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Janet Marinelli's compelling history of the American landscape examines everything from the popular obsession with lawns to the sex life of plants. For example, much of the decline in plant diversity can be traced to the rise of asexual clones--one ubiquitous example is the Delicious apple--exacerbated by the American fondness for the neatly clipped garden, which discourages open pollination of the few remaining native plants. But Marinelli goes much deeper than mere statements of fact, using garden design as a metaphor that reveals changing social philosophies, from rationalist to romantic and back again, and sweeping Darwin, Einstein, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Gaia hypothesis into the mix. The latter half of the book concentrates on the past few decades of gardening and what changes in techniques and style have brought to the larger ecological communities. Never have the possible implications of the simple act of planting been made quite so entertaining.
"Not since Voltaire has anyone so eloquently proclaimed the wisdom and the necessity of cultivating our own gardens. Without exaggeration, herein lie the secrets of saving the world. And the greatest surprise is to find that so many of the truths have been at our fingertips all along." -- Roger Swain, science editor of Horticulture magazine and host of PBS's "Victory Garden"
"For centuries gardening was taught and practiced for the subjugation of nature. Today we are so conscious of crowding out native species that a new garden ethic is emerging -- one in concert with nature. Janet Marinelli's provocative book gives us a new view and the tools to further this revolution." -- Rosalind Creasy, author of The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping
"Janet Marinelli is a masterful storyteller. From ancient pleasure gardens, Versailles and Sissinghurst, to the cutting edge of landscape restoration, she creates an engaging and entertaining tale of horticulture and ecology through time and place. As we begin the new millennium, she illuminates the dilemmas, opportunities, and responsibilities we face as architects and tenders of the global garden." -- C. Colston Burrell, ecological designer and author of A Gardener's Encyclopedia of Wildflowers
"I loved Stalking the Wild Amaranth -- couldn't decide whether to ration myself to one chapter per day or race through nonstop. You'll know exactly why I took the path of least resistance as soon as you start reading Janet Marinelli's newest book. With her usual candor and purity of spirit, she has convinced me that my new garden in central Iowa can be as Old World formal as I might like and still be ecologically wise." -- Elvin McDonald, garden editor of Traditional Home magazine
"In Stalking the Wild Amaranth, Janet Marinelli extends the horizons for gardeners and their gardens to provide them with a clearer vision of these vital locations where, in her own words, '...we nurture nature as nature nurtures us...' Threads of garden history, horticulture, and ecology are woven into a highly readable narrative that gives both guidance and hope for a fresh approach to gardening that goes beyond mere aesthetics to our interaction with gardens as essential ecosystems. The result is a book which challenges the reader to be not only a gardener, but an informed participant in the living landscape." -- Henry W. Art, Samuel Fessenden Clark Professor of Biology at Williams College and author of A Garden of Wildflowers: 101 Native Species and How to Grow Them
"In Stalking the Wild Amaranth, Janet Marinelli enlightens and delights us with discourse on our gardening past. More importantly, she gives us nurturing food for thought about how as people who grow things we might become more effective caretakers of all that is green and growing in the global landscape that is our collective garden." -- Craig Tufts, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Habitat program and author of Backyard Naturalist
"Marinelli's carefully collected information and thoughtful analysis should be given to nature-deprived suburbia all over America!" -- Lorrie Otto, environmental consultant and teacher/naturalist
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