From the Bookshelves
By Carol Jelich, Arboretum Librarian and Maryland Master Gardener
Tomorrow’s Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening. By Stephen Orr. Rodale, 2011. 234 pages. The book is organized into three sections. In the first section, “Garden Where You Live,” the author explores factors to consider when developing a garden, including function, climate, plant selection, and location. The second section, “Consider the Materials,” provides advice on how to incorporate gravel, stone, and steel into the garden, how to include a reduced, sustainable “intentional lawn,” and recycling and repurposing items headed to the landfill into remarkable garden design elements. One example is a screen made of discarded computer motherboards that have faded to a patina of copper, green, and blue. The third section focuses on “Edible Gardens and Community,” and provides examples of the home food garden, raising chickens and livestock in the city, and shared gardens in the neighborhood and larger community. Titles of books for further reading are provided throughout. A resource list at the back of the book has contact information for the designers of the illustrated gardens. Visitors to Adkins Arboretum often have questions about how to create gardens using native plants. Many answers to these questions are revealed in the pages of this book. The author, gardening editorial director for Martha Stewart Living magazine, visited ten cities across the U.S. to photograph diverse gardens. His goal in this book was to demonstrate that beautiful gardens can be created in a responsible way:
Tomorrow’s Garden maps a path from the gardens of the past, when “it was considered highly admirable to thwart the natural cycle, to grow things in places where perhaps they didn’t really want to be grown,” to the future, where gardens are not just aesthetically pleasing, but also in harmony with nature.
“ These gardens not only concern themselves with reaching their own best level of sustainability in water usage, plant choices, local ecology, and preservation of resources, but they are also aesthetically delightful.” The lush color photographs are accompanied by text that highlights the sustainable characteristics of the gardens. Although located in other regions, from California and Texas to Illinois and New York, they offer many ideas that can be applied in our Mid-Atlantic region to achieve beautiful, low maintenance gardens. adkinsarboretum.org
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