Great Resources
Useful tools to help you improve the health of your landscape
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!
More Great Resources
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Guides
Sometimes you need a gardening resource that is a quick read, providing distilled information that is useful, interesting, and well-written. Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) has excelled in publishing such books in the form of their garden guides. Over the years, BBG has published several dozen Garden Guides on topics ranging…
The Xerces Society & Attracting Native Pollinators
Honey bees in decline, Monarch Butterflies in crisis, major threats to certain species of native bees – these are the stories we frequently see in the news these days. Wouldn’t it be great to support an organization whose mission it is to protect creatures like bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and other…
Backyard Foraging
In the past decade we have been inspired to “grow local – eat local.” Why not take this idea a step further and eat even more of Mother Nature’s Bounty? If you have been reading this blog, you know that I enthusiastically recommend a number of edible native plants. In…