Book Review: Planting in a Post-Wild World

The authors of Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes propose a new paradigm for garden design, one which modifies and adapts the “plant communities” concepts in ways that are sustainable and beautiful in a world changed by urbanization, species invasion, and climate change.  This book addresses the big issues that percolate around gardening, but it also provides a blueprint for creating viable plant communities in our yards and public spaces.

From the very first pages, I got a definite feeling that I was in the hands of designers, as opposed to plantspersons. This is far from a bad thing; it’s just different. There’s a definite focus on how we as humans respond to a garden, plus there are many lush photos.  Authors Thomas Rainer and Claudia West are indeed garden design professionals.  Rainer is a landscape architect in Washington, D.C., who has designed public gardens for the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the New York Botanical Garden — as well as for private homes. West grew up working in her family’s nursery and landscape design business, and is now a garden designer and consultant.  By the time I finished the book, it was clear that its intended audience is primarily professional designers, but there’s lots to learn and think about for us home gardeners.

The authors’ goal is to provide “a guide for designing resilient plant communities” that can succeed in today’s landscapes, which “no longer resemble historically natural conditions.” Due to the much-altered environmental conditions we face today, the authors urge us to give up the notion of creating an exact replica of nature in our yards, parks, and other public spaces.  Instead, Rainer and West developed the concept of  “designed plant communities” that resemble and function like those in the wild.  They also urge us to avoid treating plants as “individual objects placed in the garden for decoration,” but instead, taking our cues from nature, “to arrange plants to interact with other plants and the site.”  Employing research on how plants interact in “wild” communities, the authors have derived certain principles that “can help designers better select, arrange, and manage horticultural plantings.”  

The guiding principles of the authors’ designed plant communities are:

1. Related populations, not isolated individuals
2. Stress is an asset (to the plants, not the gardener!)
3. Cover the ground densely by vertically layering plants
4. Make it attractive and “legible” (i.e., it should be “readable” as a pleasant landscape by humans)
5. Management, not maintenance (manage the entire plant community, not individual plants)

These basic principles are developed fully in the early chapters of the book, which then shifts to a step-by-step guide to plant choices, design, installation, and maintenance, all accompanied by helpful charts, drawings, and photos.

Principle # 1 is the essential feature of a plant community:  the plants “coexist and interact.”  Principle #2 — stress — is based on the fact that plants have varying competitive strategies to deal with limited sun, water, and nutrients; they may have roots that can move away from competitors or they may have the ability to take up excess nutrients.  The authors believe we must consider these varying capacities and strategies in order to create a successful plant community.  This is one reason plants in naturally-occurring communities tend to occupy every inch of available ground, which is Principle # 3.  A fundamental layer, for the authors, is the ground cover layer.  The authors note that some desirable ground covers — grasses, sedges, and leafy perennials — have limited commercial availability.  Principle # 4 — legibility — may seem puzzling, but it seems to be based on some deep thinking about, and maybe even some scientific analysis of, human beings and their propensities.

The legibility principle underlies the idea that a designed plant community is a “stylized version“ of a naturally occurring plant community. Why a “stylized version” of nature?  First, it might be necessary to use only a few of the most adaptive species in a natural community or to supplement a native community due to availability issues.  Second, a stylized version may be preferable due to the cultural conditioning of humans. According to Rainer and West, a highly mixed planting such as might be found in nature tends to remind us of “abandoned fields or derelict industrial sites.”  Thus, the designer’s task is to distill the essence of familiar landscapes — which the authors refer to as archetypes. A bit of Googling revealed that the term archetype is used fairly extensively in the field of landscape architecture to identify patterns. The book focuses on three major archetypal landscapes:

— forests

—grasslands,

—woodlands and shrublands

The authors believe that humans relate to these three archetypes in essential, emotional ways; thus, a design that adheres to one of these basic patterns will be “legible” — i.e., humans will recognize it immediately — and positively.

If you’re wondering how to “distill the essence” of these archetypal landscapes, the authors provide very specific guidance.  And for each major archetypal landscape, there’s in-depth discussion, plus a helpful list of problems to avoid.  One of those really grabbed my attention: in a meadow-type garden, avoid plants that are taller than eye level; apparently, this kind of height is a turnoff for most folks.  Since I’m in the midst of developing a new garden right now, this advice was timely.

The authors’ philosophy is strongly focused on the site; the idea is to choose plants that are naturally adapted to the site; i.e., that can all survive in the site’s environmental conditions, including its stresses.  Native plant communities are “battle-tested” and aesthetically familiar, so they are the ideal starting point. By choosing familiar native plant communities, we can make the task much simpler.  Here or there we may have to substitute an exotic — a non-invasive one that’s adapted to the conditions of our site.   The authors eschew the “troublesome divide” between those who dogmatically insist upon a natives-only regime versus those who will use exotics.  Nevertheless, they clearly endorse native plant communities:

We firmly believe that designing with native plants still matters.  In fact, it matters more than ever.  But in order to be successful in establishing native communities in tough sites, both a new expression of nature and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of plant communities is required.  It is our challenge to reimagine a new expression of nature — one that survives within our built landscapes, and at the same time performs vital ecosystem functions needed to ensure life.  . . . The building blocks of this new nature are resilient and native plants — and yes, even exotic species — that are naturally adapted to environments similar to our man-made landscapes.  The question is not what grew there in the past but what will grow there in the future.”

It’s well worth noting that this book has received the seal of approval of Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home:  “This is the universal how-to guide to sustainable landscaping we have all been waiting for. A masterful accomplishment.”

As indicated above, this book contains a wealth of detailed guidance, and you’ll soon be learning about things like the root morphologies that allow different species to grow right next to each other with little or no direct competition, thus making room for even more plants that support pollinators and other wildlife.  That ability to grow cheek-by-jowl is a key concept reaped from the study of plant behavior in the wild.  You’ll soon learn and be able to apply the authors’ defined terms, such as

• structural layers
• seasonal theme layers
• dynamic filler layers
• visual essence species

You’ll be able to make use of the Landscape Selection Key to identify the archetype best suited to your site.  You’ll be urged to draw your site as a way of knowing it in new ways.  And you’ll be introduced to major influencers from the fields of ecology and landscape design:

• Plant habitat-focused system of Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl
• Plant survival strategies research of John Philip Grime and his C-S-R system for developing plant communities
• Norbert Kühn’s blend of these two systems into Kühn’s 8 Plant Types

It has been noted that this book could be viewed as a continuation of the work of Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl, authors of Perennials and Their Garden Habitats. (1993).  Frankly, I knew nothing about that or any of the other books discussed and listed in the bibliography, and I’m hoping to remedy that situation soon.

Initially, I found a few elements of the book somewhat off-putting — such as the use of unfamiliar defined terms. Some of the suggestions about cutting back on the use of mulch and of soil amendments struck me as problematic, especially in our challenging changing climates. Despite these concerns, I learned plenty.  I was particularly intrigued by the authors’ philosophy of  management, especially the insistence that we recognize that our gardens will change over time — no matter how we maintain them.  I will no doubt return to this section of the book, which helpfully posits various change scenarios and the variety of responses available to the gardener.

One very useful feature of this book is that all concepts and recommendations are accompanied by lists of example species (using their scientific names) along with a wealth of photos of these species, both singly and in plant communities created by well-known designers.

To say that the book is inspiring is a major understatement.  I draw like a kindergartener, but thanks to this book, I’m feeling confident and ready to head out to draw my site!

 

SOURCES:

Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes (Thomas Rainer & Claudia West, Timber Press 2015)

Book Notes:  Perennials and Their Garden Habitats, Arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu

Upcoming Lectures by Thomas Rainer/Piedmont Landscape Association/2/2/23

Thomas Rainer’s Grounded Design Blog