Sustainable Gardening for Florida is one of the best summaries of sustainable practice in our gardens that I have ever seen. With the qualification that specific plants and several garden situations may be appropriate only for Florida, the principles of sustainability presented in this book can be applied by gardeners everywhere.
Ginny Stibolt has spent years researching this book, and she has presented this excellent information in the form of a “cookbook,” where you can take your favorite “recipe” and put it into immediate practice. I love this approach, as it fits very nicely with my thoughts on the Power of Doing Just One Thing in Your Ecosystem Garden.
Each “recipe” is accompanied by detailed instructions on how best to put that idea into practice. For example, Ginny does not just tell us to install rain barrels for use in harvesting rainwater, she also includes example photos of the hardware needed to hook a series of rain barrels together, and drawings of how best to install them for your circumstances. The chapter on rain gardens includes drawings of how to install French drains, biologs, and bioswales. Because of these explicit examples, any gardener should easily be able to put these ideas into practice.
From healthy soil, compost and mulch, lawn reduction, meadows and hedgerows, evaluating tree health, planting trees and shrubs, edible gardens, container gardens and integrated pest management to my favorite subjects of wildlife habitat, harvesting rainwater, and installing rain gardens, bioswales, and bog gardens, Ginny Stibolt has thoroughly researched these subjects and given us great solutions to sustainably managing our landscapes.
I have discovered many ideas that will work just as well in my Pennsylvania garden as they will in the sustainable gardens of Florida. I am sure that you, also, will discover and be able to implement these ideas, no matter where your garden is. Just keep in mind that the specific plants that Ginny mentions are probably not appropriate for gardens outside of Florida. Do your homework and carefully choose the most appropriate plants for your location and conditions.
Stibolt has based her book around several principles that are so important that they bear repeating here. Sustainable gardening and sustainable landscape management include the following areas:
- Having minimal impact on the environment, including reducing our use of gas-powered equipment, reducing or eliminating the use of toxic chemicals (pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer).
- Making the best use of available resources includes harvesting rainwater and arranging our gardens to make the best use of this water, composting yard and kitchen waste and using it to maintain healthy soil, and mulching to prevent soil erosion and preserve soil moisture.
- Saving time and money by putting plants in the right place, reducing the size of your lawn, and managing what’s left in a more natural manner.
- Reducing carbon dioxide and increasing available oxygen by increasing the amount of vegetation, especially large trees and shrubs.
- Offsetting some of the heat that is stored in buildings and roads by increasing the amount of vegetation. Trees, shrubs, and understory perennials, through the process of transpiration, can cool the area around them and lessen the impact of all the heat radiating from our rooftops and roadways.
- Increasing habitat for wildlife. A sustainable landscape is created when it supports a diversity of plants, birds, pollinators, butterflies, amphibians, and soil biota which all work together in a vibrant ecosystem
You can find more information about the book Sustainable Landscaping for Florida by clicking here. Follow Ginny Stibolt’s updates to the book here.
What are your thoughts about sustainable gardening and landscaping? What have you done to make your garden more sustainable? Let us know in the comments below.
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
Do you know if there is any book that is similar for the South Jersey region? I admit that while I know which fruit and vegetable plants are sustainable in my region, I’m not really familiar with which non-edible plants I should be planting.
Robin–I’d start with Doug Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home. He’s from University of Delaware, and this is the best argument for the use of native plants that I’ve ever seen. Then check out New Jersey Native Plant Society, they have regional lists of the best plants. If you’ve got any specific questions, please feel free to ask them here.
This sounds like a really useful and applicable book, even for other areas, as you say. I like that she includes edible landscaping and integrated pest management as well as water management in the landscape. These are all things I’m interested in.
I seem to be really slow at the planning stage for my garden, never mind the implementation. So far I’ve only managed to change a fraction of it in the space of 10 years! My favorite things I’ve learned are composting and mulching. I also enjoy planting shade tolerant natives.
I learned a new tree and a new shrub this weekend. It was great to be out!
.-= Alison Kerr´s last post ..Top Nature Spots =-.
Thanks for a great review Carole and greetings to everyone.
Just a quick note about the regionality of my book:
Almost every general gardening book completely ignores Florida where the soil never freezes and the bugs never die. Our crazy wet and dry seasons mean that while we get alot of rain (50″ on average), two thirds of it comes in our 5 wet months. We also have some regional issues such as hurricanes.
So my advice takes these conditions into account, but overall, most of the sustainability issues apply anywhere, even in New Jersey. If enough folks ask for a more general book to apply outside of Florida, I’ll bring it to my editors at University Press of Florida to see if we can do it again.
So keep that feedback coming.
Green gardening matters,
Ginny
Ginny, I am SO looking forward to seeing your regional guides to sustainability! Didn’t you just propose doing that? heehee. What an amazing resource you have given us with this book. Thank you!