RHS Companion to Wildlife Gardening

by Chris Baines

This best-selling book was first published as How to Make a Wildlife Garden, and launched at the 1985 Chelsea Flower Show, making wildlife a mainstream issue for gardeners and the public. Now fully revised and updated by the author, this beautiful new freshly illustrated edition highlights the changes in garden wildlife over the past 30 years. Incorporating RHS research, updated best practice and addressing a multitude of controversial conservation issues, this stunning guide is also a celebration of the rich variety of wild plants and animals that can bring a beautiful garden to life. Packed full of practical advice from which plants to choose for bees, birds and butterflies, how to construct the ideal wildlife pond, where to position nesting boxes and how to enjoy wildlife in any size of outdoor space, this authoritative companion shows how wildlife gardening can make a stylish and enjoyable contribution to the environment, inspiring new gardeners while also delighting the very many owners of the best-selling original.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Wildlife

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Star Gater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion, Frances Lincoln for accepting my request to read and review RHS Companion to Wildlife Gardening.

Published; 03/14/23

Companion is the key word here. This book is a friendly chat with fellow gardeners. Living walls, ponds and everything in between are explained. There are beautiful photographs of animals, flowers, and gardens. In addition, there is an extensive index.

The book introduces several ideas but doesn't lay them out, thus companion. Looking through you can decide how far you wish to take your garden and the results you will achieve using the guidelines presented.

To the right person, this would be a nice gift. It is not for everyone. I liked the layout.

[enjoyingbooksagain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers a lot of different things it is so full of valuable information. Like what plants are good for caterpillars and butterflies to studying the wildlife in your garden. This pictures in this book are beautiful I enjoyed flipping through them. At the end of the book there is a list of contacts of conservative organizations and places you can purchase items like wildflowers and a lot more. Most of the information was based in the UK but it didn’t seem to matter to me a lot can apply to your country wherever that may be

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding myself with a chunk of garden needing a redesign, I wanted to take the needs of my local wildlife into account before redeveloping this area. That's where Chris Baines' valuable Companion to Wildlife Gardening came into play.

I'm so glad I read this book before buying trees, plants and flowers. This useful and informative guide really opened my eyes to the plight of our wide-ranging wildlife and the plants that support them most. Not to mention the depletion of traditional native British wildflowers, plants and trees. Native grown plants and trees aren't necessarily grown from British seeds and this can cause problems for the creatures who have evolved to rely on specific British plants to survive and thrive. Who knew??

There are so many thought provoking suggestions and ideas. Such as: creating a wildflower garden, explaining which plants are best for bees, putting in a water feature to diversify your area; leaving a leaf and log pile for hedgehogs, etc; keeping dead trees for birds and owls; installing nesting boxes in smart locations for bats, birds, etc suffering from depleted nesting sites, refraining from using chemicals...the list goes on and on. I've got lots of notes on plants, ideas and thoughts to consider. I need to focus on the things I can implement successfully and plant species that are both beautiful and useful to our struggling wildlife.

I feel empowered after reading the RHS Companion to Wildlife Gardening and will go forward with a plan to beautiful my garden with plants that help/feed/shelter our gorgeous wildlife as well.

[Catlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides the beginner with all that's necessary to design and plant a wildlife garden. Accompanied by lots of beautiful photographs, the text is easy to follow. I liked the different habitats that are included, such as woodland edge or wetlands. I also loved the colorful lists of wildflowers organized by color and also by location in the landscape. It would be easy to select just the right plant for a given spot. There are also good sections on propagating native plants and creating nesting sites. This would be a tremendous resource for the UK gardener who wants to encourage wildlife in their garden.

One caveat: If you are in a location other than the UK, tread carefully when selecting plants from the lists. For example, Herb robert and English Ivy are suggested wildflowers in this book, but are considered invasive noxious weeds in my state.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Susan Hamann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificently illustrated, this book was written for the British gardener, but is completely appropriate for Americans wishing to encourage wildlife to visit, no matter how large or small their gardens may be.

The book explains why wildlife is important - not only in the country and the wilderness, but right in your own yard. It encourages the gardener to think about planning the garden to encourage visits from wildlife and provides information about creating new habits, including right in your own lawn.

Not only is it beautiful, the book provides information on invasive species, encourages propagating native plants, and building natural habitats to make your yard a better space for you and your wildlife visitors, however small.

Excellent book to read for both information and visual enjoyment. I recommend this book for people who love gardening and nature.

[Maaike Bateson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Quarto publishing, Chris Baines and NetGalley for the advance copy of RHS Companion to Wildlife Gardening in return for my unbiased review.

Wow - this book really has everything! There is so much amazing information in this book, it's absolutely invaluable. It's definitely not the type of book that you sit down and read, it's more the type that you refer back to over & over again.

The photographs are beautiful and the information is in-depth and incredibly useful. This is the type of book you want on your shelf, ready and available any time you have a question about your garden.

I highly recommend this book for anyone with any interest in wildlife gardening!

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any time I see a title that begins with RHS I know I must read it because it will be an interesting, informative, and well done book.
This one was very interesting, plenty of illustrations and made me learn a lot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Artemis · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of good in this book and a lot of fun humour along the way.

Some jokes fell a little flat though and felt more like confessions of bullying than actual jokes and some information is already outdated.

That being said, I did learn a decent amount and the ending was very well executed and I whole heartedly agree with the main points made by Chris Baines.