1. Sustainable Landscaping
2. Sustainability in the Plantscape
3. The Sun and the Sustainable Landscape
4. The Wind and Energy Conservation
5. Water Issues
6. Water Conservation
7. Managing Excess Water in the Landscape
8. Soil Health
9. Sustainable Fertilization
10. Improving Landscape Soils with Organic Matter
11. Pesticides in the Landscape
12. Integrated Pest Management
13. Energy: Sources and Uses
14. Tools and Equipment
15. Sustainable Landscape Materials and Products
Appendix A. Sustainability Audit
Appendix B. Important Websites
Biography
Dr. Marietta Loehrlein is Professor Emeritus of Horticulture and Landscaping at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois.
While there, she developed a new course, Sustainable Landscaping, for which there were no textbooks at the time. So, she undertook the project to write a textbook that would be immediately pertinent to the topic. She didn’t want to simply address the “how-to” of sustainable landscaping, but also to examine the related issues, such as: energy sources, landscape tools, equipment, and materials, and soil- and water-related environmental issues.
Her half-acre backyard is a showcase of sustainable landscaping practices: she has reduced what had been an all-turf lawn area by planting a small prairie, a small woodland, and many species of native trees and shrubs. The stream that runs through the property supports a riparian community that facilitates spring bird migration. The native garden areas support a large number of wildlife species, some of which are never seen, as they are nocturnal and/or live subterranean habitats. However, ground-dwelling bees and at least a dozen species of songbirds are regularly seen. It is both a pollinator-friendly area, and also a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
Dr. Loehrlein previously published Home Horticulture: Principles and Practices (Cengage). She is an Evansville, Indiana native, earned her college degrees at the University of Arizona (B.S., M.S.) and The Pennsylvania State University (Ph. D.), and was a Research Associate in a fruit tree breeding program in central California for SunWorld, International. She holds a patent on the regal pelargonium ‘Camelot’.
