Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change

Larry Weaner,

Thomas Christopher

4.30 · Rating details · 161 ratings · 31 reviews

A leading landscape designer shows how an ecological approach can lead to beautiful gardens that benefit the environment--and require less time and money.

According to landscape designer Larry Weaner, conventional gardening is full of counter-intuitive, time-consuming, and even harmful habits. The constant tilling, weeding, irrigating, and fertilizing create perpetual distu ...more

Get A Copy

ebook, 328 pages

Published May 18th 2016 by Timber Press (OR)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Garden Revolution, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Garden Revolution

Lists with This Book

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold

Best Nature Books

910 books — 687 voters

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

Western Garden Book by Kathleen Norris Brenzel

Gardening Books

338 books — 150 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.30 ·

Rating details

· 161 ratings · 31 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change

Dec 11, 2016 James rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: art, diy, non-fiction, skimmed

This book is about large scale ornamental gardens and meadows, if you have a patio or a kitchen gardener it will be a fun read but not that useful. If you serious amounts of land though, this is the intelligent and lazy way of landscaping using natives and non-invasive imports. Some highlights:
* Don't dig up or enrich your soil unless it has man-made problems.
* Cut but don't uproot invasive weeds, they thrive in disturbed soil, they will die off once the natives are established.
* Plant natives w ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2016 Lynndell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, netgalley-ebook, advanced-reading-copy, gardening

Thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for the arc of Garden Revolution by Larry Weaner! The Evolving Landscape: Creating Beautiful Gardens in Harmony with Nature focuses on natural landscapes in large areas, such as meadows. The book contains beautiful photographs, and tips for naturalization, weeding, soil, maintenance and the evolution of plant spaces. I do not have huge areas for gardening as in this book, but the tips are very helpful for any gardener.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 31, 2021 Susan Beecher rated it it was amazing

I found this book to be one of the most helpful books about landscape restoration that I have read. It is more about designing gardens with native plants but he talks a lot about his experiences in really "reading" what wants to grow in a particular place and starting from there. Highly recommend. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2022 Margie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, gardening, science-environment-nature

I've read many of the popular and helpful books about ecological/naturalistic gardening (Tallamy, Rainer, Oudolf, etc) but I've found them either too simple or too theoretical. This was the first that helped me understand how to approach figuring out exactly how to make it work in my own garden. Weaner frequently works on a much larger scale than the average home gardener but the principles still apply. This book might be a bit overwhelming for a new gardener but if you're looking for something ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2020 Lynette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was an absolute revelation. It's full of practical advice for returning landscapes to native plantings, while still retaining maximum aesthetic value and usability. I can't wait to get started applying some of the techniques in my own garden. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 20, 2019 Pattee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: master-gardener

This is an important book. The subtitle, “How our landscapes can be a source of environmental change,” is the key to understanding the value of what’s written here – how we garden to change the environment using principles of sustainable landscaping. The author’s nod their heads to Rachel Carson as they espouse what they call ‘ecological gardening.’ They refer to this as using age-old laws of nature to inform a new way to garden.

An ecologically driven garden is one that has minimal intervention This is an important book. The subtitle, “How our landscapes can be a source of environmental change,” is the key to understanding the value of what’s written here – how we garden to change the environment using principles of sustainable landscaping. The author’s nod their heads to Rachel Carson as they espouse what they call ‘ecological gardening.’ They refer to this as using age-old laws of nature to inform a new way to garden.

An ecologically driven garden is one that has minimal intervention and uses indigenous vegetation as its main ingredient. The landscape is transformed from one that consumes and pollutes the environment into a more flexible and sustainable one, facilitating biodiversity, cleaning stormwater, and giving homes to native wildlife. Give up micromanaging your yard and let nature dictate the inherent processes. I found this to be enlightening and offering a sense of freedom from garden “musts.” Check out pages 16-18 and be astonished.

The authors parse their work into three sections: the learning process, design, and in the field. The pages are accompanied by brilliant photographs of landscapes that are examples of the beauty of working with and not against the environment. The book’s end matter includes resources for garden ecologists (with a bow to Doug Tallamy), sources and suggested readings, and a comprehensive index.

I especially liked the detailed instructions for creating new, native landscapes. First, trace the history of your property, examining its ecology, thinking about what and how to preserve natural elements. Think through criteria for plant selection. Take advantage of native ecology, facilitating the inherent synergy among plants. Know your soil. Include ideas for transition zones and aesthetics of the whole. Use grasses, shrubs, herbaceous plants native to the landscape, trees, wildflowers, sedges. Practice natural recruitment of plants first, before resorting to purchase of the same.

And learn to practice patience. Ask yourself what might happen if you do nothing? Observe over time the progress of your landscape. This book will be an often turned-to staple in my master garden bookcase.
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2019 EB rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gardening

This is the first gardening book I've read that has introduced the concept of time to garden planning. It's obvious that nature is constantly changing, but when we plan gardens we assume that they are static. The author proposes that we should welcome the changes/evolution of our gardens when they happen and that we can even encourage specific kinds of changes.

This is not the first book I'd recommend if you want to learn about native plant gardening (that's Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home: How N ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2017 Geoff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017, plants, favorites, read-twice

This is my new favorite gardening book. I liked it so much, I read it twice. The book emphasizes the natural succession of area and ways to assist or reverse that succession.

The two key takeaways I took from the book are.
1. "If I do nothing, what will happen". Which, to me means, if the gardener makes no attempts to alter the landscape, what will naturally grow there? Also, aiding the gardener in developing an eye to survey the plants that are already successfully growing in an area and keeping ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 11, 2019 Kathy Averbeck rated it liked it

As we are planning our landscape for our new house currently being built, I decided to educate myself about how to create a more natural landscape that will be more environmentally friendly than the typical lawn and ornamental plantings that do nothing to sustain the "critters" that are the bottom of the food chain of the wildlife that is rapidly disappearing. A natural landscape is also easier to maintain. This book discussed a lot of considerations that I would not have known about, a lot that ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 30, 2021 Candice rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nature, botany

Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change by Larry Weaner is a truly excellent book for helping you create native meadows, shrub lands and forest. ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 15, 2020 Anieta rated it it was amazing

Turn your lawn or field into native prairie or woods--you decide. And Larry Weaner will tell you how to get there, no matter the current state of your land. And the end result will benefit the critters among us, and ultimately save our own world.

NOTE: if you plan to get there on your own, plan to spend a lot of time outside for a few years, but after that, instead of fighting nature you will nurture Nature and Nature will nurture you as well.

flag Like · see review

May 30, 2021 Lauren Csaki rated it it was amazing

Game-changing. I’ve been reading a lot in this genre lately and this has been by far the best book I’ve read so far. Not just theory but real, practical advice, and interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout. His method is fascinating, and though it’s compatible with so many related books which basically urge us to plant more natives, it goes way beyond that. Right after finishing I pretty much wanted to start reading it all over again! A lot to digest...

flag Like · see review

Jan 12, 2022 Ann rated it really liked it

I love the philosophy throughout this book. Many gorgeous pictures helped illustrate the points. It’s not a plant database, and there really wasn’t much discussed about ecological interactions with insects, but for aesthetic landscape planning, it really hit the spot. Read this cover to cover, it’s not just a picture book.

flag Like · see review

Jan 15, 2021 Jodi Tooke rated it it was amazing

The author provides extensive details and examples of how to partner with nature to nurture our landscapes. Interpreting your landscape as a song rather than a painting provides a more constructive model for ecologically-friendly gardening.

flag Like · see review

Mar 29, 2022 Jenni rated it really liked it

The main focus of this book isn't something I'll be able to implement anytime soon (basically the design and planting of large, open meadows) but I found the overall ecological philosophy and science really inspiring and helpful to small-scale gardening. ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 29, 2017 Ellenh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An inspiring book suggesting a more natural way to garden in larger spaces.

flag Like · see review

Dec 27, 2018 Patricia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A great reference for those wanting a garden without all the remediation that other garden books want you to do. Weaners premise is simple - work with what you have and be smart.

flag Like · see review

Aug 11, 2019 Anna Hargrave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Phenomenal. Explanations about native garden design beyond a list of plants, really gets to the hows/whys/using natural functionality instead of labor. Fantastic book!

flag Like · see review

Oct 09, 2019 Alison added it · review of another edition

Weeds will give up after three years if you just keep pulling them up. You dont have to get every piece of root. Hmmmm

flag Like · see review

Mar 20, 2020 Lynn Landry rated it it was amazing

A must read for any gardener.

flag Like · see review

Apr 13, 2020 David Winston added it

Larry is a very knowledgeable guy in this field. Always something to learn from him

flag Like · see review

Oct 03, 2021 db rated it really liked it

Excellent resource - inspiring!

flag Like · see review

Oct 04, 2016 Mhd added it · review of another edition

Shelves: garden, did-not-finish

This book is well written and nicely illustrated. There are several fine issues discussed--I do believe that every single gardener needs to be an agent of environmental responsibility. However, the examples and illustrations are almost exclusively large scale (40 acres?!) and regionally from Pennsylvania. Chapters include designing meadows and creating woodlands: nice things but hardly useful to me in the Southwest, suburban on not. I believe the subtitle should reflect the seemingly narrow focu ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 22, 2016 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: garden-books, science, self-reliant-life

Using native plants is a big deal in gardening these days. I have been reading about native plants for about ten years now – Native Plants of the Northeast, by Donald J. Leopold, Wildflowers in Your Garden, by Viki Ferreniea, Landscaping with Native Trees, by Jim Wilson, and Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas Tallamy, to name a few of the excellent books I have found. Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, by C. Colston Burrell, published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, has been my go-to source f Using native plants is a big deal in gardening these days. I have been reading about native plants for about ten years now – Native Plants of the Northeast, by Donald J. Leopold, Wildflowers in Your Garden, by Viki Ferreniea, Landscaping with Native Trees, by Jim Wilson, and Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas Tallamy, to name a few of the excellent books I have found. Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, by C. Colston Burrell, published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, has been my go-to source for evaluating plants before I buy them. I have planted butterfly milkweed and summersweet, purple coneflowers and bleeding heart, and other native shrubs and perennials for both my sunny and shady areas. I have ripped out multiflora rose, a tenacious invasive. Larry Weaner and Thomas Christopher’s new book, Garden Revolution, takes the practice of using natives in our home gardens to another level. Starting a landscaping project with a preconceived picture of the finished project, they say, is like going on a first date and spending the evening telling the other person about you. Dates tend to turn out better when there is conversation, give and take between the two people. And landscapes are more successful when the gardener pays attention to what the existing landscape has to offer, instead of just imposing an agenda on that landscape. Characterized by a “brains over brawn” approach, these methods have a gardener spend time with a site, evaluating what is already present, and researching and observing what the site was used for in the past. Then, a testing process goes into effect, especially if a large area is concerned, to see what kinds of seeds already wait in the soil to sprout. And finally, working with your site, you create the garden working with nature. It’s a step further than simply looking up what plants are native to your area and planting them. It is what has happened in my garden when I stopped mowing the grass in an area that had formerly been part lawn, shaded, and part buildings which were torn down. At first, I put in some hosta and other shade-loving plants. Some lived, and many did not. But soon, small trees started to sprout. I had to research to find out that they were redbuds. Our next-door neighbor has a single redbud in the yard between our houses, but I don’t see them in the woods behind our house, or anywhere else nearby. But I have lots and lots of them, now all over the yard, every year. At first, I let them grow, all of them, as a sort of privacy hedge, like a shrub. Now they are really trees, and I have a full understory. Mine is a very, very simple illustration, and definitely a work in progress, but it shows a bit of how you can create a garden in which nature can work over time. This book would interest anyone who has an interest in using native plants in their home landscape, and there is extensive information about creating meadows, in particular. It made me think more deeply about how I use native plants, and I plan to continue to refer to it, and to look for anything else these authors have written. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 08, 2016 Erin rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, heal-the-world, quit-reading, gardening, netgalley, ebooks

I love what Larry Weaner has to say about changing how we view landscapes and gardening. I'm fully on board with making gardening easier in the long run by paying attention to natural cycles and patterns, planting with succession in mind, etc. I would love to find a book with this same philosophy applied to ordinary suburban yards instead of just large properties with acreage, however, particularly focused on the Pacific NW instead of the New England NE.

Bottom line: I'm glad I stumbled across t ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 05, 2016 Tara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I saw this book mentioned in an article in "Good Housekeeping" (magazine) and thought it looked interesting. It was interesting, but it read more like a textbook that they decided to put out in the mainstream.

Almost no information for suburban type gardeners, in spite of a few pictures. Almost all the information was on "landscape scale" gardening (think acreage).

Also, if you look on Goodreads for "Garden Revolution" you won't find it. Check out the disparity between the book cover and what Go ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 02, 2016 Katie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gardening, nature

This book was well written, informative and had gorgeous pictures. What more can you ask for? I thought the author could have spent at little more time talking about why native plant gardening creates positive environmental change, but the reality is that most people who pick up this book are will already know enough about this and won't need to be convinced. The author has a lot of expertise to share. I hope he writes more books on the topic. The resources section has some good suggestions for ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 30, 2016 Esther Marie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016, wishlist

This is definitely my philosophical/ideological wavelength. Really densely-packed with information and wonderful. Another reviewer commented that the book is "textbook-like" and that's accurate. This is not a light and fluffy gardening book.

Garden Revolution is appropriate for experienced gardeners looking for a paradigm shift and some practical advice as well as those who have academic or personal interest in ecology as it relates to garden planting, landscape design, and land management. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 26, 2016 Anna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: land-arch

5 stars isn't enough. Anyone with any access to land and an open mind about surpassing all the inefficiencies of horticulture as we know it should read this. Larry Weaner is to landscape design as Masanobu Fukuoka was to permaculture. Observe and do nothing before taking action. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 24, 2016 Rebecca rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I like the idea of natural garden space...but the intense weeding for the first few years is a little off putting. My attempt at a small wildflower garden was a weed patch.

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 next »