Welcoming Wildlife to the Garden: Creating Backyard and Balcony Habitats for Wildlife

by Catherine J. Johnson, Susan McDiarmid, Edward R. Turner (Illustrations)

"Welcoming Wildlife to the Garden" is a backyard ecologist's handbook for helping wildlife thrive in the backyard or on the balcony. The book takes readers through the planning, design, and realization stages of creating wildlife habitats, using ecologically sound gardening and landscaping techniques, and 46 projects for housing and feeding birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. "Welcoming Wildlife to the Garden" teaches readers not only how to enhnace their garden but also how to encourage the survival of many native plant and animal species in North America, creating important pathways for wildlife, one garden at a time. The layperson will find the writing style and content entirely approachable, and there are loads of photographs, ilustrations, diagrams and sidebars to make the abundance of information easily digestible.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2004

Reviews

[Patsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference book

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This week I’ve been reading Welcoming Wildlife to the Garden and I can’t wait for warm weather so I can try some of their suggestions on my balcony! The first thing I noticed about this book was that it had a lot more in common with A Spring Without Bees than I expected, even knowing they’re neighbors in the dewey decimal system, because this book was incredibly eco-friendly. The authors counsel against using pesticides, suggest Integrated Pest management (using natural predators to get rid of unwanted bugs, as suggested in A Spring Without Bees), and clearly love all animals – even the creepy crawly ones. Personally, I’ve always loved all animals and even think flies are cute when they wash their faces with their legs, kind of the way cats do. So finding a book which seemed to see the best in all animals was like finding a kindred spirit. They even explain how to attract snakes and spiders, which I think a lot of people really wouldn’t go for. I was ready to draw the line when they started talking about Crocodilians, but fortunately the authors didn’t suggest attracting crocodiles and alligators to your yard! Instead they observed that if these animals visit your backyard “that may be wildlife enough”, which made me laugh :)

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[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been poking at this since I got it but is due back soon. I like it; seems to have some good advice on multiple topics. I wish that its projects overlapped with min a bit more. May have to check it out in the future. Also not specific to this region which would enhance its appeal.

[Julie Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a gardener and one who loves to live in harmony with nature, I found this book enjoyable to read and full of useful information.