Natural Landscaping: Gardening with Nature to Create a Backyard Paradise (Rodale Garden Book)

Whether you yearn for a colorful meadow garden splashed with asters and black-eyed Susans, a shady garden filled with graceful woodland wildflowers and feathery ferns, or a poolside planting lush with Japanese iris and astilbes, Natural Landscaping can help you make your gardening dreams a landscape reality. Page after page of this stunning book shows you the beauties and benefits of a natural garden. And a garden that takes its inspiration from nature is a beacon to birds, butterflies, toads, and other wild creatures. Author Sally Roth has a lifetime's experience creating natural landscapes. In this beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated book, she tells you everything you need to know about creating a natural landscape. You'll find:

* Chapters on meadow and prairie gardens, woodland and shade gardens, water and bog gardens, gardens for songbirds and hummingbirds, and gardens to attract butterflies and moths.
* Step-by-step projects for building special garden features. The easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations take you through the basics of creating such exciting garden additions as a waterfall and a bluebird nest box. You'll learn how to install garden lighting to add a glow to walkways, create a bubbling spring for birds, build a rustic bench, and more.
* Garden plans for such varied gardens as a moonlight garden, a birdseed garden, and a hummingbird garden. You'll find nine beautifully illustrated plans that show you exactly how to create special natural gardens. You can follow the plans exactly or adapt them for your own needs.
* Effective gardening techniques, each explained with step-by-step illustrations. You'll learn the easiest way to strip sod for a new garden, how to saw through a limb without damaging the tree, an effortless way to propagate your plants, and how to control problems organically. With these simple instructions, every gardener-- even a beginner-- can create and maintain a lush natural landscape.
* Profiles of delightful natural landscapes created by gardeners across the country. Each profile features a different kind of natural landscape, from a prairie planting to a butterfly garden to a yard designed just for the birds. The gardeners talk about their inspirations and share valuable tips on how to create your own version.
* Scores of quick-reference charts show you the best plants for every type of natural landscape. No matter where you live, you'll find a selection of the best plants for your area-- whether you're looking for flowers to attract hummingbirds, grasses for a prairie garden, shrubs for your woodland garden, plants to soften a pool's edge, flowers for a night garden, or wildflowers for your sunny meadow garden. You'll find helpful charts of the best plants for each garden style, conveniently located at the end of each chapter.

With lively, authoritative text and more than 250 gorgeous color photos and illustrations, Natural Landscaping is an indispensable guide to a lush, inviting garden that's full of the beauty of nature.

Sally Roth has created landscapes in Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Indiana. She is coauthor of Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening: Companion Planting and is a contributor to Taylor's Guide to Fruits and Berries. Sally writes and publishes a nature newsletter, A Letter from the Country, and is an editor for Country Living Gardener. She lives, gardens, and enjoys the wildlife in New Harmony, Indiana.