Darrel Morrison is a renowned landscape designer and educator whose ecology-based approach has influenced generations of practitioners. He has taught ecology-based landscape design at University of Wisconsin-Madison (1969-1983) and University of Georgia (1983-2005). Morrison lived and worked in New York City from 2005 until 2015, and now lives in Madison, where he is an Honorary Faculty Associate in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin
Description
Although they are generally an articulate lot, garden and landscape people rarely write their autobiographies. So it is a pleasure to read this one by Darrel Morrison, one of the key people in what has been one of the greatest developments in our field for decades - the American native plant movement. This book is an insight into the changes that are being made in the way that landscapes are being planted in the USA.--Noel Kingsbury "Gardens Illustrated" Darrel Morrison traces the origins of nature-inspired design through his own education and 60-year career as a landscape architect and educator. Morrison's engaging writing reflects his passion for teaching, and rewards readers with lessons he harvested throughout life, from his Iowa farm roots to the legacies he's written in the landscape....Beauty of the Wild provides an abundance of lessons for gardeners and professionals alike in connecting ecology and design. Given the ever-growing popularity of the naturalistic garden movement, this insightful book is right on topic.--Kimberly Toscano "American Gardener" In a sense, all of our yards and gardens, no matter how old, represent an obliteration of the wild plant communities that once marked the land, none more poignantly lost than the American prairie. The prairie's demise is linked more to agriculture than urbanization, but still, we are trying in our limited and stumbling way to make up for the loss by planting perennials and grasses of native origin. We'd do well, then, to seek guidance from Darrel Morrison, who has spent a fruitful life designing with native flora and teaching others how to do the same.--Adrian Higgins "The Washington Post" Some gardeners react to any mention of ecological landscaping -- the merging of environmental science and art -- as if it were a compromise or concession meant to limit their creativity. Darrel Morrison, a landscape architect who has been practicing and teaching this philosophy for some five decades, begs to differ.--Margaret Roach "New York Times, In the Garden"