Planting Noah's Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology

By Sara Stein

Sara Stein wrote Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of our Backyards in 1995. Her follow-up book was written a couple of years later and builds on the concept of the suburban backyard as a wildlife habitat. In her first book on the topic, Stein tells the story of her yard that she groomed into a lawn and flower garden only to realize that the bugs, birds, and animals that she took for granted left the property soon afterwards. She and her husband Marty started bringing natural features back to their property and the wildlife soon followed. If you enjoyed Stein’s first part of this story, you’ll love the continuation. Planting Noah’s Garden tells the many and varied stories of gardeners all across the country who are restoring their backyard ecosystems. This book provides practical information on topics ranging from reading the results of a soil test, to collection wild seeds, to creating a wetland. This book is geared towards the home gardener with any sized garden, large or small. The illustrations add a nice touch to the many how-to projects in each chapter. Both of Sara Stein’s books are available at the Scott Horticultural library. And if you’re a member, you’ll receive the winter 2008 Hybrid in the mail soon with an article by Sue Stark describing how to create backyard wildlife habitats.