Creating a Hummingbird Garden [Paperback]

Marcus Schneck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 1994

Turn your garden into a glorious haven for hummingbirds. Here are the basics on planning, planting, and maintaining a beautiful outdoor space that will lure these tiny creatures and give you hours of gardening pleasure. This charmingly illustrated volume provides a variety of garden plans, including essential information on hardiness zones, soil conditions, and sun and shade preferences, and is packed with facts on the lives and habits of hummingbirds. When your winged guests linger in your garden, you'll delight in consulting the hummingbird identifier in Creating a Hummingbird Garden. Here is everything you need to know to attract hummingbirds, from their favorite flowers to instructions for making hummingbird feeders.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marcus Schneck, founder and director of the Backyard Wildlife Association, is a natural history writer and photographer, and the author of several books on hummingbirds and butterflies, including Creating a Butterfly garden. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

HUMMERS LOVE BACKYARDS

There's no doubt about it. Most species of hummingbirds love what many of us have done with backyards. Even without any special planning or forethought, many of the brightly flowering plants that we love to have in abundance serve the tiny, feathered "helicopters" equally well.

Whether those flowers -- particularly red and orange ones -- appear on our highly manicured ornamental plants, in our flower gardens, or as part of specially designed backyard habitats for hummingbirds and/or other wild creatures, they have become meccas for the nectar-sipping birds. Such places quickly become part of a hummingbird's daily rounds, possibly warranting more than a single visit each day.

Our gardens, intentionally or otherwise, have become part of the forefront in hummingbird conservation. And these tiny birds, like so many wildlife species, need all the help they can find.

We're far removed from those days in the mid-1800s when hundreds of thousands of hummingbirds were killed and exported to Europe for use in specimen collections, ornamentation on ladies' hats and similar applications. But we've come up with even more dangerous threats in the pesticides, herbicides and all the other "cides" that we apply to our properties in the name of green lawns.

If you're thinking about attracting hummingbirds to your backyard, your first step -- the kindest, most caring thing you can do -- is to cease using all chemicals. Be assured, nearly all those pesticides and herbicides are quite deadly to your little visitors.

Copyright © 1993 Quarto Publishing Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671892452
• ISBN-13: 978-0671892456
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #831,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Need To Know for Under $10!, September 27, 2001

By 

"webcat15" (Acworth, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Hummingbird Garden (Paperback)

This beautiful little volume is a treasure of information. A concise 80 pages, it's packed with valuable information and 58 photos and illustrations. Including 17 of the most common hummingbirds in the United States and their regions. It provides illustrated landscaping and plant guides for each season and region, with a variety of colors. Red being designated as the color generally drawing hummingbirds first and strongest. This book taught me that hummers prefer the birdbath even more shallow then regular birds. Such a simple thing to correct! I've read several books on hummingbird gardening, but this is the first to encourage "island" planting and "layering" to attract hummingbirds. This book taught me that "island" planting increases the flower-surface area available for hummingbird use. Not only is this beneficial to attracting hummers, but is so beautiful. They encourage gardners to "layer", which is also so pleasing to the eye, not just the birds. The taller plants, in the "layering" technique, provide places for the hummingbirds to hide. Recipes for necter are included, along with instructions for taming! I enjoyed the bit of history the author included too: for ex., thousands of these little birds were exported to England in the 1800's to be added to collections and to be used on ladies hats! This book has taught me more about the hummingbird, it's habits, preferences, etc. then any other I've purchased. Also, it was one of least expensive! This book was so helpful I purchased it's "sister" on attracting butterflies. I highly recommend!

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a very basic book, August 5, 2001

By 

merrymousies (Waterford, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Hummingbird Garden (Paperback)

This is a very basic book but a good intro to hummingbird gardening. It recommends non-native plants in addition to native ones but you have to do your own research to determine which are which. By the time I bought this book I already knew what they hadto say and was well past it. Its very very basic - has lists of plants and drawings of gardens but doesn't tell much more. Common sense tells you that hummingbirds like flowers that are trumpt shaped and red. Other books can tell you more about the plants and its better to plant native plants anyway since they are "designed" to grow in your area and their blossoms are timed with the hummingbird migration (its the whole interdependency/web of life thing).

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, not great, May 17, 2007

By 

Kid at Heart (Clovis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating a Hummingbird Garden (Paperback)

I will preface this by saying that this is the first book I purchased on this subject, so I don't have a large pool of measurables to compare it to.

That said, there was some good basic information in this book, and it's a good jumping off point. I liked that it gave some general overviews of plants the birds like, and when they bloom, etc.

I would have liked a bit more on the specifics of the birds themselves... but perhaps that's best found in a book specific about birds, as opposed to the gardens that attract them. For some reason, I thought there might be a little more of that included though.

Overall, I'll recommed it. As stated, it's a good place to start, and using this information along with information you get from your local nursery professional should give a place to begin bringing the bird to your yard.