The California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds, and Other Animals

by Nancy Bauer

This attractive, practical guide explains how to transform backyard gardens into living ecosystems that are not only enjoyable retreats for humans, but also thriving sanctuaries for wildlife. Beautifully illustrated with full-color photographs, this book provides easy-to-follow recommendations for providing food, cover, and water for birds, bees, butterflies, and other small animals. Emphasizing individual creativity over conventional design, Bauer asks us to consider the intricate relationships between plants and wildlife and our changing role as steward, rather than manipulator, of these relationships.

In an engaging narrative that endorses simple and inexpensive methods of wildlife habitat gardening, Nancy Bauer discusses practices such as recycling plant waste on site, using permeable pathways, growing regionally appropriate plants, and avoiding chemical fertilizers and insecticides. She suggests ways of attracting pollinators through planting choices and offers ideas for building water sources and shelters for wildlife. A plant resource guide, tips for propagating plants, seasonal plants for hummingbirds, and host plants for butterflies round out The California Wildlife Habitat Garden , making it an indispensable primer for those about to embark on creating their own biologically diverse, environmentally friendly garden.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Kevin Leung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s helpful to have specific local advice on gardening. As much as I would like to have general knowledge, it seems that gardening can be quite specific to the region and plants that best fit the area. I’m probably not even at the point of fully appreciating how to attract wildlife and need more basic familiarity with gardening, but there were good ideas in here nonetheless.

[Ashley C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a joy to read and had plenty of examples and indexes to help plan out a garden space. I’m a novice Gardner, let alone a California native Gardner. This book helped me understand the way the plants effect the ecosystem and how we can help be a part of that.

[Alex111 · Rating 1 out of 5]

She is disgusting prostitutie

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book must be great, I'm mentioned in the Acknowledgements!

Who will like this book - 1) like gardening, OR 2) interested in attracting wildlife (insects to mammals), OR 3) interested in making a more eco-friendly yard. This would be particularly good for a newcomer to California.

This is half inspiration, half instruction. The author focuses on creating an environment for wildlife. The author is not a purist for native plants and some of her ecological knowledge (true native ecosystems) is a bit weak, but this would be a great starter book. It would also be a nice addition for the focus on animals.

(We have a small native garden in Sunnyvale (Silicon Valley) but I am not a gardener.)

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

examples of California native plants that should be used and why and what they will attract to the garden