Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens |  | Author: Douglas W. Tallamy
Publisher: Timber Press
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $24.95
as of 2/9/2010 09:16 CST details
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Seller: echo-team
Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 320296
Media: Hardcover
Edition: illustrated edition
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0881928542
Dewey Decimal Number: 639.92091733
EAN: 9780881928549
ASIN: 0881928542
Publication Date: November 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The pressures on wildlife populations today are greater than they have ever been and many gardeners assume they can remedy this situation by simply planting a variety of flowering perennials, trees, and shrubs. As Douglas Tallamy points out in this revelatory book, that assumption is largely mistaken. Wild creatures exist in a complex web of interrelationships, and often require different kinds of food at different stages of their development. There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. When native plant species disappear, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Fortunately, there is still time to reverse this alarming trend, and gardeners have the power to make a significant contribution toward sustainable biodiversity. By favoring native plants, gardeners can provide a welcoming environment for wildlife of all kinds. Healthy local ecosystems are not only beautiful and fascinating, they are also essential to human well-being. By heeding Douglas Tallamy's eloquent arguments and acting upon his recommendations, gardeners everywhere can make a difference.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 42
An essential book January 27, 2010
S. J. Wilson (Joplin, MO USA)
This book is essential for anyone who gardens or adds to a home landscape. Tallamy presents the science, the evidence, and illustrates it with color photos. (The insect photos are fascinating.) You'll learn which native trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, and other plants are most beneficial to wildlife in your region. A chart identifies the host plants certain butterflies and moths require. Read Bringing Nature Home before you add one more plant to your yard.
 Good Practical Information January 25, 2010
Rachel
Good initial book for those without any knowledge of native plants. Chapters: Making It Happen and What Should I Plant had very practical information for those ready to plan and plant a garden including regional natives. Appendix 1 & 2 were also very useful.
The author identifies an insect pest but does not state what the natural predator is. Instead starts in on the evils of insecticides. I felt I had to skim over the preachy parts which comprised about 60% of the book.
Borrow it from the library or a friend, it's not worth taking up space on your bookshelf.
Potentially profound, but . . . December 23, 2009
John Markwell (Lincoln, NE USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The basic premise of this book is that native plants have had tens of thousands of years to develop specific(pun intended) relationships with the bacteria, insects, fungi, birds and other species in the local biome. When non-native plants are introduced by people into our environment, they do not have relationships with the local primary and secondary herbivores and do not support the local food chain. I found this to be a potentially powerful observation and concept that should markedly impact how we select plants for our gardens and landscapes.
The one problem I have with this is the revelation that introduced foreign insects run amok and consume hundreds of our native plants because they have no natural predators. If there is such a tight relationship between our native plants and native insects, I would expect that this would also be true for foreign insects, but apparently it is not. This makes me suspect that the central thesis and foundation of this text may be somewhat simplistic and limited in scope. I do feel that this book should be read, but also feel that it might be the start of more personal inquiry into this area.
Disappointed December 14, 2009
hortiholic
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a plant ecologist, horticulturist, and native plant lover, I was keen to read "Bringing Nature Home", which has been widely touted as the most compelling case yet for the use of native plants in U.S. gardens. Douglas Tallamy's basic argument is that widespread suburbanization has resulted in the replacement of native vegetation with exotic vegetation, which allegedly does not support the diversity of insects and insectivores (most notably birds) that native plants support. The first segment of this argument is simply not true for much of the United States. In New England, for example, the landscape is much more "natural" than it was 100 years ago, when it was 70 or 80 percent deforested, with exotic crops and grasses dominating much of the region. In other words, the trend has been the replacement of exotic vegetation with native vegetation, the opposite of what Tallamy claims. Nor does Tallamy present evidence that native plants necessarily support more diversity than do exotic plants. He cites some research that does indeed demonstrate that some native species host more insects than do closely related exotics. But as Tallamy himself repeatedly admits, this pattern does not hold for some groups of plants such as crabapples. He further admits that research on the adaptation of native insects to exotic plants is still scanty and in its infancy. In light of this, his assertion that "unless we restore native plants to our suburban ecosystems, the future of biodiversity in the United States is grim" is more than just a bit over the top. This book has much to say on behalf of the merits and benefits of native plants. It's a shame that its many good points are drowned out by its sometimes alarmist and absolutist tone.
Intimate Relationships, Beautifully Photographed December 2, 2009
R. Schultz (Chicago)
This is an intelligent, lusciously illustrated plea to start re-planting our environment with native plants.
I've belonged to a society called "The Wild Ones" which advocates minimizing our expanses of lawn and replacing those sterile stretches with native plants. However, as Tallamy points out in this book, most such advocacies have generally emphasized the fact that native plants are superior because they require less maintenance. They are good for the environment because you don't have to mow them. Better yet, they don't require watering, fertilizing, or extensive applications of pesticide, because native plants have learned how to survive without mankind's constant attention.
Here Tallamy adds another insight into the advantages offered by native plants. He approaches the subject from another angle. Tallamy bases his advocacy on the way in which native plants support certain specific insects, allowing those insect populations to thrive.
For those whose initial reaction to this might be, "Why would we want any insects to thrive?" - Tallamy points out that insects are near the bottom of the food chain, and so support a whole pyramid of life above them. Birds depend on insects for food, and a wide variety of predators depend on birds. He demonstrates how only native plants can supply sufficient food and shelter for the insects and higher animals that have specifically adapted to them over the millennia.
This book is filled with revealing close-up color photographs of plants and insects. It is especially vivid in describing the life cycles of a variety of insects, showing them to be more deserving of our attention than our casual obliteration. Some insect mothers have elaborate ways of defending their young. Some communicate warnings to each other, not only by chirping, but by vibrating the twigs they are on, using a system that is perhaps a sort of proto-language. Many go through elaborate alternating life cycles.
There is a whole entomology here, written in an easy, enjoyable style - with practical implications for what we plant in our gardens next year, and how we plan our next landscaping projects.
My only objection to this book is the author's assumption that it's most important to start making changes in our planting practices in the suburbs. I think urban gardens, parks, and preserves ought to be seen as the most potentially vital supports of biotic diversity and ought to be given equal attention. But either way, this book will inspire the greening of our thumbs - and of the environment at large.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 42
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