Great Resources

Useful tools to help you improve the health of your landscape

Kim Eierman

Kim Eierman

Founder of EcoBeneficial!

Available for virtual and in-person landscape consulting, talks and classes.

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Your Brain on Nature

Your Brain on Nature

For those of us who are plant geeks, it’s an easy decision to pick up yet another plant book on Amazon or at our local bookstore.  There are so many great books on plants (some of my favs on native plants were written by the brilliant William Cullina, now the Executive Director of Coastal Maine Botanical Garden).  But, we garden mavens rarely explore books on nature or ecology.  Here is a “nature” book that is well worth reading:  Your Brain on Nature: The Science of Nature’s Influence on Your Healthy, Happiness, and Vitality.  The authors are Eva Selhub and Alan Logan.  Dr. Selhub is a Clinical Associate of the Benson Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Alan Logan is a naturopathic doctor and researcher.

Your Brain on Nature is touted as an antidote for the technology-addicted (most of us!) and quite fascinating.  The author’s explore biophilia, the human bond with nature, and reveal how being in nature not only makes us feel better, but contributes to our physical health.  One chapter cites “forest bathing” studies in Japan which “have confirmed that spending time within a forest setting can reduce psychological stress, depressive symptoms, and hostility, while at the same time improving sleep and increasing both vigor and a feeling of liveliness.”

If you needed another reason to take a walk in the woods or dig in your garden, this book will provide it!

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Useful Terminology for Native Gardening

Confused about the terminology associated with native gardening?  If you are, it’s not surprising, since there are numerous definitions just for the simple word “native.”  Native, non-native, exotic, alien, naturalized – these terms, and others, are often misused. Hopefully the following explanations will clear up some confusion! Terminology for “Native”…

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Shopper’s Protest Cards from Maryland Native Plant Society

  Have you ever been to a garden center or nursery looking for a native plant, only to be told they don’t carry it.  Then you search another nursery,  another garden center, and another, and another  –  in an endless, futile search for a plant that is supposed to be…

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The Bee Informed Partnership

Honey bees (Apis millifera) have become an important part of our agricultural system in the United States – the economic value of honey bee pollination is estimated to be between $10 billion and $15 billion annually. A non-native species, honey bees were first brought to North America in 1622 by…

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