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Loading... Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn (edition 2006)by Hannah Holmes
Work InformationSuburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn by Hannah Holmes
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Fascinating and enjoyable reading. I particularly appreciated just how much detail appears when you take the time to have a long close look at the world around you. ( ) It is really a fascinating exploration of the nature in our backyards. The author does thorough research and provides plenty of scientific information on everything from the natural history of her region, to the many animals and plants who reside on her patch of land, to the environmental impact of her home and lifestyle. But she also provides enough subjective comments to remind the reader that she is basically just a homeowner and nature lover with her own preferences and quirks. She doesn't have any qualms about feeding her favorite animals and has minimal qualms about kill-trapping the mice in her house, but she does have an appreciation for all the flora and fauna and their amazing evolution and adaptability. I have found it to be difficult to get in-depth information about "everyday" creatures that is still accessible to lay readers. For example, one of my favorite songbirds is the mockingbird. I have searched high and low for a book about these guys but there appears to be only one title on Amazon. A typical bird reference gives only sketchy information about each species. So I appreciated Holmes's deeper investigation into the lives of our familiary backyard neighbors, from crows to caterpillars. In addition, one of the most fascinating sections to me was the discussion of the backyard trees. I am constantly amazed at the things we learn about plants. They are supposedly not self-aware, and they are fixed in place, but they seem to have some pretty complex ways of "communicating," defending themselves, and adapting. Another favorite thing I learned from this book is that I have been a trend-setter without realizing it. Apparently a new fashion is to have "Freedom Lawns" or "Darwin lawns," in which the landowner avoids planting seed, fertilizing, or weeding and just allows the species who are fittest to take over the yard. My husband and I have been doing this for years and I thought we were just lazy! (Our yard always looks like the "before" picture in a before-and-after ad for a lawn service. Who knew we were on the cutting edge?) Overall, this is a wonderful examination of one backyard that can provide information for anyone who is interested in nature and the environment. Absolutely facinating. Holmes spends a year studying what happens in her Maine yard. The crows, the Asiatic bittersweet, the sow bugs, the spiders - all and more are studied and explained and either glorified or vilified in turn. I particularly loved her romance with a chipmunk. Anyone who enjoys natural history should take a look at this book. Bookcrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5280488/ no reviews | add a review
More than 550 square miles of new lawns unfold each year in the U.S. alone. Although new research shows that these lawns aren't nearly as "unnatural" as ecologists once thought, no one has offered an accessible exploration of this novel habitat--until now. Equipped with a lawn chair and her infectious curiosity, science writer Holmes spends a year on her lawn hoping to discover exactly what's going on out there. Under her examination, the lawn teems with life, populated by a bewilderment of birds, a mess of mammals, and a range of plants that record the history of this little piece of ground. As the seasons progress, she guides us through this bustling community, inviting over biologists, ecologists, botanists, entomologists, and energy experts to further unveil the complexities of life in the 'burbs.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)591.75609741Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Specific topics in natural history of animals Animal ecology, animals characteristic of specific environments Ecology of miscellaneous environments Urban ecology History, geographic treatment, biographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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