Chapter 9: Garden Design and Maintenance

Anderson, E. 1952. Plants, Man and Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. 251 pp. This personal account of the author’s travels, observations, and philosophy made a deep impression on us when we were starting our professional careers. Every garden we have since designed for teaching, public demonstration or food production has been influenced by Anderson’s accounts of the Central American gardens he visited.

Carr, A. 1979. Rodale’s Color Handbook of Garden Insects. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press. 241 pp. Unfortunately, there is no single reference work that provides good color photos of the beneficial insects you should be looking for in the garden. But Carr’s book includes many beneficials, and most of the photos are excellent. However, the book’s emphasis is on pests; you will have to glance at every page and flag the beneficials for later reference, because they are not gathered in any one section.

Kourik, R. 1986. Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally. Santa Rosa, Calif.: Metamorphic Press. 370 pp. This book, which we recommend highly, is an inspiring and reliable guide to practical methods of designing a healthy, beautiful garden that includes both ornamentals and vegetables. The book includes an excellent summary of the scientific literature on companion planting.