Book Review of The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening; Attract and Support Bees, Beetles, Butterflies, Bats, and Other Pollinators by Kim Eierman

Title: The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening; Attract and Support Bees, Beetles, Butterflies, Bats, and Other Pollinators 

Author: Kim Eierman

Source: Netgalley

The passion and urgency that inspired WWI and WWII Victory Gardens is needed today to meet another threat to our food supply and our environment—the steep decline of pollinators. The Pollinator Victory Garden offers practical solutions for winning the war against the demise of these essential animals.

Pollinators are critical to our food supply and responsible for the pollination of the vast majority of all flowering plants on our planet. Pollinators include not just bees, but many different types of animals, including insects and mammals. Beetles, bats, birds, butterflies, moths, flies, and wasps can be pollinators.

But, many pollinators are in trouble, and the reality is that most of our landscapes have little to offer them. Our residential and commercial landscapes are filled with vast green pollinator deserts, better known as lawns. These monotonous green expanses are ecological wastelands for bees and other pollinators.

With The Pollinator Victory Garden, you can give pollinators a fighting chance. Learn how to transition your landscape into a pollinator haven by creating a habitat that includes pollinator nutrition, larval host plants for butterflies and moths, and areas for egg laying, nesting, sheltering, overwintering, resting, and warming. Find a wealth of information to support pollinators while improving the environment around you:
 •  The importance of pollinators and the specific threats to their survival•  How to provide food for pollinators using native perennials, trees, and shrubs that bloom in succession•  Detailed profiles of the major pollinator types and how to attract and support each one•  Tips for creating and growing a Pollinator Victory Garden, including site assessment, planning and planting goals•  Project ideas like pollinator islands, enriched landscape edges, revamped foundation plantings, meadowscapes, and other pollinator-friendly lawn alternatives
 The time is right for a new gardening movement. Every yard, community garden, rooftop, porch, patio, commercial, and municipal landscape can help to win the war against pollinator decline with The Pollinator Victory Garden.

I look for ways to help win the war for the decline of our pollinators because I really need those pollinators for my vegetable garden. When I started my raised beds over 6 years ago I had tons of bees in my garden so I had a great harvest but over the past couple of years I am lucky to see one lone bee on my vegetable flowers so I know there is something wrong.

I work in a garden center and I have increased my flowers over the past few years, I have increased in butterflies, birds and I even have some hummingbird months each year but my bees are just not increasing. I was hoping this book would help and I think it has, I have failed to add house for the bees so this is my project for this year.

This book does not give you a list of each flower that will attract each pollinator, this book is to help you make better choices. We see a pretty flower and just automatically think it will attract pollinators but they don’t. This book will help you chose better flowers that they will like, better water sources and housing sources. 

Book reivew of How Birds Behave: Discover the Mysteries of What Backyard Birds Do 365 Days of the Year Paperback – by Sharon Sorenson

Title: How Birds Behave: Discover the Mysteries of What Backyard Birds Do 365  Days of the Year Paperback 

Autor: Sharon Sorenson

Source: Netgalley

Genre: Bird Fields Guide 

Rating: 4 

A well-documented, beautifully photographed, year-long daily account of what 150 common backyard bird species do and how their behaviors change over the course of a year. Guided by an experienced birder, you'll know what to look for and how to attract and observe birds in your own backyard and by watching and chronicling how they behave, you'll begin to understand them better. You'll see how their actions change season to season, month to month, sometimes day to day. By peeking into their secret lives and unraveling the mysteries of their daily behavior you'll find your bird-viewing pleasure enriched.

This book is really hard for me to review, I was expecting something I just didn't get. As a birder and backyard bird feeder, I really found nothing to help me advance by backyard bird habitat, but I can say the work she put in this book is priceless. 

This lady has spent a lot of time journaling her backyard birds, but not everyone lives in her climate and not everyone has the land that she describes seeing all of the backyard birds she has, so keep this in mind when you are reading. 

I really enjoyed reading her day by day bird count and I love the image she would add each day of a bird most people will never see. I can say I would give anything to live where she is, just to be able to see theses vast bird species she sees, but like normal people, I live in an older subdivision which does give me a bit of land to be able to have backyard birds so I consider myself lucky, but a lot of people don’t have what I have. I was looking for something more in this book, like what bird kind of feed she puts out for the birds, what kind of birdhouses or feeders she uses and I never found it but then I did give up reading when I got to August.

I think I would suggest this book to those that love birds but they live in places where there is wall to wall houses. This book would show them what life can be like on a bit of land. 

The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden by Daryl Beyers

Title: The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden 

Author: Daryl Beyers

Source: Netgalley

Genre: Gardening

Rating: 5 

“Gardeners just starting out will earn a sense of accomplishment and a good dose of knowledge.” —Booklist

Every new gardener has to start somewhere—and the process can be intimidating. Knowing when and what to plant, how to care for the plants once they’re in the ground, and how to keep pests and diseases away is a lot to take on. Luckily, Daryl Beyers—an expert from the New York Botanical Garden—has written what will be a  go-to resource for decades to come. The New Gardener’s Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of gardening, based on the introductory gardening class that Beyers teaches at NYBG. Readers will learn about soil, plant selection, propagation, planting and mulching, watering and feeding, pruning, and weeds, pests, and diseases. The information applies to both ornamental and edible plants. Featuring inspiring photography and helpful illustrations, The New Gardener’s Handbook gives home gardeners a foundation upon which they can grow, and encourages them to apply the lessons they’ve learned in an intuitive, natural way.

This book is a must for any new gardener!

I really enjoyed the detail the author went into for this book, he covered everything including trees. I wished I had this book years ago when I first started out; it would have made things a lot simpler for me.  

This book covers everything from soil, growing plants, pruning plants, to pest control. Easy to understand and I love the images and graphs included.

I consider myself an intermediate gardener, I have raised garden beds, fruit trees and lots of flowers to help bring in pollinators and after reading this book I have found help for some simple solutions I have desperately needed so, even if you consider yourself an intermediate gardener this book might help you advance even more.

Build-It-Yourself Birdhouses: 25+ DIY Birdhouses and Bird Feeders by Chris Peterson

Title: Build-It-Yourself Birdhouses: 25+ DIY Birdhouses and Bird Feeders

Author: Chris Peterson

  Source: Netgalley 

Step-by-step instructions for 25+ unique birdhouses tailored for specific birds—pick the one that fits your neighborhood's birds and get building!

Join home improvement pro Chris Peterson as he shares a variety of creative designs for birdhouses and bird feeders, from the classic bluebird house to a mid-century modern home. While all the designs are handsome, most are also approachable for beginning woodworkers. Squares, triangles, and simple joining are used throughout the book. For woodworkers with some experience, Peterson shares a variety of customization techniques that can enhance the designs.

Every project contains a showstopping photo of the finished house and step-by-step instructions (with additional photos) to take any guesswork out of the assembly. You'll also find mounting instructions and tips, as well as information on the types of birds each birdhouse can accommodate.

Designs include:

Small birdhouses: Chickadee Shelter, Nuthatch Wedge, Songbird PVC Birdhouse, Flycatcher Cinderblock Motel, Purple Martin Boarding House, Tufted Titmouse Cabin, Finch's Pub, a Bat Cave, and more!

Large birdhouses: Mourning Dove Monster Ledge, American Kestrel Lodge, Barn Owl A-Frame, Barred Owl Nest Box, Wood Duck Slat House, and a Woodpecker's Log House.

Creative bird feeders: Telephone Platform Feeder, Porch Swing Bin Feeder, Hanging Man Suet Feeder, Squirrel Proof Feeder, and Zen Feeder.

Looking to bring more birds to your yard in 2020 by building different birdhouses? Well, look no farther this book will give you step by step instructions for your entire backyard friends, but from one birder to another, please take another step by providing not only houses but also the right plants and trees to feed and keep your birds safe too.

Don’t have the equipment to build your own birdhouses? Well, don’t fear, I don’t either but I have a friend that does so he is happy to grab some extra money to build me some from this book. So, even though you don’t have the equipment some you know might or you can find someone in your neighborhood or town that would be happy to build them for you’re for a fee.  

Not only do you get full easy to understand instructions you also get tips too.