This is a book for its time.
Wherever I travel in the world I see more and more land being expropriated for human activity, with walls around countries and scorched earth security zones preventing the natural movement of organisms, and less and less land for wildlife and primal nature.
We have not yet fully come to accept that we are part of nature and not an imposition on it . If we can restore nature to our own backyards, we can have a measurable impact on re-establishing diversity. In the process we will find salvation and a deep sense of satisfaction. Imagine if you will, that an entire suburban neighbourhood naturalized its backyards. Collectively, the impact would be immense. Native plants would flourish, insect populations would explode, birds would find food and shelter, mammals would exercise their role as predator and prey in a healthy ecosystem. The green deserts that are lawns would be banished, noxious chemicals dispensed with, water consumption improved, trees would provide shelter and cooler temperatures in hot summers - the world would be a better place.
And it can be done!
This book provides a comprehensive outline of the measure to be taken on every plot of land from a postage stamp backyard in a modern subdivision to extensive estates. We can all do our part.
The book explores the full scope of integrated ecosystem activity, including the restoration of the impact large mammals have had on the environment.
No, we are not going to invite Grizzly Bears to the family picnic, but we can replicate the influence they had on landscape integrity.
In even the smallest backyard, indeed even on a balcony, simple measures can be taken to create microclimates and suitable habitat for the least among us, all of which play a critical role in a healthy, functioning ecosystem.
Henry David Thoreau famously said, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." There is surely deep irony in the fact that this maxim has been oft repeated, especially in flights of rhetoric by politicians, by some almost as a mantra, while we merrily proceed to routinely destroy wildness.
This book will truly help you to reverse your path of destruction and shine a light on preservation and restoration, with myriad practical ways to do it.
It should be a handbook for all who care about this one precious planet, the only home we will ever have, and our legacy to those generations yet unborn.
Natural Habitats & Wildlife Gardening: Inviting Nature into Your Backyard - Princeton University Press
Shaun McCoshum - Photographs by Loren Merrill and Leslie Miller
Paperback - US$29.95 - ISBN 9780691261003
352 pages - 5.875 x 8.25 inches (14.69 x 20.625 cm)
400 colour photographs - 23 diagrams
Publication date: 03 March, 2026
...in my mind, some wildlife is more welcomed in our ghartden than others. I love deer, but not in the garden.
ReplyDeleteWe have eliminated their natural predators and their numbers have exploded, Tom. We lay out a smorgasbord for them in our gardens, so it’s little wonder they choose to visit us.
DeleteSounds like a really amazing book and would make a lovely gift for gardeners.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a fantastic book to me, David.
ReplyDeleteYou've written well about how humans, through their activities, are causing significant damage to nature.
Humans are taking away all the animals' habitats.
I wish you a wonderful Sunday.
All the best, Irma
Sounds like this is a great book. It's so important that we don't take our nature for granted.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book David. I think my husband needs to read it because he doesn't get my "wild areas" and why I want to do it. To him it is just a mess. I guess that is his engineer's eye. Thanks for sharing. hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteI can see that this book would be excellent for those in suburban or urban areas. Here, wildlife is all around us, since we are basically living in their habitat. Finding a way to co-habit peacefully is our challenge! The critters don't understand share and share alike, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteShare and share alike has never been part of the human ethic towards wildlife.
DeleteA thoughtful and timely review. I love how you connect the book’s practical guidance with the bigger picture - our responsibility to rethink how we live with nature, not against it.
ReplyDeleteA brilliant post David. Mr. M. and I have taken a large piece of our yard to go wild. We have added plants and flowers but leave it for nature.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a very good book, David. I have both a wild and a tamed garden here. I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who has beehives right next door, and they visit here very often. But basically I'm very much in favor of wild gardens.
ReplyDeleteHugs and kisses, Marit
Kiitos esittelystä. Toden totta sen pitäisi olla meille kaikille käsikirja!
ReplyDeleteCertainly an excellent and very relevant and timely book! My own garden is a cottage garden type, and I want there to be animals in my garden, from the smallest to the largest – after all, my garden wouldn’t grow without pollinators and birds! Of course, we also have deer, hares, and sometimes lynxes in the yard, and in the surrounding areas, there are bears and wolves. I live close to nature, and part of my garden is actually a forest garden. All the best to You!
ReplyDeleteThis book is a revelation. It is long overdue that this serious issue has finally been addressed. I am delighted to have read the review here and to have been introduced to the book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like another good one David. A few years ago I met another walker out on my regular walk and he was telling me how OCD he was with his lawn. It had to perfect. I told him about the many dandelions on my lawn and he freaked out! He said he would have to get rid of them right away. And I said they are good for the insects and pretty to look at. And pointed out, too, that they aren't weeds! Each to their own I guess.
ReplyDeleteI would not write about gardens right now, but about bigger ones, countries and borders.
ReplyDeleteWhen we sometimes walk along the grass-covered roads, we often don't even know which country we are in, Austria or Hungary. It's not even important to know in a forest.
We can move freely, animals can too, and there is no obstacle for plants to grow from one country to another, and the movement of animals is not restricted.
What I mean is that there is no barbed wire, etc!
I don't have a garden, nor will I ever have one, but the border is 6 kilometers from my apartment, and now I've been thinking more than a garden.
Of course, the situation is not so ideal everywhere, but sometimes we walk in such places.
Sorry, if I deviated too much from your topic and the book, which seems very good.
Thanks!
This certainly sounds a good book David, thank you for highlighting it here.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
I hope that many people take its message to heart.
DeleteWe had a fantastic book discussion in my naturalist book group about the book, Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas W. Tallamy. This sounds like a similar book. I will look for it.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago Doug Tallamy did a lecture here and my wife and I, and several friends, attended. We listened and learned.
DeleteWhat a lovely book, and how beautiful to think of the garden as a small haven of life. The buzzing of the bees, the hummingbirds, the butterflies! all of that transforms a simple patio into a place full of joy. A pollinating garden lifts our spirits. It makes me want to plant even more flowers! 🌿🐝💛🌹💛🌼💛🌷💛💛🌹💛🌼💛🌷💛💛🌹💛🌼💛🌷💛💛🌹💛🌼💛💛🌹💛🌼💛🌷💛 Gros bisousss, David!
ReplyDelete💛🌹💛🌼💛💛🌹💛🌼💛💛🌹💛🌼💛🌷💛🌷💛
The book looks and sounds good. Fortunately, down here many people have gardens as we do to entice some insects, but for some time the houses have become larger and the land the same size, it's a pity for there isn't a lot of room for a garden.
ReplyDeletePrzedstawiłeś kolejną ciekawą i wartościową książkę. Smutne jednak jest to, że rzadko w obecnych czasach ktoś po takie książki sięga. Atutem są dobrze dobrane zdjęcia. one zawsze przyciągają.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky to live near a lake and surrounded by woods. In our yard, there are many things for wildlife: big trees, fallen and rotting ones, stumps, heaps of branches, ponds, long grass, native plants etc. Lynxes and a wolverine have visited us at night. In the best summer moments, there are tens if not hundreds of bumblebees buzzing around.
Take pictures of your yard and post them, Sara. I’d love to see it.
DeleteAlmost all of my photos are taken in our yard. It's large and unstructured. I just try, in general, to post views that are not too easily recognizable. That being said, I'll try to take some photos for you when the snow has gone. :)
DeleteNice! It seems to be a useful publication for our friends in North America!
ReplyDeleteA useful book, David. I have a variety of herbs growing in my garden. I fight some, but I let others grow because they're on the edge of the garden. There's always a buzz and noise of insects there. And the large serviceberry, which I don't need, is very popular with all the birds.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds like a must read, thanks for the review, David.
ReplyDeleteMy side garden is my wild garden. The front was already planted by the previous owner except for a few wild flower plots that I added. I really agree and much prefer the wild garden and yes the buzzing of bees and the humming of Humming Birds. I looked the book up on Amazon and it is two dollars cheaper there :) We had a strip of wild flowers and trees between our yard and the farm that was next door. Now, sadly, they are building houses there and all was ripped out ... broke my heart. I can, however, replant wild flowers along that border and perhaps even a few trees. Thank you again, as always ...
ReplyDeleteAndrea @ From the Sol
I know somebody who has let their backyard become a field. Goes right up to the cement of the patio,
ReplyDeleteVery timely. In fact I am spending this week working on making my backyard (even) more wildlife friendly.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Dorothy.
DeleteEven though I hate to garden, this is a book that I might actually use! After all, "wild" is kind of my thing (says the woman who kills plants like they were mosquitoes -- not intentionally, just benign neglect!) I'll have to check this one out!
ReplyDeleteHow I long for the days of yore, when our car windscreens were plastered with the bodies of smashed insects.We have been managing our garden for wildlife for decades now, but the numbers are falling every year, it seems. Our neighbours, nice though they are, are the tree polishing, greensward-tending sort.
ReplyDeleteDit lijkt mij een prachtig boek david.
ReplyDeleteMet veel informatie.
Groetjes Tinie
Amen.
ReplyDeleteSalvation depends on people, people who are not ignorant.
ReplyDeleteIf I’ve understood this well, it’s an interesting idea, but also a bit utopian. Even if our cities could support such natural habitats despite pollution, we’d still need to think about ferocious mammals — including those from our own species — and how easily unprotected spaces will be violated.
ReplyDeleteIn many regions urban spaces are being successfully converted to wild areas and homeowners are transforming their manicured, rectilinear gardens into pollinator habitat, with other transformational features that are environmentally sound. Singapore is a shining example of a green city. It does not have to be only utopian. It is happening around the world.
DeleteEin sehr wichtiges Thema, das leider oft nicht ernst genommen wird. Hier bei uns gibt es viele Maßnahmen um die Natur zu schützen oder Flächen zu renaturieren. Aber es ist noch immer zu wenig. Ich versuche in meinem Garten den Spagat zwischen geordnet und wild. Ich brauche keine Pestiziede. Seit Jahren erledigen die vielen Vögel und Nutzinsekten diese Aufgabe. Jedes Jahr kommen viele interessierte Menschen in meinen Garten und holen sich Ratschläge. Ich denke, hier auf dem Land tut sich etwas und ich hoffe, dass es mehr wird.
ReplyDeleteViele Grüße Anette
You are a great eco warrior.
DeleteWhat a wonderful, impassioned review. Sounds like a must read.
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteAnother beautiful book. The pages with the colorful photos you show on your blog promise much more beauty. It's also wonderful to bring nature into your backyard. I love nature anyway, so a book like this is a welcome addition.
Kind regards, Helma
I consider my Gardens both wild and somewhat manicured...nature and wild life are always welcome..Even encouraged...This book is probably right up my alley..
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a wonderful book and I am all for it In the netherlands we lived close to the Millingerwaard which is a rewilding initiative to create floodplains or make them bigger and give it back to nature. We have lots of wildflowers in our garden and love it
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ReplyDeleteI find this book very interesting. I agree with the topic it addresses: wild nature can and should be part of a garden or patio. It's not enough to cultivate beautiful exotic flowers; it's better to favor native and simple species from the surrounding area. It's more coherent.
Lots of love.
Great review on an important subject. I'm learning to respect and appreciate the bees and wasps that visit my garden.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much what Doug Tallamy has preached for years and his Homegrown National Park movement is continuously growing. There can never be enough books about this topic and I would happily read it, too, even though I have turned my garden into a native habitat garden years ago. It's an open ended, very joyful process and I'm constantly learning through it. I like the "wild" part of it and enjoy all the wildlife in it, from the tiniest insect to the raccoons and deer. This book will be put in my steadily growing list. Big hugs - Carola
ReplyDeleteI’ve been growing pollinator gardens in my yard, but they look pretty scraggly in the winter. I’ve heard that you’re supposed to leave the dead plants for the tiny critters, but it’s only a matter of time before the homeowners association says something. Also, I don’t know enough about invasives to figure out what has to be pulled, and I didn’t have a physical ability to do any of that this past summer, so it got unkempt.
ReplyDeleteThere are native plant clubs around that disseminate information, so I follow them on social media. I’ve been surprised at how many plants are considered invasive.
Este libro sería maravilloso para mí, me encanta. Besos.
ReplyDeleteI need a copy of this book! I would like to continue with converting my yard into natural habitat, providing as much benefit to nature as possible. This sounds like just the book I need to achieve my goal!
ReplyDelete