not difficult given the authors' adept writing style and the book's short length, you will come away with both an ample understanding of the worth of using naturalistic landscaping and a very sound introduction to the mechanisms to incorporate such landscaping techniques in your own yard.

 

MIKE WALKER is a Gainesville, Florida, writer and journalist who writes for a variety of publications about ecology, natural history, travel, and the environment. He may be reached at: cloudrace@prontoma