From Wasteland to Wonder—
a Book by Basil Camu
Easy ways we can help heal Earth in the sub/urban landscape
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The way we currently manage the suburban and urban landscape is creating a wasteland and harming the well-being of Earth. Fortunately, we have an alternative path: We can work with natural systems instead of working against them. By doing so, we can help heal Earth. We also save time and money because we perform fewer tasks and use fewer products. Best of all, these are simple things that anyone can do regardless of their knowledge or experience.
"In all of my years of reading environmental literature, I have never encountered writing as compelling and comprehensive, yet clear, accessible, and uplifting as Basil Camu’s From Wasteland to Wonder. Basil’s logic will overwhelm any lingering doubts you may have about this approach to landscaping and provide that kick in the pants so many of us need to take action."— Doug Tallamy, Ecologist and Author of Nature’s Best Hope
Why I'm giving the book away for free
I decided to give away this book for free as my act of reciprocity, my tiny way of saying “thank you” for the incredible privilege of being alive. The digital copy is fully free, and the hard copy costs only the amount necessary to cover printing and shipping costs.
I know many of you are generous people who will insist on paying something, perhaps as your own act of reciprocity. If that is you—and thank you in advance—you can do so in the form of a donation to our non-profit, Project Pando.
From Wasteland to Wonder is featured in
The New York Times
Rewilding Magazine
The Joe Gardener Show
A Way to Garden Podcast with Margaret Roach
Living Small by Laura Fenton
GoGreen Locally Podcast with Jenny Nichols
The Seattle Times
YourForest Podcast with Matthew Kristoff
The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast
Nature Revisited Podcast
Washington Gardener Magazine
JC Raulston Arboretum
Native Plants, Healthy Planet
Bird Hugger Podcast
About this Book
By the end of this book I hope to convince you of three points:
- The way we currently manage the suburban and urban landscape is creating a wasteland and harming the well-being of Earth.
- The landscape paradigms and practices outlined in this book do the opposite—they help heal Earth.
- When we work to help heal Earth, we save time and money because we are working with natural systems instead of against them.
What to expect in this book:
- Section 1: Four Fun Essays About Healthy Natural Systems
The essays in this section explain how the systems of photosynthesis and soil formation work and how they affect water, carbon, and all other life on land. Understanding these systems and relationships provides a knowledge base for everything that follows. These essays are meant to be entertaining and easy to understand. - Section 2: Four Not-So-Fun Essays About Broken Natural Systems
This section is a downer. My apologies in advance. In these essays I revisit the same systems from Section 1, but this time I illustrate how we are damaging them. These essays provide a foundation for why we need new paradigms and practices in the sub/urban landscape. - Section 3: Fast & Easy Ways to Help Heal Earth
This section provides tutorials and instructions for the easiest concepts that we can implement quickly on our properties to help heal Earth. This and the remaining sections are built on first-hand experience from me and my colleagues at Leaf & Limb and Project Pando since 2010. - Section 4: More Powerful Ways to Help Heal Earth
Here we learn about planting pocket forests and thickets from saplings, as well as meadows from seeds. By working with communities of plants instead of individual plants, we generate some unexpected benefits (including less maintenance as compared to the status quo) and increase our ability to help heal Earth by orders of magnitude. These actions also provide incredible beauty! A meadow in July is one of the loveliest things I have experienced. - Section 5: Lead & Inspire Communities to Help Heal Earth
For those who want to help shift paradigms even more, we can work with our communities to gather native seeds, raise them into trees, and give them away for free. The model outlined in this section, which we developed through our work at Project Pando, makes native plants more widely available. More importantly, it brings people together through a shared sense of purpose and community and has the power to change hearts and minds—and paradigms by extension.
I’m saving the best for last. After we transformed Leaf & Limb from a traditional tree service into what it is now, I found that caring for trees, soil, and the well-being of Earth yields a more beautiful world than what I had experienced previously. My life is full of joy and purpose; joy because I experience so many moments of wonder, and purpose because I feel empowered to help solve big issues using the spaces where I live, work, and play. My hope is that this book provides you with similar experiences.
Even More!
A Conversation With Basil
Setting the Stage—A Conversation About Why Change is Necessary
From Wasteland to Wonder—Easy Ways to Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape