How to Create a Wildlife Garden: Encouraging Birds, Bees and Butterflies into Your Outside Space

by Christine And Mick Lavelle

This inspiring and accessible hands-on book shows how simple gardening techniques can provide a dazzling plant display while helping the native wildlife. This new updated edition of the award-winning book (Garden Media Guild Practical Book of the Year) gives easy-to-follow instructions backed up with advice on planning and design, showing how we can share our outdoor space with nature. The authors show how to encourage beneficial garden species and discourage the more problematic ones. With its wealth of practical advice and detailed photography, this is the ideal sourcebook for gardeners and wildlife enthusiasts.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 27, 2022

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looks amazing. It's a big hard cover book, the cover art is cute, and the pages are filled with lovely magazine quality photos and tons of information. However, I can't read the typeface that was chosen to print the book in. A tiny sans serif font fills the pages, and while it looks sleek and modern, I am glad I only checked it out from the library, instead of buying it as a reference as I might have done, because it's useless to me.

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very good book. You just have to keep in mind that the book was written in England so some of the plants they mentioned in the book would not be for the United States with some of the plants being downright invasive like barberry, English ivy, Chinese wisteria, etc. Before planting anything, make sure to research to see if it can be planted in your area first.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and felt it was nicely organized and thorough. There were tons of beautiful photos and I got a lot out of it even though it is more geared towards UK gardens. My one complaint is the font in most of the book was hard on my eyes and could be better.

[Jodi Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sure this book is great for people that no what they are doing but for someone like me that has no clue it’s a little too much. I need a simple book that can start me out

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive look at creating a successful wildlife garden.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book with a lot of beautiful pictures.

[Ashley]

Really interesting book, but meant for European gardens so a lot of the plants didn’t apply. Loved the tutorials for building bird and bug houses.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is that it lays out the different natural cycles to consider when planning a wildlife garden. It’s not just about letting grass grow longer, but understanding how to provide food and shelter for species through their life cycle stages and seasons of the year.

I also particularly enjoyed the sketches of different garden ideas based on your space and location (countryside, urban, patio).

One person mentioned the text was illegible, but I found it perfectly normal. Images and organization were excellent.

It seems that the book is written by someone based in England, as some of the plant species recommended are considered invasive in my Midwest region. Would recommend working with a local for plant recommendations but the essentials of cultivating specific plant types for the sake of certain wildlife remains helpful. Really enjoyed the read and look forward to implementing some of the principles.