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Birds and your garden -- a new book

This one is a good one

May 19, 2014 at 2:23AM

Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds, Mariette Nowak, University of Wisconsin Press, soft cover, 335 pages, index, heavily illustrated, $34.95

About once a year I receive for review a book purporting to guide birders to a yard/garden/landscape that attracts birds. This book, "Birdscaping in the Midwest," is the first to deliver fully on the promise, plus more.

It covers far more topics than other books I've seen, in greater detail, with better text. It has illustrations not only beautiful (check the Tufted Titmouse photo on page 161) but also helpful. It has diagrams that show you not only which plants to use but how to place them in a garden for best effect. There are lists for everything, and sources for everything, the latter including books and websites.

If the book was a bird it would be a big bird. If it was a flower it would be a gorgeous flower.

The author, Mariette Nowak, is a professional, leader of a native plant and landscape group and for the Lakeland Audubon Society in Milwaukee. She is a public speaker on landscaping, native plants, and birds. Before retirement she was director of the Wehr Nature Center within the Milwaukee County park system.

The book offers an education on native plants and birds. It would be interesting even if you have no plans for a garden. However, once you've page through it, the urge to make a plan and find a shovel could be strong.

Here is the table of contents:

Birds and Plants: an ancient collaboration, going native, the case against exotics.

Gallery of Bird-habitat Gardens: photos.

Native Habitat for Birds — the basics: getting started, planning and design, site prep and planting.

Bird-habitat Gardens for Specific Birds: gardens for hummingbirds, prairie birds, migratory birds, winter birds, and birds of the savanna, woodlands, wetlands, and scrublands. Plus birdbaths and water gardens.

Midwestern Plants that Attract Birds: trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, ferns, grasses, sedges, and rushes.

Maintaining and Enhancing Your Garden, with information on bird housing and bird feeding, and advice on solving problems should they occur.

Have you ever bought a packet of assorted wildflower seeds? I have. Bad idea, Ms. Nowak tells us. She writes of tests that have shown the average such packet to contain as much as 30 percent exotic-plant seed (you don't want these!), and germination rates as low as 40 percent. The author advises buying seed from nurseries that specialize in native plants.

There is a particular article discussing a Minnesota yard, one cursed with buckthorn. The removal and replacement is clearly and thoroughly discussed. I read this with interest. I'm in the midst of buckthorn removal, given the almost 100 percent viability of every seed in every berry, a project that might last a lifetime.

The book would be valuable for a gardener who has no pointed interest in birds as well as birders, even those who don't garden but want to know more about habitat, a key to finding birds. I suspect it would lead either in the direction of the other. There is almost as much information here about birds as there is about plants. This book deserves a place on the shelf next to your favorite bird guide book.