Five of the best backyard birding books

Tips to attract more birds to your backyard

Winters can be hard on us, but have you ever wondered what our feathered friends go through when the temperatures drop and snow covers the ground and their normal sources of food?

For birds and other wildlife, winter is a difficult time and finding a reliable source of food often becomes a matter of life and death.

As more and more native plants disappear, bird feeders become more and more important to backyard birds.

In our garden, many of the traditional backyard birds are already busy stockpiling sunflower seeds in every nook and cranny they can find, whether its tree bark or tucked between crevices in garden benches and other secret backyard hideouts known only to them.

How successful we are in attracting birds and wildlife depends on many factors. Thankfully, many of these factors are within our control.

Blue Jay getting a little drink at the bird bath.

Providing habitat for our feathered friends, for example, is an ongoing project created over time. There are steps, however, we can take immediately to provide a safe haven for our woodland wildlife. A brush pile (click here for earlier post) is one such addition that will help bring in a greater variety of birds including owls and other predators (click for earlier post on attracting owls) that will begin to see it as a source of food in the form of mice and other small critters that call it home.

If you are looking to purchase one of these books, or any Gardening or birding book for that matter, be sure to check out the incredible selection and prices at alibris books.

A naturalized garden is an excellent way to entice birds through natural food sources. Here, a goldfinch feeds on sunflower seeds.

Native plants that include berries and fruit will attract fruit-eating birds and mammals that may not be attracted to our bird feeders. Please take a moment to read my complete story on using native plants in our garden

Winter is also the ideal time to learn more about helping out the wildlife that either call our gardens home or visit it on their neighbourhood rounds. The following are five of the best books available for backyard bird watchers and those who want to attract more of them to our yards. They are conveniently linked to Amazon, but many can be found or ordered through your local bookseller.

Alibris is an umbrella group of independent booksellers from the U.S. and the U.K. that provide exceptional deals on used books and music. Be sure to Also check Alibris for great prices on new and used books.

1) All About Backyard Birds: Eastern and Central regions.

Available in paperback new and used.

Most birders are familiar with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s excellent birding website and handy app on their smartphone. In fact, I doubt there are many serious birders who are not using the handy birding app to help us identify unusual birds in our garden either by sight and unusual markings, or through their many songs and calls. This book is based on that website, which has had more that 14 million unique users to date.

It’s perfect for a new birder, young and old.

The highly regarded book, published in 2017, has an impressive has a very positive rating with 60 on-line ratings.

The publisher notes that the book: “delivers best-in-class content and proven user-friendly formats. Each regional version – eastern/central North America and western North America – provides 120 of the most popular species and is filled with beautiful illustrations by Pedro Fernandes. With charts, maps, and other bird identification tools, All About Backyard Birds offers beginner birders the ideal way to start birding.”

The book also includes a tutorial for the MERLIN app (available for free on line) already being used by more than 1 million birders.

A portion of the net proceeds for the sale of the book goes directly to the Cornell Lab to support projects, including children’s educational and community programs.

2) National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America, 2nd Edition.

Available in paperback both new and used for very reasonable prices.

This is another top notch general source for backyard birders, and it’s hard to go wrong with any product from National Geographic. For travellers, at least in North America, this guide offers an excellent source of information.

The publisher writes: “This comprehensive and beloved guide reveals the most ubiquitous and remarkable species of North American birds, clearly organized by family and paired with identification tips, behaviour, vocal descriptions, and more. The new edition features a "Backyard Basics" section from the world's most prolific birdwatcher, Noah Strycker, with tips on attracting and feeding your favourite birds and creating bird-friendly landscapes. Also included are updated descriptions of 150 common North American species, paired with comprehensive range maps, as well as lush indentification artwork and bite-sized facts. With new contributions from Strycker and a modern redesign, the second edition of this perennial favourite will appeal to new and experienced bird enthusiasts alike.

3) The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible: The A-to-Z Guide To Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects And Treats.

Available in both hardcover and paperback both new and used formats.

Rodale has always been a strong publisher when it comes to gardening books. I have a number of them that I go back to on a regular basis. In fact, Landscaping with Nature, Using Nature’s Designs to Plan Your Yard by Jeff Fox published by Rodale Press, was my go-to book for planning and designing much of my woodland gardening book going back at least ten years ago. The book explains the fine details of creating a natural garden right down to using classical music to place large boulders in your garden. It’s proven to be a very valuable resource.

The author of the Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible, Sally Roth, will help guide backyard birders to focus on which foods attract which birds, hints on choosing and maintaining feeders and the best native fruit-bearing trees, flowers and shrubs to plant to attract birds.

The publisher writes: Pull up a chair next to the window looking out on your bird feeder and join author Sally Roth in an informative, inspirational, and often light-hearted look at the foods, feeders, and plants that invite birds to visit your feeding station.”

The author shares a lifetime’s worth of bird-feeding experience including how to identify birds at your feeder, and what foods are best for certain birds. She also includes tips on improving the attraction of your garden to birds.

4) National Wildlife Federation: Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, Expanded Second Edition.

Another outstanding book by the highly regarded National Wildlife Federation. It’s available in both Kindle and paperback forms, new and used for a very reasonable price.

If you are not familiar with the National Wildlife Federation, it is the largest U.S. nonprofit conservation organization, with 6 million members and 51 state affiliated organizations.

This book takes backyard birding to another level by urging readers to – not unlike this blog – create a backyard that is more nature-friendly by providing habitats for local wildlife, not just birds. The book includes 17 step-by-step projects that brings the entire family back to nature with easy projects. The book explores wildlife-friendly practices and how to attract backyard pollinators.

The reward from following the many ideas in the book is not only a more wildlife-friendly yard, is a blueprint for getting your garden certified by the National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife program by following the certification application checklist that is included in the book. A worthwhile investment in its own right and one that our garden qualified for a number of years ago.

The publisher writes: Your backyard can come alive by creating an environment with plants and spaces that attract nature’s most interesting and friendly creatures! Colourful butterflies, uplifting songbirds, and lively toads can enhance your personal garden space, giving pleasure to nature lovers of all ages.”

“Author David Mizejewski, a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation, presents simple plans for reintroducing native plants that birds, butterflies, and a whole host of critters can't resist.

5) The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife (How to Create a Sustainable and Ethical Garden the Promotes Native Wildlfie , Plants, and Biodiversity.

Nancy Lawson’s the Humane Gardener is a must for any gardener who cares about attracting wildlife to their backyard, whether its birds, mammals or creepy crawlies. Her new book Wildscape is another book serious natural gardeners will want to add to this list.

Click on the link for my complete review of her book The Humane Gardener. Click on this link for my review of her book Wildscape.

Available in Kindle format and hardcover both new and used at a very reasonable price.

The book follows much the same philosophy as this woodland garden blog: one that focuses on a “practical guide for the gardener who hopes to create a backyard in harmony with nature.”

The author, Nancy Lawson, examines why and how to welcome wildlife to your backyard through profiles of home gardeners as well as interviews with scientists and horticulturalists.

The book includes information on planting for wildlife by choosing native plants, providing proper habitats for animals as well as birds, bees and butterflies and encouraging natural processes and evolution in your garden.

Finally she explores the “humane gardener,” who she describes as someone who attracts wildlife and peacefully resolve conflicts with all the creatures that may inhabit your garden. The humane gardener, she concludes, “is someone who sees the garden as a meeting place for all creature, not a territory to be defended.”

Isn’t that the way we all want to garden?

Author Profile: Vic MacBournie is a former journalist and author/owner of Ferns & Feathers. He writes about his woodland wildlife garden that he has created over the past 25 years and shares his photography with readers.

The Garden Awakening will change the way you garden

The Garden Awakening

Designs to Nurture our Land & Ourselves

By Mary Reynolds

“If nature is left to its own devices and without imbalances in the ecosystem such as the overpopulation of hungry deer or an infestation of rabbits it will reclaim its territory and become Woodlands once more.”

This might be one of the most inspirational gardening books I have ever read.

It’s certainly not your average how-to gardening book. If you are looking for a typical gardening book, The Garden Awakening might not be for you.

Beautiful illustrations by artist Ruth Evans both on the cover and throughout the book.

But if you are interested in the environment, restoring your garden to a healthy, productive space and/or creating a Woodland naturalized garden, then you owe it to yourself to spend some time with Mary Reynold’s book, The Garden Awakening, Designs to Nurture our Land & Ourselves and her vision for the future of gardening.

Since this writing, Ms Reynolds has published a second informative book titled We Are The Ark. This follow to The Garden Awakening, expounds on her successful approach that each garden can be a small Ark in a world for where wildlife desperately needs our help.

For more information on using native plants to restore your garden, take a moment to check out my article on the importance of using native plants in your garden. For full post go here.

An important book at a crucial time

The Garden Awakening is an extremely important book for the time. It’s a reminder that we are destroying the very land we depend on for survival. It’s a reminder that the world we live in cannot continue to absorb this abuse and not unleash its own fury back upon us.

And, as climate change continues to change the world we live in, it’s important that we as inviduals take action to stem the tide.

But Reynolds offers solutions to problems that we need so desperately in these trying times.

Her inspirational book actually provides a roadmap for anyone interested in doing their part to not only protect but revive the land they live on. Along the way, she provides a “treasure map for finding your way back to the truth of who you are.”

“We are the ark” movement

Be part of the movement

Her movement, “We are the Ark” is bringing together like-minded people around the world to join her in creating a healthy environment, one garden at a time. It provides an important stepping stone to a better environment, a healthier garden and a more optimistic future.

“Gardens were like still-life paintings; controlled and manipulated spaces.... somehow, somewhere along the way gardens had become dead zones.”

— Mary Reynolds

If Ireland’s feisty Mary Reynolds is not familiar to you, I suggest you watch a movie called Dare to Be Wild, which maps her journey from an outsider to a gold-medal winner at the prestigious Chelsea Flower show. The movie used to be available on Netflix, but I notice that it is no longer available. (The link provided above will take you to Amazon where it is available as a DVD.)

The movie led me to her book, her vision and her unique and thoughtful approach to gardening.

To purchase the Mary Reynold’s book, here is a link from the excellent book seller Alibris: Books, Music, & Movies for The Garden Awakening. Below is the Amazon link.

For those without access to the movie, take note; Mary Reynolds was the youngest garden designer to win the highly coveted gold at the 2002 Chelsey Garden Show. That alone should be enough to interest you in her book.

   Reynolds doesn’t waste much time getting to the point. She describes a vision of her embodying a crow flying over the landscape where she comes across a woman (let’s call her Mother Nature) in a forest clearing. She is then swept up high into the heavens and when she finally wakes up she comes to the instant recognition that she “shouldn’t make any more pretty gardens.”

She realizes that she must be guided by the natural world, rather than pure beauty, in her work as a garden designer.

Unlike nature, “gardens were like still-life paintings; controlled and manipulated spaces.... somehow, somewhere along the way gardens had become dead zones,” she writes.

Being in harmony with nature

The revelation that she was “failing to work in harmony with nature,” eventually leads her to unveil 5 garden design ideas in a system aimed at helping anyone, including gardeners, connect with nature.

Throughout the book, Reynolds returns to her Irish roots and uses folklore to help explain her spiritual views of nature and gardening.

Of particular interest to Woodland gardeners, Reynolds explains that all land strives to become a mature Woodland and the job of the gardener is to allow the land to become what it desires to be.

She also encourages people to design their own gardens and provides a road map in five chapters. Each chapter slowly opens up the world of garden design and includes suggestions for intimate garden areas; a nighttime place, a praying place, a gathering place…

In another chapter, she talks about designing with the patterns and shapes of nature. This all leads to a chapter encouraging readers to put their garden design concepts onto paper, including several illustrations and designs that help readers visualize their garden design ideas.

Throughout the book, Reynolds offers suggestions on plants, although these plants might not all be appropriate for all garden zones.

The book wraps up with a chapter on Forest Gardening, a style of gardening that seems to be once again gaining in popularity and importance.

Many would say that Forest gardening is a logical extension to Woodland gardening. It involves producing food by developing a multi-tiered Woodland where berries, nuts and root vegetables are encouraged to be grown.

Her forest garden includes seven layers beginning with the upper canopy including a shrub layer, a layer for herbaceous plants a ground cover layer, an underground layer and finally climbers or vines.

This is a book every Woodland gardener will enjoy and learn from. It’s a book that should be required reading for all gardeners at a time when our futures may well depend on it.

If you are interested in having Mary Reynolds help design your garden virtually, be sure to check out my post on Ms Reynolds’ virtual makeovers.

The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat For Wildlife

A simple plea for respect and compassion

Even Nancy Lawson’s note paper is testament to her love affair.

It was tucked into the book she sent me along with a lovely note. In the bottom right corner of the note is a green garden beetle. Not a cute little rabbit, chipmunk or even a fawn. It’s a beetle. Probably one of those many gardeners pick off their plants and drop into a bucket of soapy water.

Nancy’s proclaimed love has nothing to do with looks. Cute and cuddly is not in her vocabulary. Her relationship with the garden and the many critters that call it home is rooted in compassion.

Nancy Lawson’s book, The Humane Gardener, (Amazon link) is a plea for respect and compassion toward all species. It’s a message gardeners need to hear and describes why and how we should welcome all wildlife to our backyards. It’s as much a gift to gardeners as it is to the birds, beetles, bugs and creepy crawlies that are so vital to the success of our woodland gardens.

If you like The Humane Gardener, you might want to check out Nancy’s latest book Wildscape.

Her love and compassion for wildlife comes from a lifetime of helping animals. As a gardener and editor with the Humane Society for many years, her extensive knowledge of the relationship between fauna and plants in the garden comes honestly.

For more from Nancy Lawson, be sure to check out my post on her newest book Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies and other Sensory Wonders of Nature.

If you are looking to purchase the Humane Gardener or any other book for that matter, be sure to check out the outstanding selections and prices (used and new) at alibris books. (see ad below).

“Plants are the solution to everything,” she writes on her website humanegardener.com. “Whether you’re trying to resolve conflicts with wildlife or immersed in efforts to save local fauna, you’ll be more successful if you let plants lead the way.”

Plants and Animals: Making the connection

The intricate connection between animals and plants came to her about 20 years ago thanks to a poop problem. Specifically, mass groupings of Canada geese creating land mines all around lakeside communities.

Nancy Lawson’s, The Humane Gardener, is a plea for respect and compassion toward all species.

In an attempt to find an alternative to mass killings, harassment or oiling eggs to prevent hatching, she read about a solution while working on a Humane Society magazine about resolving conflicts with geese humanely. The solution: Plant native grasses and wildflowers around the banks of the ponds, proved to be the most humane and effective. Removing the delicious turf around the ponds, giving predators easier access to the goslings and making access more difficult for the geese, encouraged them to go elsewhere.

“It was something I read about, and then as the years went by, research continued to confirm what an effective strategy the plant buffers are. I’ve done a lot of my other planting strategies to resolve conflicts since then – such as with deer, rabbits and other mammals,” she explains.

“I often tell this story toward the beginning of my presentations – because at the time, it sort of coalesced so many things for me. I’d long thought lawns were wasteful, and as a relatively new gardener, I was just learning that some plants had much more value for wildlife than others. And so the geese coexistence solutions made me think about how plants can both draw wildlife and resolve conflicts with them,” she explains.

These native plants proved much more beneficial than simply providing a visual barrier to the geese. These same natural barriers also created habitat for butterflies, birds, turtles and frogs. They helped filter pollutants and “played multiple roles in healing the local environment, just as plants do everywhere,” Nancy explains.

“Creating vegetative buffers to mitigate conflicts was still a novel idea in 1999. But in the two decades since I first reported on the issue, some progressive waterside communities have embraced the practise.” (For more see my article on the work of Reyna Matties at Ontario Native Plants)

The Humane Gardener

“There were many rules to follow but not much heart behind them. I learned how to start seeds but not why I should leave their progeny – the seed heads – in place as a food source for birds.”

Nancy speaks out on her own garden transformation

Nancy’s extensive knowledge comes from more than 20 years of gardening on her own two-acre property that she transformed from barren turfgrass to a natural, wildlife garden. Much of her garden is started from seeds way back in the year 2000 when she began to welcome rabbits, deer and small mammals into her garden. As the native plants took off, so did the rare butterflies, native bees and birds.

“All were welcome,” she says on her website. “None were turned away.”

“Common or not, each one of these animals is precious here, with a role to play in our mini-ecosystem: As squirrels helped plant more hickory trees, rabbits created habitat for bumblebees who reuse their old nests. Deer pruned dogwoods and sumacs, inviting cavity-nesting bee moms to lay their eggs in the sawed-off tops. We’ve left as many plants as we can for the animals and in turn the animals contribute in ways we can’t always predict.”

So, she speaks with authority and The Humane Gardener spells it out in such an entertaining, informative and knowledgeable way that it’s hard to put down once you pick it up.

“Common or not, each one of these animals is precious here, with a role to play in our mini-ecosystem: As squirrels helped plant more hickory trees, rabbits created habitat for bumblebees who reuse their old nests. Deer pruned dogwoods and sumacs, inviting cavity-nesting bee moms to lay their eggs in the sawed-off tops. We’ve left as many plants as we can for the animals and in turn the animals contribute in ways we can’t always predict.”

— Nancy Lawson

Nancy’s easy writing style, no doubt the result of her journalism background, adds to the enjoyment, but also explains one of the most enjoyable aspects of the more than 200-page hardcover book: The human-interest vignettes throughout the book that profile the work of home gardeners across the United States and Canada.

She breaks up the regular chapters of the book with a 10-15 page profile on gardeners, illustrated with photos of their gardens and the insects, butterflies and birds that call their garden home.

There is the story of Dennis Mudd, who gardens on his two-acre suburban site adjacent to 5-acres of canyon property he purchased in California where he has transformed a typical turfed property into a plant lovers dream where he shares it with everything from raccoons, rabbits and moles to hawks, Great Horned Owls and dusky-footed woodrats. And, of course there are the rattlesnakes that he has to keep an eye out for in the garden.

And there is the story of Jennifer Howard, a wildlife rescuer and activist who gardens in a small backyard sanctuary in Innisfil, Ontario, Canada. In her garden near Lake Simcoe, Jennifer works to protect the wildlife being threatened by the suburban creep that is threatening important wetlands. Jennifer has added ponds in her backyard to create more habitat and lobbied local government for turtle crossing signs.

She’s just one of many examples of how gardeners are recognizing the importance of many of the fauna that has traditionally been ignored or, even worse, eliminated because they did not meet the gardeners vision on what their garden should become.

The Humane Gardener is not the first book to encourage a new, more thoughtful approach to gardening, but it is certainly a groundbreaking one that brings together ideas and practises with vignettes of gardeners who are putting these approaches into action everyday in their gardens.

Book offers a New Kind of Dream Home

The book opens with a chapter entitled: A New Kind of Dream Home where she urges gardeners to adopt a new planting style that eschews turfgrass and calls for a landscape of native plants. But she doesn’t pretend for a moment that she was not caught in the same trap most gardeners find themselves in at the beginning of their journey.

“Though my husband teased me about my addiction to ‘flower porn,’ I also read these publication for the articles, learning about everything from proper spacing… to the best time to trim back dead perennial stalks. But inspiration eventually turned into frustration, and it became clear that Will (her husband) had a point about the emptiness of the endeavor.”

“There were many rules to follow but not much heart behind them. I learned how to start seeds but not why I should leave their progeny – the seed heads – in place as a food source for birds,” she writes.

And so begans her quest for what real beauty meant to her.

“I developed an almost innate sense of how to keep voluptuous cottage garden flowers thriving but had little knowledge of trees, shrubs and other plants critical to wildlife. Most wasteful of all, I looked beyond my borders for beauty, rather than taking the time to understand the potential already there in my own backyard.”

In the remaining chapters, Nancy talks about “letting go” by letting nature guide your garden along its path. This approach leads to a chapter on creating a family-friendly backyard, not necessarily for the humans that use it, but for birds and mammals that depend on it to raise their own families.

There are chapters on how to share the fruits of the garden with birds and forest creatures like deer, ensuring our gardens are safe for wildlife and rejoicing in death and decay in the garden for the life that rises out of it. This chapter focuses on the importance of leaving dead and dying trees in the yard for woodpeckers, bluebirds and nuthatches to create homes. She talks about the importance of decaying logs left in the garden and the insect life they attract. The salamanders, snakes and birds that then move in to feast on the insects.

Nancy’s approach is not to preach, not to judge, but to simply point out how we as gardeners can change the way we approach our land, our challenges and our vision to include, and maybe even prioritize, the birds, bees, butterflies, rats, snakes and bugs in our gardens. To make nurturing a fledgling as important as raising a favourite flower.

Nancy informs me that she is working on a new book. “It’s kind of an extension of the ideas in the first book, but I’m looking in more detail at how the animals and plants perceive the environment around us through their senses – and how some of our practices in gardening/landscaping get in the way of their ability to sense their world and each other.”

If her new book is anything like The Humane Gardener and reflects the same dedication, knowledge and commitment to excellence, the new book will only add another chapter to the outstanding work she has already accomplished and the influence she has had on so many gardeners looking for more than just a beautiful lush garden to call paradise.

Carolinian Canada is a diamond in the heart of Southern Ontario

A Woodland Gardener’s journey of discovery

I am not sure when my love of gardening took root.

Two factors, however, played a major role in both my love of gardening and how I came to appreciate a Woodland Garden over, let’s say, a more formal style of gardening.

I was in my mid-twenties and working at a large weekly newspaper in the the metro Toronto area when I got my first real taste of the joy of gardening. I remember interviewing the president of the local garden club, touring his lovely suburban garden and sharing in his excitement for the diversity of flowers, shrubs and trees that grew in his garden. It definitely was not a Woodland garden but it left a big impression.

At the same time I was getting more and more involved in nature photography and my weekends were often spent wandering the local forests looking for wildflowers and other subjects that caught my eye. As my photographic knowledge grew, so did my appreciation for the more wild areas where I lived. Photographing trilliums, dog-toothed violets, hepatica, bloodroot and the ultimate photographic subject – native lady slipper orchids – became a spring ritual. In the summer months, our focus shifted to reptiles and mammals that seemed abundant in the ponds, rivers and forests that my photographic friends and I explored.
Fall, of course, was the magical time for Ontario photographers and nature lovers when the forests were blanketed with the spectacular reds, oranges, yellows and ambers of the season.

Carolinian Canada is an important ecosystem in Ontario that needs Woodland gardener’s assistance.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the driving force behind all of this was the fact I lived in one of the most beautiful, diverse and fascinating areas in Ontario. At the time it was just the forest. I later learned that it wasn’t “just a forest,” it was a very specific type of forest that made it special.

It was the Carolinian Canada forest.

Carolinian Canada is a rare gem

It’s a stretch of forest that sweeps from Lake Erie to Toronto, just kisses Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo before heading up to Windsor and Lake Huron. Carolinian Canada boasts a diversity unmatched anywhere else in the country. From its unusual variety of trees to its rare plants, birds, mammals, insects, amphibians and reptiles, Carolinian Canada is certainly a nature lovers dream.

The Carolinian Canada forest is characterized by the predominance of deciduous trees and actually stretches well into the United States from the Carolinas, through the Virginias, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, parts of Ohio and New York state to name just a few. In the U.S., the Carolinian zone is commonly called the “Eastern Deciduous forest.”

Yellow lady slippers

Carolinian Canada includes primarily the gardening zones 6-7 and share many of the same fauna and flora.

Trees of note include hickory, oak, walnut, and the tallest of the lot, the tulip tree. In addition, there are the understory trees featuring native dogwood (cornus florida) and the pawpaw tree with it’s large, exotic fruit that tastes very similar to a mango.

In Southern Ontario the presence of the Great Lakes and their moderating influence creates the environment necessary to boast the longest frost-free seasons and the mildest winters of any region in the province.

The outstanding features of the Carolinian Forests in Ontario is also its downfall. The climate, fertile soils and proximity to large fresh-water lakes means that Carolinian Canada is highly developed and includes some of Canada’s most populated cities, intensively farmed agricultural areas and heavy industrialized locations. All this intensive settlement, industrialization and agriculture has led to significant habitat loss and fragmentation, leaving scattered and disconnected parcels of land left to carry on the natural ecology that makes up this important ecosystem.

The Natural Treasures of Carolinian Canada, published by James Lorimer& Company Ltd., is an outstanding resource for Woodland Gardeners who want to explore the Carolinian Canada forest more fully.

I was fortunate enough to be awarded this book as part of being recognized by the Hamilton Conservation Authority Watershed Stewardship Program for the efforts my wife and I have made on our property to care for the land in such a way to maintain a healthy state for today and for future generations. More on that in a later blog.

I took the time this winter to study this almost 150-page book. The book is edited by native plant expert Lorraine Johnson with individual chapters written by experts including naturalists and scientists working at World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, The Royal Ontario Museum as well as many universities and government natural resources ministries.

It explores in great depth the various ecosystems within Carolinian Canada from the plants to the forests, the prairie peninsula and the wetlands. In chapter two, the authors focus on the fauna everything from badgers (yes there are badgers in Norfolk county) and flying squirrels to the birds, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles.

Finally, the authors turn their attention on stewardship and how humans can reshape the land and ecosystem they have played a major role in destroying, or at least bringing to the edge of distinction. These are important chapters; ones that, as Woodland gardeners, we have the opportunity to play a vital role in reshaping.

Woodland gardeners have a say in Carolinian Canada’s future

Whether we garden in a sensitive and highly threatened ecosystem like Carolinian Canada, a prairie grassland, the rolling hills of the mid-west or a desert landscape, all gardeners, but especially Woodland gardeners have the ability to influence the future of these important places.

Wherever you live and garden, there are organizations that work to protect the natural environment. Gardeners fortunate enough to live in Southern Ontario can take advantage of the vast resources and expertise that exists at Carolinian Canada, whose mission is to “advance a collaborative conservation strategy for healthy ecosystems in Ontario’s Carolinian Life Zone.”

The organization’s diverse network works to advance a “strategic ‘Big Picture’ vision for healthy landscapes and a green future in Canada’s deep south.”   

Its website (see link above) states that since 1984, Carolinian Canada Coalition has been a leading ecoregional group, bringing together thousands of people and groups who care for the unique habitat network, and to support thriving wild and human communities in harmony for generations.

For our part, my wife and I do our best to plant native trees, shrubs and flowers, but we do not get too hung up on planting only natives. We try to plant fruit- and nut-bearing trees and plants to help local fauna. We put up bird houses on the property, have both above-ground bird baths and on-ground water sources for birds, amphibians and mammals and have a large debris pile to give mammals, reptiles and insects places to harbour over the winter. We have removed all the grass from our front yard and most of it from the back yard. (What’s left in the back yard is a combination of moss, wildflowers with a little lawn mixed in.) Chemicals are rarely used and branches, leaves and garden debris never leave the site.

Not everyone has the space or are willing to keep all the leaves and garden debris on-site, but if we all make an effort to do the best we can, we can play a significant role connecting these fragmented wilder areas and provide corridors for birds, mammals and flora to prosper even in some of the most built-up areas imaginable.

This concept is what Irish garden designer, naturalist and renowned author Mary Reynolds promotes with her gardening-inspired movement We Are the Ark and her book Garden Awakening, which was reviewed on this site in the previous blog.

Woodland gardeners have been building ARKs (Acts of Restorative Kindness) for years. Now we have a reason to celebrate our efforts and work to convince others to join us in celebrating the natural forests where we live.

More links to my articles on native plants

Why picking native wildflowers is wrong

Serviceberry the perfect native tree for the garden

The Mayapple: Native plant worth exploring

Three spring native wildflowers for the garden

A western source for native plants

Native plants source in Ontario

The Eastern columbine native plant for spring

Three native understory trees for Carolinian zone gardeners

Ecological gardening and native plants

Eastern White Pine is for the birds

Native viburnums are ideal to attract birds

The perfect Redbud

The Carolinian Zone in Canada and the United States

Dogwoods for the woodland wildlife garden

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tellamy

A little Love for the Black-Eyed Susan

Native moss in our gardens

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive at commission (at no additional cost to you)I only endorse products I use, have complete confidence in or have experience with the manufacturer.

Five great books for woodland gardeners

These books will help you plan your garden vision

It’s almost time to curl up with a good gardening book and plan your vision for next season.

To help you focus that vision, here are five outstanding garden books every woodland gardener will cherish this winter when snow blankets the earth.

1) The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest.

It’s another excellent book by Rick Darke and published by Timber Press, which specializes in outstanding books for garden enthusiasts.

The publisher’s book excerpt calls the book “a clarion call to a new awareness of our relationship to the natural world.” And adds that it “will take its rightful place among the classic works that have influenced our concept of the American landscape.”

Be sure to check out the outstanding selection of books (used and new) at alibris Books. (see ad below)

For more suggestions and some of my favourite garden-related books and items, be sure to check out my Favourite Things post.

The book is pretty much sold out but available on Amazon’s used market. It scores an impressive rating. If you are lucky, you may also be available to find one at your local bookstore.

Used copies of this hard-to-find book are available through Alibris out of California. Check out the link here for The American Woodland.

The book publisher notes: “In his unique, and often thought-provoking new book, award-winning author Darke promotes and stunningly illustrates a garden aesthetic based on the strengths and opportunities of the woodland, including play of light, sound, and scent; seasonal drama; and the architectural interest of woody plants.

While written from a compelling and fresh perspective, The American Woodland Garden never strays from the realistic concerns of the everyday gardener. Information on planting, soils, and maintenance provides a firm foundation for horticultural accomplishment. An alphabetical list of woodland plants offers useful advice for every garden, emphasizing native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, sedges, and flowering perennials that fit the forest aesthetic. More than 700 of the author's stunning photographs show both the natural palette of plants in the wild and the effects that can be achieved with them in garden settings.”

2) The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden.

Rick Darke teams up with Douglas Tallamy in this thoughtful and extremely intelligent book. Again, it scores an impressive on-line rating and is available in both Kindle and hardcover both as new and used.

The book is aimed at showing today’s families how to create a backyard garden that manages to pull in everything from entertaining areas to zones for wildlife and incorporating them with a child-friendly area for the kids or grandchildren.

The book is available at Alibris: Books, Movies and Music based out of California. Check out the link for the Living Landscape.

The publisher’s note: “Many gardeners today want a home landscape that nourishes and fosters wildlife, but they also want beauty, a space for the kids to play, privacy, and maybe even a vegetable patch. Sure, it’s a tall order, but The Living Landscape shows you how to do it. You’ll learn the strategies for making and maintaining a diverse, layered landscape—one that offers beauty on many levels, provides outdoor rooms and turf areas for children and pets, incorporates fragrance and edible plants, and provides cover, shelter, and sustenance for wildlife.”

3) Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded.

Douglas Tallamy’s bible for saving the environment one garden at a time through the reintroduction of native plants, is a must read for every gardener and non-gardener.

Priced very reasonably and available both in Kindle and paperback form, this would make a perfect gift new gardeners and those with a green thumb looking to redesign their garden to encourage more wildlife, from insects to warblers. The book is available used for under $10. I can guarantee that it will become a priceless addition to most gardener’s bookshelves.

Go here to read my complete review of this book which is described by the New York Times as a “ fascinating study of the trees, shrubs, and vines that feed the insects, birds, and other animals in the suburban garden.”

To purchase the book from Alibris Books check out the link for Bringing Nature Home.

4) The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves.

I can’t recommend this book by Chelsea gold-medal-winning garden designer Mary Reynolds enough. It’s more than a book about gardens, it’s a book about nurturing our gardens and, in so doing, discovering the important role nature plays in our own lives.

Take a moment to read my earlier review of this outstanding book here.

The beautifully illustrated book is available both in Kindle form and hardcover (new and used.) It too, will become a treasured book that gardener’s can return to time and time again.

The book, and a made-for-TV movie about creating the garden design that ended up winning the prestigious Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, has evolved into an on-line movement that continues to change how people around the world view their gardens.

The publisher note’s that The Garden Awakening is a step-by-step manual to creating a garden in harmony with the life force in the earth, addressing not only what the people in charge of the land want but also asking what the land wants to become. Mary Reynolds demonstrates how to create a groundbreaking garden that is not simply a solitary space but an expanding, living, interconnected ecosystem. Drawing on old Irish ways and methods of working with the land, this beautiful book is both art and inspiration for any garden lover seeking to create a positive, natural space.

Alibris Books, Movies and Music link to The Garden Awakening.

5) Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade.

This is an older book published in December of 2014 but it is still available as a hardcover both new and used.

The author’s other books, include On The Wild Side, Experiments in new Naturalism (hardcover), and Shade: Planting Solutions for Shady Gardens (paperback).

The book is perfect for gardeners looking to create a woodland feel even a small garden.

Alibris Books link to Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade.

As the publisher notes: “Woodlands are magical places and even small gardens can capture the atmosphere with carefully chosen trees and shade-loving plants. Selecting the right plant for the right place is essential and in Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden, expert plantsman Keith Wiley explains how to combine plants that will thrive together. In this evocative account, he mingles beguiling, less well-known plants with familiar, time-tested ones to create beautiful, four-season gardens.”

The above is just a sampling of the gardening books available for woodland gardeners to either give as a gift to friends or keep for themselves. It’s a long winter ahead for gardeners and we all know how gardening books can inspire and educate us so that we are ready to implement our visions at the first signs of spring.

Going Native: Saving nature one backyard at a time

Bringing Nature Home: Sustaining wildlife with Native Plants

There is plenty to be optimistic about in Douglas Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home and it all begins with the importance of planting native plants, trees and shrubs in our gardens.

But finding this optimism is not easy.

For my extensive article on why using native plants in your garden is important, go here.

Tallamy tells the truth and it’s a truth that will make most gardeners very uncomfortable about what we’ve planted in the past and what is now happily growing in our gardens right now.

The must-have ornamentals, the pest-resistant perennials and the trees and shrubs we probably never suspected were problematic in the landscape are creating the conditions for the slow but steady decline not only of native plants but the entire ecosystem that depend on them for survival.

Scary stuff for sure, but critical reading for anyone who cares about the environment and what awaits future generations.

Remember, I said there’s lots to be optimistic about in the book. It’s important to note that the its full title is “Bringing Nature Home. How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.” The book proves to be a rich resource for combating the incredible damage we have inflicted on our land and the wilder places that surround us.

Douglas Tallamy strikes the perfect compromise between fear and optimism in “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. It’s a must read for anyone who cares about the future of our environment at both a global and local level.

For more on the importance of oak trees in our garden and natural landscapes take a few moments to check out my other posts on Oak trees:

• What tree should I plant in my yard

• Columnar Oak: Perfect for today’s smaller yards

• From Acorn to Mighty Oak

This recent book release is an updated and expanded version of the same book that was first published in 2007.

Tallamy goes to great lengths in the opening chapters to explain the enormous problems we face following the slow and steady introductions of exotic, alien plants, pests and disease brought to North America – sometimes by mistake but often through the nursery trade. The problem these exotic ornamentals bring are twofold: One, they fail to deliver the same nutritional benefits to our insects as native plants, and; Two: many of these alien plants have displaced once dominant native plants in our gardens and in the wild.

The result is devastating to a host of native insects, reptiles, animals and birds.

How we can restore native habitats

Tallamy concludes that all the points in his book converge in a common theme: “we humans have disrupted natural habitats in so many ways that the future of our nation’s biodiversity is dim unless we start to share the places in which we live – our cities and, to an even greater extent, our suburbs – with the plants and animals that evolved there. Because life is fuelled by the energy captured by the sun by plants, it will be the plants that we use in our gardens that determine what nature will be like 10, 20, and 50 years from now.”

He goes on to explain that if gardeners continue to “landscape predominantly with alien plants that are toxic to insects…. We may witness extinction on a scale that exceeds” anything ever experienced on this earth.

Tallamy recognizes that it is probably too late to turn back time and completely eliminate the alien plants either from our gardens or from wild places, but it’s not too late to use our gardens – big or small – to create islands of native-plant sanctuaries to give native fauna a chance to recover. One small island in suburbia will not solve the problem, so Tallamy encourages readers to recruit neighbours, maybe even entire neighbourhoods to transition from exotic to native plantings.

He goes into great detail to help readers recognize the benefits of using natives over exotics, even listing the best native trees and plants to use in the garden (broken down by zones). Not only does he list the trees and plants, but he includes scientific numbers on how many Lepidoptera species benefit from individual trees. For example, Oak trees rank first supporting 534 species, willows are second supporting 456, followed by Cherry/plum at 456 and birch at 413.

Tallamy speaks with great authority. He is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 97 research publications and has taught insect related courses for more than 40 years. Using this knowledge, he provides valuable information on every insect and spider you might come across in the garden.

It would be easy to think this is a book for environmentalists, but it really is a book for gardeners. There are even sketches on how to use native plants in the garden to benefit our native wildlife.

For woodland gardeners, many of whom already recognize the importance of using native trees, shrubs and plants, the book helps to validate what you are already doing. For those who have not given a lot of thought to the potential damage exotics create in the environment, the book will get you to question many of your existing beliefs and garden aesthetics.

No matter where you stand, this book – not unlike Mary Reynolds’ book “The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves – will force you to rethink how you garden. Together, they form a powerful voice calling for major changes to suburban gardens away from landscapes dominated by large swaths of non-native grass and exotics, to mass planting of native trees, shrubs, plants and grasses.

It’s a voice gardeners and garden designers need to listen to, need to act on and need to convince others to act on.

Our children deserve a chance to enjoy the birds, butterflies and insects as much as we did growing up.

In addition to Mary Reynold’s book, The Garden Awakening” mentioned above, I have written a number of posts that relate to the subject of native plants. Here are just a few readers may want to explore further. Woodland Nurseries gardeners need to know about . So You Got Perfect Grass: That Don’t Impress me much.

This beautiful, 358-page soft-cover book was provided to me by the good folks at Timber Press for review. It is an outstanding resource for any gardener intent on creating a healthy backyard habitat for birds, butterflies, insects and mammals. The New York Times best seller has been praised by all who take the time to explore it. Writes The New York Tmes: “Tallamy’s message is loud and clear: gardeners could slow the rate of extinction by planting natives in their yards.”

William Cullinar, Director of Horticultural Research for the New England Wild Flower Society, writes “We all hear that insects and animals depend on plants, but in Bringing Nature Home, Douglas Tallamy presents a powerful and compelling illustration of how the choices we make as gardeners can profoundly impact the diversity of life in our yards, towns and on our planet. This important work should be required reading for anyone who ever put shovel to earth.

• If you are considering creating a meadow in your front or backyard, be sure to check out The Making of a Meadow post for a landscape designer’s take on making a meadow in her own front yard.

More links to my articles on native plants

Why picking native wildflowers is wrong

Serviceberry the perfect native tree for the garden

The Mayapple: Native plant worth exploring

Three spring native wildflowers for the garden

A western source for native plants

Native plants source in Ontario

The Eastern columbine native plant for spring

Three native understory trees for Carolinian zone gardeners

Ecological gardening and native plants

Eastern White Pine is for the birds

Native viburnums are ideal to attract birds

The perfect Redbud

The Carolinian Zone in Canada and the United States

Dogwoods for the woodland wildlife garden

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tellamy

A little Love for the Black-Eyed Susan

Native moss in our gardens