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Rating: 
Summary: Not Specific Enough for My Region
Review: Bird Gardens begins with 12 ways to design a bird garden. Some suggestions are pretty obvious (supply a source of water) while others are more subtle (avoid invasive non-native plants). There is a very good section on designing nest boxes. There is a diagram and instructions for how to build a nest box (read: bird house), and a chart with the proper dimensions for a nest box for specific birds (22 to be exact, including species of ducks, owls, swallows, woodpeckers, wrens and others). The rest of the books content is sorted into 6 regions: Northeast, Southeast, South Florida, Prairies and Plains, Western Mountains and Deserts, and Pacific Coast. This means that you will probably use only 1/6th of pages 25-97. Each region has 12 garden plants listed, with pictures, native habitat, USDA hardiness zones (there's a USDA hardiness map in the back of the book), Flowers and fruit, how to grow and birds attracted. Many of the plants are really trees or large bushes (e.g. sugar maple, hackle berry) and may not be what people had in mind for their bird garden. The book focuses on suggesting native plants. There is also an extensive recommendation list for each region. The book concludes with a list of nursery sources and further reading. I was disappointed with how little of this book applied to my specific region. However, equal treatment is given to all the regions. Perhaps a better investment would be a book of bird attracting plants specific to your region. For complete information on building birdhouses try Beastly Abodes: Homes for Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife.
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