Birdscaping Your Garden

This guide shows how an ordinary yard can become a wonderland of songbirds by simply adding colorful native plants designed to attract many varieties of birds. 120 color photos & 60 illustrations.

Wake up to the beautiful sound of bird song every day. Discover how to identify the most common garden birds, and how to choose, grow, and maintain the native plants that will attract them to your backyard. From acacias to eucalypts, and from honeyeaters to kookaburras, this essential guide will help transform any garden across Australia into an avian paradise. Featuring plant and bird directories illustrated with superb color photographs and line drawings, as well as comprehensive planting tables and expert advice, this book has all you need to create a refuge for birds--and so preserve Australia's amazing natural heritage and biodiversity.

Shows how to turn a yard into an inviting sanctuary where birds will want to nest and raise their families.

Welcoming birds to your yard isn’t about choosing the right feeders and bird food. If you want to attract the widest range of birds to your home, you need to plant a diversity of native plants. Why go green? Native plants live longer; they are drought resistant, take less water and fertilizer, they cost less, are less work and easier to maintain. And a big plus—they are good for the environment. In 2007, Douglas Tallamy published the groundbreaking book, Bringing Nature Home, on going native to protect wildlife. Since then Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the National Wildlife Federation, and National Audubon have all endorsed and encouraged gardening with native plants. Planting Native to Attract Birds to Your Yard is the first book to cover planting native to specifically attract birds. The book recommends plants for all types of backyards, no matter how large or small—from large plots to container gardens. Sorenson gives state-specific recommendations for 31 Eastern U.S. states for native plants that support birds during the four seasons. The book covers the full gamut of native plants—76 species of trees, shrubs, bushes, vines, grasses, perennials, and annuals—and gives details on why specific plants are bird friendly and how to choose plants that work successfully in attractive home landscapes. Includes 66 bird species, all shown in dramatic color photos. Birders, gardeners, and landscapers—all who love birds and beautiful gardens—will find this book a must.

Go beyond bird feeders! Learn how to create outstanding bird habitats in your own yard with native plants that offer food, cover, and nesting sites for birds. This guide is packed with color photographs, sage advice, detailed instructions, and garden plans. It features nine different habitat gardens for hummingbirds, bluebirds, wintering birds, migrant birds, and birds that frequent prairies, wetlands, lakes, shrublands, and woodlands, along with advice about maintaining your plantings and augmenting them with nest boxes, birdbaths, misters, and perches. The information on recommended plant species includes their native ranges in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin; the birds they attract; their visual characteristics; and their cultivation. Mariette Nowak also describes how gardeners featured in this book have gone beyond their own garden gates to work for the protection and restoration of bird habitat in their neighborhoods and communities. Birdscaping in the Midwest provides many sources of further information, including publications, websites, organizations, and native plant nurseries.

Describes nineteen different bird families with advice on ways to attract each family with nesting sights, shrub cover, and a variety of specific plant suggestions.

A quick-reference guide to attracting birds and butterflies for gardeners with little experience and time. In the eye of a bird or butterfly, the typical suburban landscape resembles an unfriendly desert. Closely mowed lawns, tightly clipped shrubs, raked-up borders, and deadheaded flowers mean no place to nest, no food to eat, and nowhere to hide. To the humans who live there, this means no bird songs, no colorful butterflies, no dazzling hummingbirds, no night-sparkling fireflies. Creating a garden that welcomes these creatures may seem like a confusing and complicated task, but the principles involved are relatively simple. Essentially, wildlife needs food, water, and shelter, just like we do, and this lavishly illustrated guide shows which plants attract which creatures, and how to plant and care for them.

“Gardentopia is that rare marriage of the art of landscaping and the technical knowledge of how to compose a landscape—boiled down to readily understood and easily executed actions. This book puts you in the driver’s seat and shows you how to chart the course to your own personal garden utopia.” - Margie Grace, Grace Design Associates Any backyard has the potential to refresh and inspire if you know what to do. Jan Johnsen’s new book, Gardentopia: Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces, will delight all garden lovers with over 130 lushly illustrated landscape design and planting suggestions. Ms. Johnsen is an admired designer and popular speaker whose hands-on approach to “co-creating with nature” will have you saying, “I can do that!’ This info-packed, sumptuous book offers individual tips for enhancing any size landscape using ‘real world’ solutions. The suggestions are grouped into five categories that include Garden Design and Artful Accents, Walls, Patios, and Steps and Plants and Planting, among others. Whether you are an experienced gardener or a landscaping novice, Gardentopia will inspire you with tips such as ‘Soften a Corner”, “Paint it Black”, and “Hide and Reveal”.

Complete information on birds and bird friendly plants for your garden.

New England Bird Lover's Garden helps you maximize your home birding experiences and attract a wider variety of birds. With over 100 full-color photos and concise, informative text, it provides indispensable details on what foods, plants, trees, water sources, and nesting materials will attract particular species. It helps you make the right choices the first time—and avoid costly mistakes.