The Good Garden: How To Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food—All in Your Own Backyard

Author, master gardener, and flower/fiber farmer McLaughlin (Growing Heirloom Flowers; A Garden To Dye For) offers a wide-ranging introduction to sustainable gardening practices. She covers the various types of eco-friendly gardens, beneficial insects, and wildlife, from amphibians to birds, along with best practices for extending the growing season, watering, and welcoming pollinators. She shares multiple low-impact techniques for dealing with weeds and pests, plus information about soils and their properties, composting, growing vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers, beekeeping, and raising small domestic animals, such as chickens and rabbits. She includes helpful charts such as “Butterfly Caterpillar Host Plants.” She also explains ways to make sustainable gardens palatable to neighbors and how to share these techniques with them and the wider community. At the end, there’s an extensive list of resources for gardeners who would like to delve deeper into these topics. The book is suitable for both beginners and experienced gardeners who want to garden more ecologically.