Garden Allies: The Insects, Birds, and Other Animals That Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving

Lavoipierre (former director of education at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden) aims to help readers understand “common garden characters…what they do and why,” from bugs to birds. Without getting political, the text explains how to create a beautiful garden that makes the least environmental impact, how to intervene (if at all) when critters and insects appear, and how to contribute to the “long term stability of our…landscape.” The idea isn’t to fear the creatures in the garden or dismiss them as pests, but to learn more about them. Chapters include “Life Beneath Our Feet”; “Digging Deeper”; “Meet the Beetles”; “The Ground Crew”; and “High and Low: Birds, Bats, and Other Vertebrates.” Other features are a number of black-and-white illustrations, a metric-to-U.S. conversion chart, a three-page glossary explaining terms in plain English, and a detailed index. The Resource List is full of beneficial information from websites, books, and films.