Pollinator Gardening for the South: Creating Sustainable Habitats

by Danesha Seth Carley, Anne M Spafford

This step-by-step guide will answer all of your questions about how to create beautiful gardens designed to welcome beneficial pollinators across the South. Combining up-to-date scientific information with artful design strategies, Danesha Seth Carley and Anne M. Spafford teach gardeners of all levels to plan, plant, and maintain successful pollinator gardens at home and in shared community sites. Everyday gardeners, along with farmers, scientists, and policy makers, share serious concerns about ongoing declines in bee and other pollinator populations, and here Spafford and Carley deliver great every thoughtfully designed garden, no matter how small, can play a huge role in providing the habitat, nourishment, and nesting places so needed by pollinators. This book explains all you need to be a pollinator champion.

*Covers USDA hardiness zones 6, 7, 8, and 9, including twelve southern states
*Explains what makes pollinators happy—bees, for sure, and many others, great and small
*Brings science and art together in gardens of all types, including urban, food, container, community, school, and large-scale gardens
*Provides step-by-step instructions for choosing locations, preparing soil and garden beds, selecting the best plants, considering seasonality in your garden design, managing your garden throughout the year, and much more
*Richly illustrated with photographs, design plans, and handy charts and lists

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2021

Reviews

[Kristie J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, easy-to-read information about bees, flies, beetles, butterflies, and other pollinators and how to design a pollinator garden to encourage these pollinators to visit your yard. Beautiful pictures and drawings. Just enough information without being overwhelming. Positive, encouraging tone. Lots of references to and pictures of pollinator-friendly plants that grow in the South. I really liked the helpful tables and excellent overview of gardening design. I live in North Carolina so I love the focus on the South and knowing that the plants discussed in the book will grow in my area. Gardening is a huge topic and can get overwhelming easily, so it's very helpful to have an easy-to-read, straightforward book that focuses on the fun, colorful, environmentally-friendly trend of pollinator gardening.

[Ashleyc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great chart of Native southern plants, heights and seasonal interest! Also breaks down which pollinators like what plants. Revealed the sunflower mystery….spoiler alert…little to no beneficial pollen but provides immunity boost for pollinators. Awesome dose of vitamins!

[Carson Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good entry level book with lots of pictures and design tips. Cool NC research, too! Picked it up in the hopes of some mention of the passaflora bee, but understand that there’s so many native bees in the southeast that a brief overview is all they had space for.

[Ariel Robelen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures.