In last week’s post, I shared some books about the philosophy of gardening. The books below are more practical books about the how of gardening. They tell readers what to plant to attract wildlife, including birds, bees, and bugs; when and where to plant most any plant; and how to care for all the plants you’ve added to your garden.
Gardening for the Birds
Bird-by-Bird Gardening, by Sally Roth. I like this book for novice birders because it makes its suggestions based on bird families. “The big clues to bird families are eating habits and behavior,” says the author. She also explains what the phrase “Birds of a feather flock together” really means — it turns out that flocking is not about feather color at all, but rather, other similarities the birds share.
The book also contains many facts and tidbits of information about birds. For example, across North America, species of all birds total about 654. Within that number are 20 or so families — which makes the job of attracting birds easier.
I think I have a Baltimore oriole family living near Serendipity Gardens, because last summer I saw a few flashes of orange and black winging by. This summer, per Roth’s recipe, I will offer these beautiful birds fruit such as strawberries, cherries, grapes, and slices of citrus along with seeds of various kinds. I am also thinking about planting some Verbena bonariensis, a flower I have admired for a long time. It attracts butterflies, and, says Roth, “all orioles will alight in a flower garden brimming with butterflies.”
Gardening for the Bugs
Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, by Jessica Wallister. This is a recent read, and an eye-opener. I have never given much thought to the bugs in my yard, except to curse the Japanese beetles and pat myself on the back because the frogs and birds seem to keep the insect populations in reasonable control. I love Wallister’s story of the aphids on her tree and the ladybugs that ate them two weeks later. The story so well illustrates how a balanced and healthy ecosystem works — and the patience it requires.
The book divides the beneficial insects into these broad groupings — true bugs, true flies, predatory beetles, parasitic wasps, dragon- and damselflies, lacewings, mantids, and arachnids. Within each group, it highlights specific insects based on the role they play in the ecosystem.
It has quite a few “ew-ee” facts, too. For example, the big-eyed bug Geocoris punctipes uses its specialized mouth part to suck out the prey’s internal organs, while robber flies inject prey with toxic saliva that liquifies the prey’s innards!
This book will open your eyes to what goes on in a garden, for sure! Most importantly, though, it tells you what to plant to attract these hungry and helpful critters to your garden.
Vegetable Gardening
Kitchen Garden, A to Z, by Mike McGrath. After listening to Mike McGrath on a podcast one morning and enjoying his folksy, follow-Mother-Nature’s-lead approach, I checked Amazon to see what he had written and ordered this beautiful and informative book.
The book opens with several sections about kitchen garden basics: the value of raised beds; compost as the perfect plant food; companion planting; Nature’s pest control; nontoxic weed control; growing veggies in containers; and tools of the trade. After this comes a section on the cycle of life, which takes the reader from seed-starting to harvest. The last section of the book is an A to Z list of vegetables, with directions for growing, harvesting, buying and storing, and honestly, some of the most gorgeous photographs (by Gordon Smith) that I have ever seen.
The gems of wise advice the author sprinkles in make the process of growing some of your own food seem easy. Here’s an example: “The secret to having an easy-care, healthy garden is to invite in as many kinds of living creatures as you possibly can. Provide multiple water sources and lots of flowering plants, avoid toxic pesticides (which wipe out many more friends than foes), and your garden will be well protected and pollinated by the life you invite.”
A Garden Encyclopedia
Armitage’s Garden Annuals: A Color Encyclopedia, by Allan Armitage. This is a huge book, and offers photos and descriptions of every annual you can think of. Organized alphabetically, it is not a book you can read from cover to cover, but it’s a lovely one to dip into every now and again.
What I like most about it is the copy, which is often humorous as well as useful. After a visit to the Montreal Botanical Gardens, for example, I returned home determined to plant the lovely castor bean, a gorgeous plant that I had fallen in love with. But I decided to check the Armitage book first, and it’s a good thing I did. I learned from this book NOT to plant castor bean in my garden. I have grandchildren who play in the garden, and just one bean from this plant can be deadly.
Armitage has also authored other encyclopedic books, such as one about perennials and another about native plants. I have just ordered that one. I expect it will give me all sorts of ideas for what I can plant in Serendipity Gardens this year and beyond to make it even more ecologically friendly than it already is.
Do you have how-to books that you turn to regularly? If so, please share!
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Four good books – it is interesting making the connection with gardening and nature to innovation.
I have a very funny story about hatching preying mantis—too long to tell here. Let’s just say you need to get the egg sack out in your garden BEFORE they hatch!