Editorial Review:
The pressures on wildlife populations today are greater than they have ever been and many gardeners assume they can remedy this situation by simply planting a variety of flowering perennials, trees, and shrubs. As Douglas Tallamy points out in this revelatory book, that assumption is largely mistaken. Wild creatures exist in a complex web of interrelationships, and often require different kinds of food at different stages of their development. There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. When native plant species disappear, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Fortunately, there is still time to reverse this alarming trend, and gardeners have the power to make a significant contribution toward sustainable biodiversity. By favoring native plants, gardeners can provide a welcoming environment for wildlife of all kinds. Healthy local ecosystems are not only beautiful and fascinating, they are also essential to human well-being. By heeding Douglas Tallamy's eloquent arguments and acting upon his recommendations, gardeners everywhere can make a difference.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
A must read for gardeners 2008-12-31
I received this book for my birthday, started to skim it and could not put it down. The book makes the best case for growing native plants in our gardens I have ever read. Who ever knew that bugs could not eat leaves from non-native plants,for the most part! And that because their food source is dwindling (due to invasive alien plants and urban development)there is a huge effect all the way up the food chain starting with birds. As a member of a local garden club, I cannot wait to share the knowledge from this book with our members and it will now be on the gift list for all my gardening friends. If we all do a little, we can make a very big difference. Excellent book and extremely well written.
"Bringing Nature Home" 2008-12-12
"Bringing Nature Home" is a short course in why we should be planting natives in our gardens. It is direct, practical, profusely illustrated with great photos (especially of insects), and even mildly humorous. The first half of the book explains why alien plants are so damaging, and the second half explores how we might want to change our own yards. When I am feeling overwhelmed by how diminished a planet our children will be inheriting, this book brings some solace: you can't repair the entire earth--but here's how to change your yard and here are some other local, small-scale things you might try to change minds. Complete with charts of appropriate plants for the US and host plants for various insects. A wonderful book.
Excellent!!! 2008-11-23
This is a very important book for everyone to read. Tallamy has been an incrediable influence in Northen Michigan to take action in planting native plants. We also now have the research that he has shared in his book to give concrete reasons why to plant native plants.
Bugs Are Good 2008-09-21
Bugs are good! That's the takeaway message of this book. Tallamy is an entomologist so his affection for insects is not surprising, and he clearly admires them for their aesthetic beauty and clever evolutionary adaptations. But he also argues, persuasively and passionately, that there are sound ecological reasons for welcoming insects into our landscapes with open arms--and a smorgasbord of native plants.
Healthy insect populations are essential to sustainable ecosystems that support the birds, butterflies, mammals, reptiles and other "charismatic megafauna" we cherish. Birds, especially, rely on insects and their larvae to feed their young. In the areas we humans have disturbed with our roadways and infrastructure, commercial buildings, residential developments, and agricultural plantations, we have wiped out the native plant diversity that supports wildlife. Tallamy estimates that perhaps only 3% to 5% of the United States remains as undisturbed, natural land, and much of that is composed of "ecological islands" that preclude immigration, making both plant and animal species vulnerable to local extinctions. So unless all of us actively work to convert human-disturbed lands--including our suburban gardens--for the preservation of wild creatures, we will no longer have the opportunity to observe nature on a daily basis. We will have to travel to outlying preserves to visit the few remaining species that survive.
So, what's the connection to native plants? All plants convert the sun's energy into organic matter usable by life. They are the first "trophic level." Insect herbivores eat plants and, in turn, provide food for all the other animals in higher trophic levels: insect carnivores, birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. But insects are often specialists, able only to eat those plants they have evolved with. And in our residential landscapes and agricultural plantings, we have systematically chosen exotic plants or created plant cultivars that are distasteful to our native insects. We have done this to protect our valuable food crops and because we
view our landscapes as mere decoration, wanting them to be aesthetically perfect and unmarred by chewed leaves. But deliberately excluding insect herbivores in this way deprives our ecosystems of a vital link in the food web. And introduced exotics are doubly problematic because these "pest-free" species escape our grasp and themselves become pests, precisely because they are distasteful to the insect herbivores that keep native plants in check. Our native plants, by contrast, are tasty insect food, and insects provide the basis for all the other animals.
To help us choose plants that are insect-friendly, the chapter "What Should I Plant?" identifies and describes those plant genera that have demonstrated the greatest ability to support butterfly and moth larvae. This criterion was chosen because Lepidoptera comprise over 50% of all insect herbivores in the US, because caterpillars are important components of many vertebrate diets, and because there is more published data about host plant
use by butterflies and moths than there is for other insects. Tallamy's plant descriptions are interesting both for his suggestions for landscape applications and his knowledge about which caterpillars make use of each plant group.
The cleverly-titled chapter "What Does Bird Food Look Like?" describes various insect families, including but not limited to Lepidoptera. Tallamy tells us what plants these insects eat, what eats them, and describes interesting or curious facets of their life histories. (Initially I was tempted to skip this chapter but was glad I didn't because I found it fascinating.)
The book is illustrated throughout with wonderful color photographs of plants and insects, and has useful appendices: a list of native plant species that have both wildlife value and desirable landscaping attributes (sorted by region and plant type), a checklist of host plants of butterflies and showy moths, and a summary of Tallamy's survey data that demonstrates his thesis. I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make landscape choices that are more likely to attract birds, butterflies and other creatures. Whether you read the book or not, when you see insects dining on your
landscape, rejoice!
Creates a paradigm shift in environmental thought 2008-05-27
This is a very important book. I reluctantly purchased it after hearing several people that I admire recommend it very highly. I am not much into gardening but am interested in birds, biodiversity and restoring natural habitats. I have read hundreds of books on biology and the environment over the years and have been to hundreds of meetings and conferences regarding solutions to the many problems that beset our natural environment. It is not often that I hear of a very simple solution to a ubiquitous problem, that of a decline in the overall population of birds and mammals and the increase in the ravages of diseases affecting our forests, grasslands and deserts.
In addition to offering a novel solution to major problems the outlook of the book is optimistic and the reading is interesting and pleasurable. Dr. Tallamy is a fine writer and also furnishes fascinating descriptions of the plants, insects, mammals and birds that he has studied. One that I remember from the chapter on insects was the defensive strategy of some insects called leafhoppers that are preyed upon by wasps. The mother protects her offspring that are feeding on the stem above by intercepting attackers from below. If a wasp starts an attack from above her young drum out a distress message that vibrates through the stem to her so she can rush up and try to kick the wasp away. Another insect, a tree-boring beetle, flies to the top of mountain ridges to scan for forest fires with infrared vision to locate trees weakened by fire that are prime targets for feeding and breeding locations.
In addition to these insights into the world of insects and plants the book gives you an understanding of the significant danger from the spread of alien plant species. I agree with all the high recommendations for this book. Everyone that reads this will have a new outlook on nature and even the gardeners will enjoy it.
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