The Natural History of a Garden Review

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(More customer reviews)Written by a father and son, one living in southern England and the other in southern California, this book gives you the skinny on just what is going on in your garden. Who likely lives in this little eco-system you have created, who dines on your favourite plants and who eats the diners. themselves.
Take aphids, for example (please!). One aphid can give rise to 1300 more aphids within 14 days. Luckily these aphids are eaten at a great rate by hover flies, lady bugs and chickadees. One hover fly alone can eat 50 - 60 aphids a day and a ladybug can eat several thousand in its lifetime. Or take slugs. In England there may be as many as 200 slugs per 11 square feet of land. Their only enemies, apart from gardeners, seem to be a few species of birds and large beetles. But there exist microscopic creatures called nematodes that almost invisibly attack and kill slugs.
If you are interested in nature study, or in knowing what really is going on in your own, carefully created, eco-system this book will intrigue you. It contains a wealth of information about the complex web of life that is your garden. The writers are sharing a a vast store of knowledge and understanding, yet the book is very readable.
The generous section on "Gardens for Children", his specially built school pond and his pleasure in finding diverse life forms beneath the lid of a garbage can (dustbin, if you're English) specially placed in some rough grass speak to the senior writer's sense of wonder. His volume of research and clearly presented information speak to his science-based knowledge.

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To see wildlife in your garden you have to know what is there, what it looks like, and what it might be doing at any given time. The book opens with advice on how to hone observational skills so you recognize not just the insects but also their predators, and take note of the diversity of pollinators from the familiar honeybees to the low-temperature bumblebees and late-night moths. Discussions of plants and animals are followed by similarly detailed studies of soil, seasonal change, ecology, water, and garden visitors. The book's principles apply to gardens anywhere in the world, although the species and events observed will obviously vary with each garden's location. The Natural History of a Garden will enhance the garden naturalist's awareness with its strange-but-true facts, extraordinary statistics, and fascinating revelations into how a garden works.

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