A Practical Guide to Caring for an Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden
The Master Gardener’s Bookshelf
Your Natural Garden: A Practical Guide to Caring for an Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden by Kelly D. Norris
Review by Susan Wilhelm, Extension Master Gardener
“You may not believe you can change the world, but you can plant your corner of it into a beautiful, vibrant place for life as you know it.” Kelly D. Norris
Author Kelly D. Norris describes Your Natural Garden: A Practical Guide to Caring for an Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden as a “a primer for cultivating an ecological garden.” However, this is not your standard “how-to” book.
Instead, in a series of essays, Norris discusses principles, concepts, and methods designed to help gardeners rethink gardening with a focus on how the garden contributes to the local ecosystem while benefiting the humans who care for it.
Ecological or naturalistic (natural) gardens are modeled after naturally occurring wild spaces in the geographic area in which they are located. Norris says that rather than a collection of individual plants, natural gardens revolve around the interaction of plant communities as part of “a greater ecological system” with the “potential to collectively support and enhance biodiversity in significant ways.” Norris likens the role of the gardener in natural gardens to a “keystone species” whose role is “to preserve the structure of an ecological community.”
Your Natural Garden is organized around four themes: Place, how the garden fits into the surrounding ecosystem; Complexity, how different plant species interact with one another and their environment; Legibility, what the garden looks like; and Flow, how the garden changes over time as plants (and wildlife) move in and out of it.
Each essay discusses the theme generally and then examines specific components for consideration in carrying it out. For example, Place “determines what kind of landscape is possible and what plants will thrive given these circumstances.” Its components include becoming a natural gardener, site preparation, soil, and what to know about plants.
Norris points out that “natural gardens come in many forms and come to life through various methods.” He suggests reading Place first, as “[u]nderstanding the context of where the garden is located brings natural gardening into focus.” After Place, readers should consider the rest of the book as “a series of prompts” to guide future thinking given the gardener’s individual circumstances and goals.
Natural gardens with their dense plantings look different from traditional gardens. Therefore, planting in a way that builds knowledge and local acceptance is important, especially for gardeners in urban areas where the approval of neighbors or homeowner associations can be an issue. Norris says that aesthetics and ecology can go hand in hand and proposes various strategies for doing so, such as combining flowering plants with greenery and repeating planting patterns. Fabulous photos of Norris’ own home garden in Des Moines, Iowa, and other natural gardens throughout the book demonstrate just how beautiful natural gardens can be.
Norris says he hopes his book “starts conversations.” It made me think differently about my own garden and would serve as a great study guide for a group of gardeners working to create or expand natural gardens.
Your Natural Garden: A Practical Guide to Caring for an Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden (Cool Springs Press, 2025) is available from the Alexandria Library, the Arlington Public Library, the Fairfax County Public Library, and national booksellers.
Check out these Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia resources to learn more about plants that attract wildlife: