Book Recommendations for the New Year
Image: Books by Doug Tallamy: Nature’s Best Hope, Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape (by Darke and Tallamy).
I normally barrel into a new year by mapping out intentions and plans. This year, sickness encouraged me to slow down, watch the snow fall, and allow some liminal space.
One thing I'm sure of: In 2025, I'll focus on the things that are mine to tend: my relationships, my work, my local community--and my garden.
Writing the "Why Native Plants?" lesson for Native Culinary Herbs: Online Gardening Course reminds me how powerful growing native species is--whether a yardful or a few containers. I’m referencing the following books by entomologist Doug Tallamy heavily:
Nature’s Best Hope (2019)
The Living Landscape (2014)
Bringing Nature Home (2007)
"Environmentally friendly" choices are often nebulous. We reduce, reuse, recycle because we have a notion that it's the right thing to do--but we can't see the evidence firsthand.
Growing native plants is different. We see the impact with every pollinator and every bird that visits our gardens.
It's amazing that monarchs find our humble patch of swamp milkweed--a vital host plant--though we haven't spotted other milkweed in our neighborhood to attract them.
It takes an incredible number of calories for songbirds to make it through cold winters. When temperatures dip, we watch chickadees and juncos feast on goldenrod and aster seeds through our frosty windows.
Though native bee species visit non-native herbs, our native mountain mints host an absolute ruckus when they blossom.
Image: bees abuzz on hairy mountain mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum).
In "Nature's Best Hope," Doug writes:
"When a landscape is transformed from a self-sustaining native plant community to a suburban [or urban, or agricultural] landscape, the cardinal in your yard is not just a cardinal in your yard: it is your cardinal. As such wild creatures can no longer depend on wild natural plants to sustain them, you must assume responsibility for the well-being of your cardinal, your blue jay, and your American toad."
Doug notes that American parks and forests are too small and too far apart to preserve native species long-term. What is abundant and pervasive? Private property--including human dwellings and lawns. Nature's best hope is you and me: what we plant in our yards and on our porches.
We don't have to take Doug's word for it. We get to witness the impact, all year long.
