“The Life in Your Garden” has an emphasis on milkweeds, promoting these plants as excellent for overall garden health and biodiversity. Authors Reeser Manley and Marjorie Peronto garden in Maine, but Manley received his PhD in Horticultural Science from Washington State University.
The authors strongly detest the word “pest” but instead see insects and other small garden creatures as pollinators, herbivores, and/or predators. All of these are both good and fascinating. Observing this life has been the source of many realizations for the authors about the positive impact even a small garden can have on its environment.
The book pays special attention to “functional” plants that provide more than just ornamentation, with a special emphasis on understory plants, which “are every bit as important as canopy trees in fostering garden biodiversity.” The lengthy encyclopedia section features east coast natives, but in most cases, western counterparts are found in the appendices. The authors also seek functionality in their annuals and perennials, “creating plantings that sustain garden life from the first emerging bumble bees in late April until the last hoverflies of late September.”
Excerpted from the Summer 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.