Last time, I wrote a little bit about Joe Lamp’l’s book the Green Gardener’s Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Perserve Our Planet.  Let’s finish up, shall we? The chapter that really got my attention is Chapter 7: Gardening to Protect the Ecosystem. Now here, I thought, Lamp’l could start to lose the casual gardener. This has potential to get preachy maybe, or so scientific as to turn people off. Nope. He very easily explains our garden food webs and their importance.  He also explains why monocultures are bad, why heirloom plants are good, why you shouldn’t use bug zappers, and a whole lot more.

I often see lists on websites or in magazines about what gardeners should or shouldn’t do to protect the environment. What is lacking in most of those is the background information as to why something is either good or bad for the planet. And that is why I give high marks to this book; the easy way he explains why you should avoid invasive non-native plants (they are one of the biggest threats to biodiversity in the US), and the reasons why you should leave dead trees standing (they provide homes for native wildlife, among others).

Do yourself or a loved one a favor: Come to our Sustainability Symposium, hear Joe speak, get a copy of this book, and read it. You will be glad you did.

And just keep counting down the days ’til spring…