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Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn
The suburban lawn sprouts a crop of contradictory myths. To some, it's a green oasis; to others, it's eco-purgatory. Science writer Hannah Holmes spent a year appraising the lawn through the eyes of the squirrels, crows, worms, and spiders who think of her backyard as their own. Suburban Safari is a fascinating and often hilarious record of her that many animals adore the suburban environment, including bears and cougars venturing in from the woods; how plants, in their struggle for dominance, communicate with their own kind and battle other species; and that ways already exist for us to grow healthier, livelier lawns.
Hannah Holmes is the author of The Secret Life of Dust . Her science and travel writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. She lives in South Portland, Maine. "Witty environmentalists are as rare as shy politicians. But in Suburban Safari, Hannah Holmes laughs at herself while celebrating the wild kingdom she explores...Holmes is a science writer who doesn't lecture. She shares the joy of discovery about the secret lives of ants, spiders and crows."- USA Today
"Holmes' backyard assumes strange, oversize proportions in the course of this fascinating the Bamboo Wilderness, the Insect Nation, the Freedom Lawn-who needs Mongolia?"- Los Angeles Times
"The writing is punchy and chock-full of strange and wonderful facts...Holmes makes it seem utterly commonplace to invite a chipmunk into one's home or spend the afternoon observing slugs."- Oregonian
"Holmes sends even the most jaded urbanite out into the yard with a magnifying glass and a newly forged sense of awe...One of the most unusual, entertaining, effortlessly educational homages to nature since Euell Gibbons ate a pine tree."-Mary Roach, author of The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Hannah Holmes is the author of The Secret Life of Dust . Her science and travel writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. She lives in South Portland, Maine. "Witty environmentalists are as rare as shy politicians. But in Suburban Safari, Hannah Holmes laughs at herself while celebrating the wild kingdom she explores...Holmes is a science writer who doesn't lecture. She shares the joy of discovery about the secret lives of ants, spiders and crows."- USA Today
"Holmes' backyard assumes strange, oversize proportions in the course of this fascinating the Bamboo Wilderness, the Insect Nation, the Freedom Lawn-who needs Mongolia?"- Los Angeles Times
"The writing is punchy and chock-full of strange and wonderful facts...Holmes makes it seem utterly commonplace to invite a chipmunk into one's home or spend the afternoon observing slugs."- Oregonian
"Holmes sends even the most jaded urbanite out into the yard with a magnifying glass and a newly forged sense of awe...One of the most unusual, entertaining, effortlessly educational homages to nature since Euell Gibbons ate a pine tree."-Mary Roach, author of The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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June 17, 2024Yes, it's science, but it's also funny, moving, and very readable! Who knew that life, both plant and animal, in a typical New England backyard could be so exciting? The author covers the spectrum of biology--from bugs to fungus to invasive trees to birds to raccoons--and invites the reader to share her wonder and concern for the world immediately surrounding us.
-Chris H.-
-Chris H.-
July 31, 2013
William Cronon's essay "The Trouble with Wilderness" lays out a critique of the wilderness myth deeply ingrained in the American mind. The gist of the essay is that since humans are part and parcel of nature, it is not historically or ecologically sound to imagine "proper" ecosystems as without human presence or influence. At the end of the piece, Cronon urges us to "make a home in nature," "to honor the Other within and the Other next door as much as we do the exotic Other that lives far away."
In Derrick Jensen's essay, Against Forgetting he exhorts us:
"But here is what I want you to do: I want you to go outside. I want you to listen to the (disappearing) frogs, to watch the (disappearing) fireflies. Even if you’re in a city—especially if you’re in a city—I want you to picture the land as it was before the land was built over. I want you to research who lived there. I want you to feel how it was then, feel how it wants to be. I want you to begin keeping a calendar of who you see and when: the first day each year you see buttercups, the first day frogs start singing, the last day you see robins in the fall, the first day for grasshoppers. In short, I want you to pay attention."
Though Holmes never acknowledges it explicitly, Surbuban Safari is an answer to Cronon's and Jensen's calls. She embarks on a year-long search to embrace and engage with the wildness of her own backyard. The engagement is thorough. It is sometimes surprising the lengths Holmes went to in completing this book. She names every animal that frequents her yard, learns the language of her local crows, and trains a chipmunk to sit in her hand and stuff its cheeks with sunflower seeds while she showers it with caresses and kisses. She also reads a huge breadth of primary literature and invites a slew of scientists, including a name as big as Amory Lovins, to her house to look for interesting things. (There's absolutely no reason Lovins should have come in service of this project, and she basically admits that both he and she knew as much, and that she just did it because she wanted to meet him.)
The book is sweet and full of genuine care and interest. What's unique about that is that it really seems place-based. While there is a decent amount of hand-wringing about Holmes' own "footprint," her interest in the natural history of her yard doesn't feel ideological. It's like she really means it, instead of just carrying out a mandate to be interested and engaged because it's the "thing to do." That keeps the narrative focused on her actual observations of actual things, real questions that arose in her observations and which she answered, not padded with pretty fluff about the concept of what she is doing.
There were a few times when Holmes strayed from her basic premise. Some of these, like the bits on local history (featuring a Captain's trained dalmation, Spot) and deep environmental/geologic history, were appropriate parts of her quest and fit well in the book. Others, like her trips to visit lawns in California and Arizona, seemed extraneous and over the top. How did she get the money to do all of that, anyway? The idea occurs to me that she was given a larger than necessary budget and just spent the extra money on these trips (and bringing Amory Lovins) and had to incorporate them into the book somehow.
Holmes struck a great balance of science, conversations with scientists, and personal, intimate observations (she's often embarrassed to tell certain scientists about pet ideas and strange relationships she's developed, and we become confidants of these secrets). It isn't a masterwork of natural history, cultural and philosophical observations, like Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, or Sand County Almanac, but it is charming and edifying in a more modest way. Overall, it is an admirable project (indeed, one we should all undertake), admirably achieved, with a sweet narrative personality.
Some things I learned:
- Crows live in family groups of four, with a mature mating pair and two children. All contribute to raising further babies, which teaches parenting skills to the adolescents.
- There is a breed of dogs, known as Carolina dogs, that were presumably brought here (deep time speaking) and bred by native Americans but were living in wild packs up to the 1970s in the woods.
- Squirrels are very distinguishing about acorns. In good years, they will eat white oak acorns immediately, since they sprout in the fall and thus don't store, but store red oak acorns. In even better years, they will only eat the tender top bits and eschew the tannin-rich parts of the nutmeat. In bad years, they will remove the embryo from white oak acorns to prevent them from sprouting, so they can be stored for the winter.
- West Nile virus primarily affects birds, and is carried by fiendish European House Sparrows, who are largely immune to it
- There is a complex relationship between oak mast, rodent populations, tick populations, and thus incidents of Lyme's disease.
- Most interesting of all was the revelation that overwintering insects (those who don't migrate and who survive longer than one year or overwinter as a larvae or adult, not an egg - including wasps and bees) are highly sensitive to deep winter temperatures. Mid-January is the last time you'd think about insects showing activity of any kind. I had sort of assumed that they just hid out someplace and put life on pause, falling out of the stream of life til Spring. Barring chance discovery by woodpeckers and other insectivores, this is mostly true. But the antifreeze techniques insects employ have limits (calibrated to their environment, of course - some arctic beetles can survive something like -40), and a particularly cold winter can have a greater impact on insect populations the next year than any more obvious ecological issue, like pesticide exposure, predator populations, food and nest resource availability, etc.
In Derrick Jensen's essay, Against Forgetting he exhorts us:
"But here is what I want you to do: I want you to go outside. I want you to listen to the (disappearing) frogs, to watch the (disappearing) fireflies. Even if you’re in a city—especially if you’re in a city—I want you to picture the land as it was before the land was built over. I want you to research who lived there. I want you to feel how it was then, feel how it wants to be. I want you to begin keeping a calendar of who you see and when: the first day each year you see buttercups, the first day frogs start singing, the last day you see robins in the fall, the first day for grasshoppers. In short, I want you to pay attention."
Though Holmes never acknowledges it explicitly, Surbuban Safari is an answer to Cronon's and Jensen's calls. She embarks on a year-long search to embrace and engage with the wildness of her own backyard. The engagement is thorough. It is sometimes surprising the lengths Holmes went to in completing this book. She names every animal that frequents her yard, learns the language of her local crows, and trains a chipmunk to sit in her hand and stuff its cheeks with sunflower seeds while she showers it with caresses and kisses. She also reads a huge breadth of primary literature and invites a slew of scientists, including a name as big as Amory Lovins, to her house to look for interesting things. (There's absolutely no reason Lovins should have come in service of this project, and she basically admits that both he and she knew as much, and that she just did it because she wanted to meet him.)
The book is sweet and full of genuine care and interest. What's unique about that is that it really seems place-based. While there is a decent amount of hand-wringing about Holmes' own "footprint," her interest in the natural history of her yard doesn't feel ideological. It's like she really means it, instead of just carrying out a mandate to be interested and engaged because it's the "thing to do." That keeps the narrative focused on her actual observations of actual things, real questions that arose in her observations and which she answered, not padded with pretty fluff about the concept of what she is doing.
There were a few times when Holmes strayed from her basic premise. Some of these, like the bits on local history (featuring a Captain's trained dalmation, Spot) and deep environmental/geologic history, were appropriate parts of her quest and fit well in the book. Others, like her trips to visit lawns in California and Arizona, seemed extraneous and over the top. How did she get the money to do all of that, anyway? The idea occurs to me that she was given a larger than necessary budget and just spent the extra money on these trips (and bringing Amory Lovins) and had to incorporate them into the book somehow.
Holmes struck a great balance of science, conversations with scientists, and personal, intimate observations (she's often embarrassed to tell certain scientists about pet ideas and strange relationships she's developed, and we become confidants of these secrets). It isn't a masterwork of natural history, cultural and philosophical observations, like Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, or Sand County Almanac, but it is charming and edifying in a more modest way. Overall, it is an admirable project (indeed, one we should all undertake), admirably achieved, with a sweet narrative personality.
Some things I learned:
- Crows live in family groups of four, with a mature mating pair and two children. All contribute to raising further babies, which teaches parenting skills to the adolescents.
- There is a breed of dogs, known as Carolina dogs, that were presumably brought here (deep time speaking) and bred by native Americans but were living in wild packs up to the 1970s in the woods.
- Squirrels are very distinguishing about acorns. In good years, they will eat white oak acorns immediately, since they sprout in the fall and thus don't store, but store red oak acorns. In even better years, they will only eat the tender top bits and eschew the tannin-rich parts of the nutmeat. In bad years, they will remove the embryo from white oak acorns to prevent them from sprouting, so they can be stored for the winter.
- West Nile virus primarily affects birds, and is carried by fiendish European House Sparrows, who are largely immune to it
- There is a complex relationship between oak mast, rodent populations, tick populations, and thus incidents of Lyme's disease.
- Most interesting of all was the revelation that overwintering insects (those who don't migrate and who survive longer than one year or overwinter as a larvae or adult, not an egg - including wasps and bees) are highly sensitive to deep winter temperatures. Mid-January is the last time you'd think about insects showing activity of any kind. I had sort of assumed that they just hid out someplace and put life on pause, falling out of the stream of life til Spring. Barring chance discovery by woodpeckers and other insectivores, this is mostly true. But the antifreeze techniques insects employ have limits (calibrated to their environment, of course - some arctic beetles can survive something like -40), and a particularly cold winter can have a greater impact on insect populations the next year than any more obvious ecological issue, like pesticide exposure, predator populations, food and nest resource availability, etc.
November 13, 2018
A "Cheeky" take on a landscape you only thought you knew.
An American backyard is a fascinating place! I love this author's voice -- she could make the phone book interesting.
"Cheeky" the chipmunk and "Yawp" the crow are just a few of the winsome neighbors you'll meet along the way. (Bonus fact: It turns out that my low maintenance approach to lawn maintenance isn't laziness; I am cultivating a Freedom Lawn.)
An American backyard is a fascinating place! I love this author's voice -- she could make the phone book interesting.
"Cheeky" the chipmunk and "Yawp" the crow are just a few of the winsome neighbors you'll meet along the way. (Bonus fact: It turns out that my low maintenance approach to lawn maintenance isn't laziness; I am cultivating a Freedom Lawn.)
February 7, 2021
My disposition in general is to find out cool things about ordinary reality. Suburban wildlife in my neck of the Eastern North American Megalopolis known as the BoWash (Boston-Washington DC) is with all its human artificiality still a part of the natural world and contains much wildlife to be found in this world. The author takes field notes on her suburban backyard over the course of the year. With birds, squirrels, trees, coyotes, and other creatures that live with us in our suburban and even urban neighborhoods. I like reminders that we live in the biosphere no matter how much we pretend to live at a remove from it.
May 26, 2011
Trivia fans will like this one (Did you know that the "clean" smell that comes with rain is actually the smell of fungi spores just released? Or that earthworms aren't native to Maine?). So I definitely learned a lot. Particularly interesting to me was her presentation of the environmental factors surrounding the lawn, not just hers but everybody's. We've all heard countless times about how we should be doing our small part for the environment, that if everyone helps it will all add up to a big difference. She puts this in a real-life context that is easy to understand. What I didn't like is the structure of her book. She divides it into the four seasons, starting with spring. However, the aspects of the lawn she discusses in each section are very, very loosely tied with the seasons. Instead, it ought to be topically arranged - plants, birds, insects, water, carbon, etc. I also didn't like that the section about the history of the lawn is exactly the same as the corresponding section in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Private Life. Either they were working from the same source at roughly the same time, or somebody copied somebody else. I will add more more thing: everyone who saw me reading this book commented on the cover art. What a cute, funny squirrel. Have to admit it sucked me into the book in the first place. And yet, she writes far more about crows and chipmunks than squirrels. Bit of a dense read, but worth your time if you have any curiosity about how the natural world has found a way to thrive among humans.
November 25, 2011
This fun mainstream nonfiction book takes environmental awareness to a new level. Hannah Holmes resolves to spend one year examining, in minute detail, her yard. She brings in experts to help her learn about some areas of her yard (entomolgy anyone?) and does historical research into the past life of her yard. Hannah Holmes writes in a very down-to-earth style that is extremely easy to follow. She shares her personal thoughts intertwined with the stories of the "characters" found in the yard. You'll never look at your yard the same way again. My favorite take-away message - mowing infrequently and not worrying about weeds in the yard is an environmentally healthy behavior. Go green! :)
July 1, 2018
I got 100+ pages into this before abandoning it, so I feel as though I can give it a fair review. Holmes had some interesting science to share, but though her prose was conversational, I still found the delivery dry. While I don't think it was intentional, Holmes was sometimes a bit of a downer (every step across your lawn is killing thousands of organisms!), and - in the first half of the book, at least - provides little positive information on proper husbandry.
At some point, as I realized I was counting pages to the end for the umpteenth time, I looked at the stack of unread books on my coffee table and decided I just wasn't enjoying this one enough to continue on.
At some point, as I realized I was counting pages to the end for the umpteenth time, I looked at the stack of unread books on my coffee table and decided I just wasn't enjoying this one enough to continue on.
February 1, 2021
I extra cannot wait til spring after reading this - her enthusiasm and curiosity are infectious.
September 10, 2019
This was an excellent read. It was well written and captivating from start to finish, making even seemingly inanimate objects that sound like they would make the most boring writing subjects extremely interesting. There is some wit in the writing that creates perfectly timed comic relief to a very important and very real topic, and some recurring guest animal stars who’s journeys one enjoys following time and time again. Over all, the book gives a fresh view of the seemingly ordinary wildlife in a suburban or urban environment, and I feel I couldn’t have picked a better book to read about the wildlife outside our suburban doors.
January 29, 2012
I found this book quite charming. Hannah Holmes decides to take a year to observe the life in her backyard in Maine - everything from the worms, ants and slugs, to the spiders, the mice, the crows, the squirrels, and her trees. She anthropomorphizes the creatures and names the stars (Babbette the spider, Cheeky the chipmunk, Stumpy the amputee squirrel etc) and they become characters that you care for and root for as spring (where her book starts) marches through summer, fall, and then winter. This books was written during the year when the West Nile virus was killing off birds across the United States and the North East experienced that freakishly cold winter - the one that the news stations were dubbing 'snowpocolipse' - so those two factors added a sort of conflict to the book (animal v. nature maybe?) that kept you reading to see if they would all make it. (Side note: with regards to the winter, Holmes totally cheated and left out bird seed and nuts for her little friends, but I would have too).
The book is written with loads of humor, especially the self depreciating sort, and a style which will make even the more 'science-laden' paragraphs readable to those who don't have much of a background on the topic. I learned a lot from this book and I kept finding myself turning to my husband and saying things like 'did you know that trees can mast? and that they can control their nut production to control the animals around them?' or 'did you know that hummingbirds prefer red flowers because they have a higher sugar content?'
Fun stuff :-D
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone, but especially those with an interest in their backyards, even if it's just a passive sort of interest. You won't look at your backyard the same way again.
The book is written with loads of humor, especially the self depreciating sort, and a style which will make even the more 'science-laden' paragraphs readable to those who don't have much of a background on the topic. I learned a lot from this book and I kept finding myself turning to my husband and saying things like 'did you know that trees can mast? and that they can control their nut production to control the animals around them?' or 'did you know that hummingbirds prefer red flowers because they have a higher sugar content?'
Fun stuff :-D
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone, but especially those with an interest in their backyards, even if it's just a passive sort of interest. You won't look at your backyard the same way again.
February 10, 2009
Hannah Holmes takes an ordinary subject: the yard surrounding her home, and turns it into an extraordinary treatise on the carbon footprint we are all leaving on the earth. Holmes splits her book into four sections, each one covering a season. She explores all the forms of life in her yard: insects, mammals, birds, even the native and invasive plant life. Her investigation uncovers the natural interdependence of all the various life forms and discusses the impact of our human lives on both our personal environment and as a species on the earth's ecology.
The book contains lots of interesting facts about the insects, animals and plant life we see every day, and Holmes writes with a lively and easy prose. She makes an intensely scientific subject a fun educational adventure as she describes the daily activities of her paranoid crows, randy squirrels, cheeky chipmunk, industrious ants, fighting beetles and sentient trees that will make you look twice at your everyday surroundings.
The book contains lots of interesting facts about the insects, animals and plant life we see every day, and Holmes writes with a lively and easy prose. She makes an intensely scientific subject a fun educational adventure as she describes the daily activities of her paranoid crows, randy squirrels, cheeky chipmunk, industrious ants, fighting beetles and sentient trees that will make you look twice at your everyday surroundings.
June 17, 2007
Holmes, with the help of various experts, takes a close look at what’s living in her own backyard in Portland, Maine (my state’s biggest city). From the worms to the crows to the cute chipmunk she lets into her home, Holmes succeeds at making the suburban landscape absolutely fascinating. She’s your everyday sort of nature writer, because when she spent this year of observation she knew as much as you or me would about what goes on in the American backyard. She loves the environment, but is as squeamish as the next person when it comes to bugs in the house. Fun style, informative and interesting content = must-read.
October 1, 2008
Delightful account of one woman's observations of nature's little dramas as they unfold on her suburban lawn. Charming narrative alternating with solid ecological facts to place her observations in context. Although she lives in Maine, many of her observations feel at home here in central Ohio, where my wife and I enjoy watching a very similar cast of characters--boisterous crows, task-oriented ant colonies, buzzing bees, mischievous squirrels, milling roly-polys, and charming little chipmunks. A must-read for any suburban or small-town dweller who loves their little piece of the wild!
December 24, 2008
Get to know the citizens of your backyard kingdom, and perhaps you too will decide to give up your perfect lawn for something better for the wildlife. I think I've had a "Freedom Lawn" ever since we've owned ground, but more so because I'm too lazy to do all the fertilizing and whatnot. Come to find out, the lazy way is better for the environment anyway. Hurrah! Long live violets and clover!
An informative and entertaining look at our human impact on the environment, and what exactly we can do make our footprint smaller.
An informative and entertaining look at our human impact on the environment, and what exactly we can do make our footprint smaller.
March 26, 2016
I enjoyed this book because Hannah Holmes does what I have always wanted to do and studies the plants and animals that live in her yard and even brings in experts to fill in the gaps in her knowledge and understanding. She looks at the way her actions affect and influence the balance of life in her space and beyond that in the world. She also discusses the ways that invasive species from other countries have changed our environment and what can and can't be done about it. A good mix of light and deep thought about coexisting with nature.
April 14, 2013
This is a pretty good nature book mostly because it isn't like any other "nature book." I liked learning about animals that I would expect to see from a writer who isn't overly formal or informal. The problem with most books is they're written for scientists or written for little kids. More people should follow Hannah Holmes's example and create accessible non-fiction literature that doesn't make you feel like you're being talked down to.
August 12, 2016
Backyard biology. Less objective than I expected, but still interesting to learn about everything in a yard, especially invasive species.
May 8, 2015
Very interesting. I learned so much about the wildlife that inhabits our back yards - crows, squirrels - all of the "common" animals we don't see.
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June 15, 2020She spent a year studying her back yard while letting it grow wild except for mowing it every other week. She had a lawn with a little bit of grass amongst the weeds, some bushes on the edges, and a few trees beside those. Letting the lawn grow as it would is called a Freedom Lawn.
She brought in specialists on insects, animals, plants, houses, etc to find out everything that was living in her lawn and eventually the impact that every little change - including herself - was having on the creatures there.
The beginning of the book she talks about what is living in her lawn and the impact that they have on each other and that humans have on them. Slowly she transitions into talking about native vs. non-native plants, animals and insects and she takes some field trips to visit some other states and what people have discovered about the various topics she writes about.
How does this relate to my Americorps experience?
While reading this book I kept thinking about how what Holmes was talking about (native vs. non-native plants and animals) was similar to what CTEP deals with every day. We are trying to find ways to help the non-native animals fit in with the society that the native animals here have evolved into a semi-working system here in the states. While cross-pollination is infrequent, the times that it happens the animals that result from that blending enrich the current society and help make the system better in a small way.
However sometimes the opposite effect is reached. Some non-native plants animals that are introduced refuse or are unable to cross-pollinate and instead evolve ways in which to hinder the growth of the native plants in ways that further their own progress. Examples of these are plants that secrete acids into the ground to burn up the roots of plants growing nearby, or birds such as the English Sparrow that were introduced by early settlers. These birds murder native birds that start eating in their feeding grounds, and live in colonies large enough to defend the best shelters and breeding grounds that used to belong to the native birds. (Seems to me these birds just mimicked the activities of the early settlers, and just never stopped.) Some species look on the outside to be helpers -like the earthworm providing fertilizer and turning the soil- but end up being hinderers. As the earthworm turns dead plants to nitrogen faster than the native fungi, the plants are unable to use the nitrogen fast enough and much of it runs off in rainfall to the nearby rivers and streams where it feeds an algae population explosion which when they decay rob the water of oxygen and kill the fish, and then all this pollution runs into the sea. Also as the earthworms are moving into North American forests they are producing the wrong kind of nitrogen for the trees, so the trees are starving because the cycle of trees dropping leaves to the slow-working fungi who turn the leaves to nitrogen which feeds the trees is broken, forests are slowly dying.
All of these situations can be applied to situations humans put eachother in, and even situations we Americorps members find ourselves in during this year of service - if in a smaller scale. This book made me think about the impact that introducing a new animal into a biosystem has, and then the impact that introducing an Americorps member into an immigrant community has. Although much of the impact we are hoping to make is a positive one - with our capacity building, and teaching of classes - we must realize that everything we say and do is being analyzed by these people wanting to learn about American culture. So even our negative actions are being processed, and will have a lasting effect even bigger than we would have ever thought possible. Just think about the earthworm happily introduced by the farmer who is only trying to make a living eventually leading to the death of many fish in the nearby river because the local plants can't process the nitrogen-rich soil the worm produces. When a butterfly flaps its wings...
Should other CTEPers read this?
Definitely. If you like learning about the plants, animals and insects living in the city and why. Also if you like learning about the impacts humans are having on the Earth - like that it's not just vehicle exhaust leading to global-warming, just heating your house in the winter is heating up the environment outside your house with the heat leaked from various parts of it - this is the book for you. It's a very exciting read. I especially liked the part where she describes making friends with a chipmunk who comes to live in her yard, and how he sits in her hand and lets her pet him (and even kiss him!) as long as he is stuffing his cheeks with seeds, and how he comes most mornings pitter-pattering through her open door and across her floor wandering through the house to find her, and the cup of seeds she always has for him, and climbing up her leg to find it.
She brought in specialists on insects, animals, plants, houses, etc to find out everything that was living in her lawn and eventually the impact that every little change - including herself - was having on the creatures there.
The beginning of the book she talks about what is living in her lawn and the impact that they have on each other and that humans have on them. Slowly she transitions into talking about native vs. non-native plants, animals and insects and she takes some field trips to visit some other states and what people have discovered about the various topics she writes about.
How does this relate to my Americorps experience?
While reading this book I kept thinking about how what Holmes was talking about (native vs. non-native plants and animals) was similar to what CTEP deals with every day. We are trying to find ways to help the non-native animals fit in with the society that the native animals here have evolved into a semi-working system here in the states. While cross-pollination is infrequent, the times that it happens the animals that result from that blending enrich the current society and help make the system better in a small way.
However sometimes the opposite effect is reached. Some non-native plants animals that are introduced refuse or are unable to cross-pollinate and instead evolve ways in which to hinder the growth of the native plants in ways that further their own progress. Examples of these are plants that secrete acids into the ground to burn up the roots of plants growing nearby, or birds such as the English Sparrow that were introduced by early settlers. These birds murder native birds that start eating in their feeding grounds, and live in colonies large enough to defend the best shelters and breeding grounds that used to belong to the native birds. (Seems to me these birds just mimicked the activities of the early settlers, and just never stopped.) Some species look on the outside to be helpers -like the earthworm providing fertilizer and turning the soil- but end up being hinderers. As the earthworm turns dead plants to nitrogen faster than the native fungi, the plants are unable to use the nitrogen fast enough and much of it runs off in rainfall to the nearby rivers and streams where it feeds an algae population explosion which when they decay rob the water of oxygen and kill the fish, and then all this pollution runs into the sea. Also as the earthworms are moving into North American forests they are producing the wrong kind of nitrogen for the trees, so the trees are starving because the cycle of trees dropping leaves to the slow-working fungi who turn the leaves to nitrogen which feeds the trees is broken, forests are slowly dying.
All of these situations can be applied to situations humans put eachother in, and even situations we Americorps members find ourselves in during this year of service - if in a smaller scale. This book made me think about the impact that introducing a new animal into a biosystem has, and then the impact that introducing an Americorps member into an immigrant community has. Although much of the impact we are hoping to make is a positive one - with our capacity building, and teaching of classes - we must realize that everything we say and do is being analyzed by these people wanting to learn about American culture. So even our negative actions are being processed, and will have a lasting effect even bigger than we would have ever thought possible. Just think about the earthworm happily introduced by the farmer who is only trying to make a living eventually leading to the death of many fish in the nearby river because the local plants can't process the nitrogen-rich soil the worm produces. When a butterfly flaps its wings...
Should other CTEPers read this?
Definitely. If you like learning about the plants, animals and insects living in the city and why. Also if you like learning about the impacts humans are having on the Earth - like that it's not just vehicle exhaust leading to global-warming, just heating your house in the winter is heating up the environment outside your house with the heat leaked from various parts of it - this is the book for you. It's a very exciting read. I especially liked the part where she describes making friends with a chipmunk who comes to live in her yard, and how he sits in her hand and lets her pet him (and even kiss him!) as long as he is stuffing his cheeks with seeds, and how he comes most mornings pitter-pattering through her open door and across her floor wandering through the house to find her, and the cup of seeds she always has for him, and climbing up her leg to find it.
September 6, 2017
Ms. Holmes's home is probably a fifteen-or-twenty-minute drive from my house in Gorham, Maine. She lives near the ocean. I'm more inland but our habitats are likely very similar. My family lives in a neighborhood but with plenty of wildlife between most of the homes for animals to have an unnoticed keg party. 'Suburban Safari' was published in 2005. It's a lighthearted presentation with loads of interesting information and personal insights by the author. Even when she is writing about life-and-death situations, Ms. Holmes interjects some light wordplay. The book never had me laughing out loud but her presentation is far removed from some boring academic composition. Like most people, we take for granted the familiar. The author's book reminds us that there are loads of interesting ongoing happenings just outside (hell, and inside) our door.
She begins her year-long investigation during the Spring and concludes the book during Winter. The work describes various birds such as the highly intelligent crows, hummingbirds, Maine's state bird the chickadee, and the invasive species known as starlings and English sparrows. The lady certainly has an especially poor opinion of starlings and English sparrows which she explains. There's enough of a dark side to the author that she seems to relish the deaths of these two birds by other animals and isn't shy about killing mice in her basement to rid her home of them. She serves the mouse corpses to the animals, especially crows, who've come to view her place as the local neighborhood's free buffet. As the self-deprecating Ms. Holmes acknowledges, she chooses what she loves. The author names some of the crows, a hawk, some squirrels, a few spiders, and a chipmunk named Cheeky who she trains to come into her home at its leisure for food and affection. Some of the other topics Ms. Holmes covers include the various plants and trees, water, insects, the history of the lawn, various Maine mammals, the evolution of New England's topography, invasive species both plant and animal, pollution, and how humans affect their surroundings. She evens taste-tests some of the greenery. Unless one of our trees starts growing bottles of French salad dressing, I'll leave the taste-testing for the female Euell Gibbons from South Portland. The author also avoids sanitizing the more brutal aspects of nature where death is a daily companion. Also, small portions of the book seem to have Ms. Holmes channeling the late Rachel Carson but not in some off-putting lecture sort of way.
'Suburban Safari' is an intimate work that has the reader becoming more aware of their immediate surroundings. It's not a bad thing, especially as society becomes evermore addicted to twenty-four-hours news stations, the Internet, and their cell phones. The book is a mixture of her personal journey of discoveries and adventures as well as many interesting facts about her little slice of nature. Now, go out there, read the book, and hug a skunk if you dare.
She begins her year-long investigation during the Spring and concludes the book during Winter. The work describes various birds such as the highly intelligent crows, hummingbirds, Maine's state bird the chickadee, and the invasive species known as starlings and English sparrows. The lady certainly has an especially poor opinion of starlings and English sparrows which she explains. There's enough of a dark side to the author that she seems to relish the deaths of these two birds by other animals and isn't shy about killing mice in her basement to rid her home of them. She serves the mouse corpses to the animals, especially crows, who've come to view her place as the local neighborhood's free buffet. As the self-deprecating Ms. Holmes acknowledges, she chooses what she loves. The author names some of the crows, a hawk, some squirrels, a few spiders, and a chipmunk named Cheeky who she trains to come into her home at its leisure for food and affection. Some of the other topics Ms. Holmes covers include the various plants and trees, water, insects, the history of the lawn, various Maine mammals, the evolution of New England's topography, invasive species both plant and animal, pollution, and how humans affect their surroundings. She evens taste-tests some of the greenery. Unless one of our trees starts growing bottles of French salad dressing, I'll leave the taste-testing for the female Euell Gibbons from South Portland. The author also avoids sanitizing the more brutal aspects of nature where death is a daily companion. Also, small portions of the book seem to have Ms. Holmes channeling the late Rachel Carson but not in some off-putting lecture sort of way.
'Suburban Safari' is an intimate work that has the reader becoming more aware of their immediate surroundings. It's not a bad thing, especially as society becomes evermore addicted to twenty-four-hours news stations, the Internet, and their cell phones. The book is a mixture of her personal journey of discoveries and adventures as well as many interesting facts about her little slice of nature. Now, go out there, read the book, and hug a skunk if you dare.
March 6, 2021
This is a really interesting idea for a book! Most of the science and nature writing I read is on the more charismatic or exotic species; here, Holmes has restricted herself to her own back yard. It's not a particularly special back yard - she hasn't been manicuring it for decades or anything like that. It's an ordinary garden set in an ordinary neighbourhood in Maine, and she notes the changes in that garden, and the plants and animals that live in it, over the space of a year. Which is pretty much nature writing, but there's a lot of science here too, as she's consistently inviting scientists to come see her lawn and, for example, survey the ratio of natives to non-natives, or conduct a census of the insects there.
It's a good way of integrating science into typical nature writing, and I enjoyed the mix of genres... but I did find it a little tonally jarring. Much of the book is written in a very informal, chatty style, but that's regularly interrupted with a much more... not technical, but significantly more reserved writing when the science comes into play. The biggest example of this was the chapter on the geological history of Maine, stuffed into the Autumn section of the book. It felt a little out of place, to be honest, in subject as well as style, and I think I would have preferred it if the prose was more consistent all the way through.
It's a good way of integrating science into typical nature writing, and I enjoyed the mix of genres... but I did find it a little tonally jarring. Much of the book is written in a very informal, chatty style, but that's regularly interrupted with a much more... not technical, but significantly more reserved writing when the science comes into play. The biggest example of this was the chapter on the geological history of Maine, stuffed into the Autumn section of the book. It felt a little out of place, to be honest, in subject as well as style, and I think I would have preferred it if the prose was more consistent all the way through.
January 25, 2020
Nonfiction about one suburban homeowner in Maine and her intense study of her own backyard. Holmes learns about not just the easily visible animals (the squirrels, the ravens, her adorable relationship with a chipmunk that she trains to eat out of her hand) but the unseen: insects, fungi, the roots of plants, the water runoff, the heat bubble created by her house, the soil, even the deep-down geology. Her style is very similar to Mary Roach's – an intelligent, curious, and humorous generalist who interviews experts to learn more, with a non-insignificant part of the book being her own mishaps, misunderstandings, and difficulties in finding the right experts. Holmes does end up advocating for her readers to adopt her approach (growing a freedom lawn – no grass, just native species however messy they might look, no fertilizer or pesticides), but overall it's a book of interesting facts, pleasantly delivered.
A note: Holmes, like most nature experts, dislikes invasive species. However, there's a short section where she goes way farther than most, including a quite graphic description of the death she wishes upon sparrows and starlings. Anyone who can't read about animal death might wish to skip the first few pages of Chapter Eleven.
A note: Holmes, like most nature experts, dislikes invasive species. However, there's a short section where she goes way farther than most, including a quite graphic description of the death she wishes upon sparrows and starlings. Anyone who can't read about animal death might wish to skip the first few pages of Chapter Eleven.
January 6, 2025
Because I have invested time and effort into making my own backyard a place where native plants are given top billing, gotten it certified as a backyard wildlife habitat and worked hard to keep out invasives. I was very interested in reading about someone else's experience in this area.
This book provided some interesting facts about the environment of her yard and the plant and animal occupants throughout the seasons. How things have changed over many years and how most of what's in our backyards today is likely forcing out native plants and much of the change has resulted from things we've introduced.
She personifies the animals that visit and live in her yard naming them and assigning them characteristics. This seems like a way to keep track of the various animals and birds and note changes in behavior. However I don't agree that the animals should be befriended, like she does with the chipmunk, allowing them to become so familiarized is dangerous for them and the person doing it.
This book provided some interesting facts about the environment of her yard and the plant and animal occupants throughout the seasons. How things have changed over many years and how most of what's in our backyards today is likely forcing out native plants and much of the change has resulted from things we've introduced.
She personifies the animals that visit and live in her yard naming them and assigning them characteristics. This seems like a way to keep track of the various animals and birds and note changes in behavior. However I don't agree that the animals should be befriended, like she does with the chipmunk, allowing them to become so familiarized is dangerous for them and the person doing it.
August 2, 2020
The author of this book sheds a unique light on humanity's relationship with the natural world, and brings to the reader's attention just how much of that world can be observed in a suburban environment. Although the author presents herself as an amateur hobbiest in this particular field, it's fairly obvious that she's also a professional science writer as stated in her bio. The book is very well researched, with a long list of references at the end. Unfortunately, the personal anecdotes and the science content weren't always well integrated, in my opinion, and this detracted a little from the book's entertainment value. It was still a fascinating read, and I plan to recommend it to at least one other person. But it's not something I strongly feel that I need to reread.
Did I like it? Yes.
Would I reread it? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Yes.
Did I like it? Yes.
Would I reread it? Probably not.
Would I recommend it? Yes.
April 2, 2018
Curiously introspective and microscopic view of a lawn, some parts overgrown, all parts infested with all manner of living beings. Some are cute, some are scary. It is weird that she trains a chipmunk to come into the house and up into her work room to feed. And then complains at cupboards infested with moths and insects what with the open doors no screens. Interesting to read of the energy loss and living beings in her older built home.
February 16, 2019
A short, accessible book about the wonders of nature in every back yard. Holmes tells it in a wry, deprecating style, artfully weaving scientific research with human experience. She is brilliant, a true nature nerd, but comes through the page like an interesting acquaintance you met at a party. She doesn't spend too much time on any one subject, rather litters the pages with suggestions to fascinate and look into.
September 10, 2019
Holmes, a science writer, documents what she observes in her own yard over the course of a year and records it in an entertaining, sometimes comedic fashion in this nonfiction work. I came away with a new appreciation for my own backyard after reading this. I love, love, love this book -- it was published in 2006 but I still find myself recommending it to friends who are interested in the outdoors at least once a year.
November 15, 2020
Suburban Safari: a year on the lawn by Hannah Holmes was amazing! It was separated into each season & went through her adventures & antics in her little Freedom Lawn. She mixes in science with fun so that you're learning while laughing at the strange things she does. Definitely worth a read for any animal lover & home owner! You learn several cool ways to actually make your yard more native wildlife friendly, which is something I definitely will be taking with me in the future!
December 14, 2020
I really enjoyed reading about the microenvironment of Hannah Holmes' backyard. I too am a a frequent observer of my backyard friends, the birds, the squirrels, the rabbits and the bugs. Holmes does a deep dive into the floral and the fauna that inhabits her sphere. I did not find it a speedy read nor was it riveting but did give me a deep appreciation for all that thrives and is, in its own way, a call to action on the climate crisis.
November 27, 2019
She’s described on the back of the book as a witty environmentalist, which is perfect. Her turns of phrase are great, and the tone of the book is so light that the extensive bibliography at the back came as a surprise. Fully as encompassing as Mary Roach’s “Stiff” and just as enjoyable. I want the read her book on dust now!
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