The Good Garden
How to Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food—All in Your Own Backyard
312 pages
8 x 10
150 color photos and illustrations
Book Description
What makes a garden good? For Chris McLaughlin, it’s about growing the healthiest, most scrumptious fruits and veggies possible, but it’s also about giving back. How can your little patch of Earth become a sanctuary for threatened wildlife, sequester carbon, and nurture native plants?
McLaughlin gives you all the tricks and tips you need to grow the sustainable garden of your dreams. Drawing from established traditions, such as permaculture and French intensive gardening, and McLaughlin’s hard-earned experience, The Good Garden is a joyful guide for newbies and experienced gardeners alike. It will teach you the fundamentals, including how to choose the right plant varieties for your microclimate, and proven methods to fight pests without chemicals. You will also discover the nuances of developing a green thumb, from picking species to attract specific types of pollinators to composting techniques based on time available. Lovely four-color photography will show you good gardening in action.
Most importantly, The Good Garden will help you foster a sense of meaning in your garden. Maybe the goal is to reduce food miles and plastic waste by growing delicious berries. Maybe it’s to meet neighbors who also care about the planet through a seed-swap. Maybe it’s a quiet moment patting the bunny whose manure will replace toxic fertilizers in the soil. A good garden offers endless possibilities and The Good Garden offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.
Review Quotes
"Chris McLaughlin’s words are like a breath of fresh air. The Good Garden contains information, as well as personal perspectives useful for gardeners of all levels…. there is something in this book for everyone."
American Gardener
"Enhanced with numerous lovely color photographs, this inviting book is a wonderful overview on sustainable gardening...suitable for both beginners and experienced gardeners who want to garden more ecologically."
Library Journal
"Exceptionally and impressively well written, organized, illustrated and presented, The Good Garden: How to Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food -- All in Your Own Backyard is a thoroughly 'user friendly' DIY instructional guide for gardening in all manner of circumstances"
Midwest Book Review
"Thorough guide for newbies and experienced gardeners alike. It teaches the fundamentals including how to choose the right plant varieties for your climate, proven methods to fight pests without chemicals, and much more."
Connecticut Bridgeport
"This is the perfect guide to get you started in understanding how your garden functions as a part of the ecosystem. It can help you create a space for all to enjoy—from the tiniest insects to the domestic animal helpers—and for yourself!"
Jessi Bloom, ecological designer and author of "Creating Sanctuary" and "Practical Permaculture"
"Chris McLaughlin understands that your garden is more than just a plot of land – it’s an ecosystem. In this positive, upbeat guide, she shows you how to nurture a thriving garden that includes native plants that support wildlife and how, in doing so, your own garden will reconnect to the greater ecosystem."
David Mizejewski, Naturalist, National Wildlife Federation
"From rain barrels to planting choices, this book guides you to endless gardening possibilities and doing it in an all-natural way. Chris has made gardening simple and easy for all."
Lisa Mason Ziegler, author of "Cool Flowers" and "Vegetables Love Flowers"
Contents
Introduction: What Makes a Good Garden?
Chapter 1. Choose and Combine Sustainable Gardening Styles
Chapter 2. Know Your Ecosystem
Chapter 3. Welcome Pollinators and Wildlife
Chapter 4. Control Weeds Naturally
Chapter 5. Keep the Bad Bugs at Bay
Chapter 6. Nourish Healthy Soil
Chapter 7. Cultivate Healthy Food
Chapter 8. Enlist Domestic Critters
Chapter 9. Build Community
Resources: Down the Sustainable Rabbit Hole
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Index
Events
Ask Me Anything Featuring Chris McLaughlin
Ask Me Anything Featuring Chris McLaughlin
Monday, 6 February 2023 - 3:00pm
Please join the University of California, Merced on Monday, 2/6 at 3 PM PDT for an AMA with Chris McLaughlin.
Biography: Chris McLaughlin has been gardening and studying plants for over thirty-five years. She’s the author of nine books. Her latest book is The Good Garden: How to Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food—All in Your Own Backyard. McLaughlin’s book promising to give you all the tricks and tips you need to grow the sustainable garden of your dreams.
Chris is the associate editor for From Scratch Magazine and a staff contributor to VegetableGardener.com. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Urban Farm Magazine, Hobby Farm Home Magazine, The Herb Companion, The Heirloom Gardener, and Fine Gardening Magazine.
Chris is the mother of four, grandmother of five, and lives on a small flower farm in Northern California’s Gold Country with her family and more animals than she will admit to. Between breaths, Chris attempts to keep up with her own website, Laughing Crow & Company.
Chris’s other books include: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables, Hobby Farms: Small-Space Rabbit Keeping, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Small-Space Gardening, Vertical Vegetable Gardening, A Garden to Dye For, Growing Heirloom Flowers, and Raising Animals for Fiber.
This virtual event is free and open to the public.
Can't attend, but have a question for them? Email emeyer4@ucmerced.edu the question.
Case Studies & Excerpts
Read Chapter 1: What Makes a Good Garden? below or download it here.