“Sustainable Food Gardens," Robert Kourik’s new book, is a must-have for those who want to raise their own food in an environmentally-friendly manner.

Rebecca McMackin, director of horticulture at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, acknowledges that the common understanding of a city park is of a lawn, picnic tables and sports fields, and her park has all those things. But, she adds, there is much more there as well. Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the most innovative urban landscapes in the United States, an example of how humanity can be accommodated in partnership with wildlife and native ecosystems, with all these elements shaped by a concern for sustainability.

This past summer was one of record-breaking rainfall in my corner of Western Massachusetts — our dirt road washed out three times, and our garden soil was too wet to work much of the time. I can’t do much about my road, other than express my gratitude to the town crew that put it right. But I can adapt my garden, with the help of Ginny Stibolt and Sue Reed’s book, "Climate-Wise Landscaping."

We don’t bother often with the nuanced distinctions of morning versus afternoon sun, or the seasonal changes in the sunlight, let alone the changes, subtle but still quite distinct, that transpire from day to day.