Landscaping for Wildlife [Paperback]

Carrol L. Henderson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Minnesota State Document Center (June 1987)
• ISBN-10: 9999529941
• ISBN-13: 978-9999529945
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,028,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical guide for natural landscaping techniques, January 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Landscaping for Wildlife (Paperback)

This is an excellent guide, reference, and resource book for anyone in the midwest who's interested in natural landscaping or planning landscapes to support wildlife. Everything about the book is aimed at being both practical and comprehensive. The book is spiral-bound for ease of use; this suggests cheapness, but the excellent color photos and illustrations belies this impression. The first half of the book fills the role of a guidebook. Its 64 pages address the benefits and principles of landscaping for wildlife; habitat components; and how to landscape small and medium yards, farms (e.g., windbreaks), and wood lots. This is followed by a long and useful list (119 entries) of litarature cited. The list is a great resource for locating additional material. Sixteen Appendixes comprise the second half (56 pages) of the book, and form a mini-reference library that would alone have been worth the price of the book. The most useful appendix provides a tabulation of plants for use in landscaping. It specifies plant type (16 categories), wildlife value (10 categories), landscape uses (29 categories), number of wildlife species documented as using the plant, plant characteristics (12 categories), and other information about growth requirements and plant size. Furthermore, the tables are divided into eight groups of plant types such as conifers; butterfly, bee, and moth plants; nut and acorn plants; and winter plants. As if this weren't enough, four appendixes contain designs for various simple construction projects, four contain additional wildlife information, and the rest contain a collection of other useful topics. In summary, if you live in the midwest, and have any interest in natural landscaping on any scale, or any interest in the needs and preferences of our flying and furry friends with any number of legs, this book is a must-have. The quality is excellent, the contents are comprehensive and practical, it's easy to use, and the price is right.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book provides everything promised and more!, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Landscaping for Wildlife (Paperback)

Before finding this book, I was stumbling and haphazardly identifying and assembling the plants and trees I wanted to accomplish my goals of drawing wildlife to my property, providing for them and returning the land I have removed from from nature by building in a development (my lot is 5 acres).

This book will be ragged before I am done AND I will most probably have to buy a second copy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding; the place to start, May 18, 1999

By 

I. Westray (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Landscaping for Wildlife (Paperback)

I too was at a total loss until someone recommended this book to me. The little identification signs in the nurseries are often inaccurate with the little they do say, and they're coming from such a different ("if you want to prevent the birds from eating your berries, cover the entire tree in garish mesh") perspective, for the most part, that I never felt I was getting anywhere.

The only faults with this title all have to do with too much information. The many appendices might have been better integrated with one another. There are times when the plant tables involve an awful lot of flipping back and forth, and could have been more cleanly organized. Finally, the sheer number of species of plant involved make it impossible to do what many garden books do; often you're looking at a description like "TS" (tall shrub) and wondering what shape it is, how dense, and so on. I went to the web and used the latin names to find descriptions of everything.

You'll need to go from this book to other sources to be sure of the appearance of things, and consulting with the average nursery or landscaper will still be necessary to discover things like when to prune. But this is the place to start, without question, for anyone in the midwest.