Wild Plant Culture: A Guide to Restoring Edible and Medicinal Native Plant Communities - Paperback

by Jared Rosenbaum (Author)

Reconnect. Restore. Reciprocate. Repairing landscapes and reconnecting us to the wild plant communities around us.

Integrating restoration practices, foraging, herbalism, rewilding, and permaculture, Wild Plant Culture is a comprehensive guide to the ecological restoration of native edible and medicinal plant communities in Eastern North America.

Blending science, practice, and traditional knowledge, it makes bold connections that are actionable, innovative, and ecologically imperative for repairing both degraded landscapes and our broken cultural relationship with nature. Coverage includes:

• Understanding and engaging in mutually beneficial human-plant connections
• Techniques for observing the land's existing and potential plant communities
• Baseline monitoring, site preparation, seeding, planting, and maintaining restored areas
• Botanical fieldwork restoration stories and examples
• Detailed profiles of 209 native plants and their uses.

Both a practical guide and an evocative read that will transport you deep into the natural landscape, Wild Plant Culture is an essential toolkit for gardeners, farmers, and ecological restoration practitioners, highlighting the important role humans play in tending and mending native plant communities.

AWARDS

• SILVER 2023 Nautilus Book Awards Green, Restorative Practices / Sustainability
  
• HONORABLE MENTION 2023 American Horticultural Society Book Awards

Back Jacket

RECONNECT. RESTORE. RECIPROCATE.
REPAIRING LANDSCAPES AND RECONNECTING US TO LOCAL WILD PLANT COMMUNITIES.

A brilliant approach to ecological restoration simultaneous with food production! -- MARK SHEPARD, author, Restoration Agriculture

An uncommonly thorough reference book, a primer on plant ecology, restoration biology, and the medicinal and edible properties of Mid-Atlantic plants.... Much more than that, it is thought-provoking, aspirational and the first chapter alone is worth the price of the book. -- DOUG TALLAMY, author, Bringing Nature Home

INTEGRATING RESTORATION PRACTICES, foraging, herbalism, rewilding, and permaculture, Wild Plant Culture is a comprehensive guide to the ecological restoration of native edible and medicinal plant communities in eastern North America.

Blending science, practice, and traditional knowledge to repair both degraded landscapes and our broken cultural relationship with nature, coverage includes:

• Mutually beneficial human-plant connections
• Observing the land's existing and potential plant communities
• Site preparation, seeding, planting, and maintaining restored areas
• Compelling stories of wild plant communities and restoration projects
• Detailed profiles of over 200 native plants and their edible and medicinal uses.

Both a practical guide and an evocative read that will transport you deep into the natural land- scape, Wild Plant Culture is an essential toolkit for gardeners, farmers, and ecological restoration practitioners, highlighting the important role humans play in tending and mending native plant communities.

This guidebook holds one of many pathways to healing the ecological wounds of colonialism. -- SAM THAYER, author, The Forager's Harvest

A cornucopia of useful information, from soils and land use history to plant inventories and their invaluable uses, and the tools to help you learn more. -- KELLY KINDSCHER, ethnobotanist, University of Kansas, author, Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie

Jared Rosenbaum is a botanist, ecological restoration practitioner, and co-founder of Wild Ridge Plants, a native plant nursery and consulting business in Alpha, New Jersey. He blogs at wildplantculture.com.

Author Biography

Jared Rosenbaum is a botanist, native plant grower, and ecological restoration practitioner. He and his wife run Wild Ridge Plants LLC, which grows local ecotype native plants using sustainable practices, performs botanical surveys, and provides ecological restoration planning services. Jared has extensive experience in stewardship and monitoring of natural communities. He is known as an educator in plant ecology, ecological restoration, and the cultural uses of wild plant foods and medicines. Jared is the author of two prior books on native plants, including the children's book The Puddle Garden, and maintains an active blog at wildplantculture.com. He is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner by the Society for Ecological Restoration. He lives in New Jersey.