Andy Wasowski with Sally Wasowski, Foreword by Darrel G. Morrison, FASLA
This is the paperback edition of Building within Nature’s Envelope.
The Wasowski’s have always been on the forefront of the native plants/landscaping movement. It’s more than aesthetics and conservation, it goes to our regional identity. There is something special about being able to identify a landscape with its location. How boring is it to have landscapes and lawns that do not vary from coast to coast or border to border? The Wasowski’s write from their experience building a home in New Mexico while trying to limit the loss of the native plant life, and look at other projects across the country.
From the publisher:
"Building within Nature opens up a world of natural options to the mowing, watering, and weeding of a traditional lawn.
Every year, many thousands of acres of woodlands, deserts, meadowlands, and coastal scrub are turned into home or commercial sites. Ironically, by the time these structures are complete, bulldozers have scraped the land clean of its natural vegetation and character, the very features that attracted buyers in the first place. In Building within Nature, Andy and Sally Wasowski introduce new and exciting techniques for preserving the natural land on which we build new homes, offices, or even shopping centers.
Building within Nature stresses that the unnatural landscapes so common in America literally exist on artificial life support. A natural landscape, on the other hand, is filled with native flora and can exist on rainfall alone. A structure built within nature looks as if it has been gently set down into a mature and established landscape—the easiest kind of landscape to maintain. The Wasowskis illustrate this new concept in construction through profiles of sites in California, Arizona, South Carolina, Minnesota, and other locations in North America. They also highlight useful techniques for revegetation, discuss the importance of soils, and argue for the preservation and maintenance of natural habitats.
Building within Nature offers a practical blueprint for creating communities where both wildlife and human life thrive in a harmonious relationship.
About the authors:
Andy and Sally Wasowski are the authors of nine books about gardening and landscaping with native plants, including Gardening with Prairie Plants (2002). Their work has appeared in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens handbooks, Country America, National Gardening, Sierra, Audubon, American Gardener, and Fine Gardening.
Darrel G. Morrison, FASLA, is one our our most respected native plant landscape architects."
Paper, 176 pages, 7 x 10, full-color photographs, b&w photographs, March 2006.
