Garden Allies: Discover the Many Ways Insects, Birds and Other Animals Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving by Frederique Lavoipierre

Garden Allies: Discover the Many Ways Insects, Birds and Other Animals Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving

by Frederique Lavoipierre

An engaging, illustrated introduction to the beneficial insects, birds, and other animals that help a garden thrive. The birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects that inhabit our yards and gardens are overwhelmingly on our side - they are not our enemies, but instead our allies. They pollinate our flowers and vegetable crops, and they keep pests in check. In Garden Allies, Frederique Lavoipierre shares fascinating portraits of these creatures, describing their life cycles and showing how they keep the garden's ecology in balance. Also included is helpful information on how to nurture and welcome these valuable creatures into your garden. With beautiful pen-and-ink drawings by Craig Latker, Garden Allies invites you to make friends with the creatures that fill your garden - the reward is a renewed sense of nature's beauty and a garden humming with life. AUTHOR: Frederique Lavoipierre is the former director of education at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and author of Garden Allies, a ten-year series of articles published in Pacific Horticulture Magazine. She currently works as a consultant and serves on the editorial advisory group for the American Public Gardens Association. 134 b/w illustrations

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Garden Allies is a beautifully written and illustrated holistic guide to the things which help maintain garden health and build soil, capably written and curated by Frédérique Lavoipierre. Due out 28th Sept 2021 from Workman on their Timber Press imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is such a peaceful and interesting book and quite inspiring. It's clearly and simply written by someone who knows what she's talking about and as a keen (and experienced) gardener, I learned more than I expected. The essays are grouped thematically into chapters: life beneath our feet (microbes, earthworms, micro-/macro-arthropods) fungi, winged insects, predators & parasites, beetles, common garden insects, ground insects & pathogens/galls, and birds & other vertebrates. The essays are full of interesting details of the appearance and characteristics of the subjects as well as how they interact with other species. The descriptions include appearance, common and scientific names, and garden roles they perform for us.

Although there's no photography in the volume, the illustrations by Craig Latker are beautifully wrought and enhance the text perfectly. Different organisms are easy to identify and the pointillist (dot sketched) drawings are really quite detailed.

Five stars. This would make a super choice for public library acquisition, gardening groups, home gardeners, and winter nonfiction reading.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 August, 2021: Finished reading
  • 25 August, 2021: Reviewed