Books
The Climate Conscious Gardener
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2010
Fertilizer, pesticides, power equipment, irrigation—these practices and more give the typical garden a carbon footprint that can be surprisingly large. One of the least explored aspects of sustainable landscaping is how to create gardens that are carbon neutral and even carbon negative. This book shows you how.
The Wildlife Gardener’s Guide
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2008
My backyard adventures with hummingbirds, Monarchs, moths, bumblebees, (surprise!) beetles, and other lovely pollinators is chronicled in this Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbook. You also find out how I lured them to my yard and how you can do it, too.
Plant
Dorling Kindersley, 2005
This just may be the most sumptuous book about plants ever published. In it, I and about two dozen of the world’s leading botanists tell the story of 2,000 plants that are dying out in the wild but alive—and in some cases thriving—in gardens. Message for gardeners: You can help save imperiled plants.
Stalking the Wild Amaranth: Gardening in the Age of Extinction
Henry Holt, 1998
In 1990 I set out with a colleague in search of the seabeach amaranth, one of the world’s most endangered plants, which hadn’t been seen on Long Island beaches for 40 years. After days of sunburn and blisters, we stumbled across a specimen in glamorous Southampton. It had just been squashed by an SUV. This got me thinking about the history of gardening, and its future.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Gardener’s Desk Reference
Henry Holt, 1998
A concise encyclopedia of plants and garden techniques, and the first major horticultural reference book to make the case for natural gardening.
Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1996
One of my proudest achievements as Director of Publishing at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, this handbook helped put the problem of invasive plants on the radar screen of professional and home gardeners alike.
Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2006
For all the folks who read Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Invasive Plants handbook and want to know what the alternatives are, this book’s for you.
Your Natural Home
Little, Brown, 1995
I collaborated with architect Paul Bierman-Lytle on this guide to green building materials and where to find them.
Going Native
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1994
I asked pioneers of sustainable landscaping across the U.S. to design a small suburban or city garden that promotes a healthy diversity of plants and animals. They did—garden plans, plant lists, and all.
The Environmental Gardener
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1992
A primer on sustainable gardening, before it was even called sustainable.
The Naturally Elegant Home
Little, Brown, 1992
For this, my first book, I combed the country for beautiful homes and gardens that preserve and even restore nature instead of always degrading and destroying it. Not a bad assignment.
Some Articles
Guardian Angels — May/June 2010
Planting Perfume for Pollinators — May 2010
Enjoying the Nightlife — April/May 2008
Green Roofs Take Root — January 2008
The Orchid Keepers — May/June 2007
Close Encounters of the Reptilian Kind — Summer 2006
The Lovable Lumbering Bumblebee — Summer 2000
Rest Stops for the Weary — October 2001
Good to the Last Drop — September 2003
The Dirt on Mulch — Summer 2007
Turning up the Heat on Your Property — December/January 2007
Blowing in the Wind — April/May 2007
Homegrown Biodiversity — April 2006
Power Plants — Summer 2003
Adopt a Plant — Autumn 2005
