Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

“As practical as it is poetic. . . . an optimistic call to action.” —Chicago Tribune

Over time, with industrialization and urban sprawl, we have driven nature out of our neighborhoods and cities. But we can invite it back by designing landscapes that look and function more like they do in the wild: robust, diverse, and visually harmonious. Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West is an inspiring call to action dedicated to the idea of a new nature—a hybrid of both the wild and the cultivated—that can flourish in our cities and suburbs. This is both a post-wild manifesto and practical guide that describes how to incorporate and layer plants into plant communities to create an environment that is reflective of natural systems and thrives within our built world.

• Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change
• Planting: A New Perspective
• The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden
• Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded
• Dream Plants for the Natural Garden
• The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden
• Gardens of the High Line: Elevating the Nature of Modern Landscapes
• Toward an Urban Ecology: SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
• Sowing Beauty: Designing Flowering Meadows from Seed
• Professional Planting Design: An Architectural and Horticultural Approach for Creating Mixed Bed Plantings