THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GARDEN

 Michael Chinery, Collins 1977.

For most of us, the garden is our most constant point of contact with nature. It may bear all the marks of human activity – paths, clipped lawns, compost heaps, fences, sheds, and greenhouses – but it is these things as much as anything else that make our gardens a haven for such a fantastic assortment of wild animals and plants.

The very diversity of the garden ensures the incomparable variety of its inhabitants. This book is about the intruders in our gardens – a book about gardens for the naturalist, about natural history for the gardener.

Michael Chinery, as naturalist, teacher, and self confessed untidy gardener, is the ideal author to lead us up this highly diverting garden path. Taking each group in turn, he introduces us to weeds, fungi, lichens, mosses, and other opportunists of the plant kingdom; and to the worms, slugs, snails, centipedes and millipedes, butterflies, bees, wasps, moles, hedgehogs, bats, mice, wrens, tits, finches, owls, swifts, swallows, and the host of other animals that take up unofficial residence in our gardens.

He shows us where to look for them and how to recognise them. He also tells us how we can garden for wild life; a bird table or pond can give us endless entertainment throughout the year; and a few thistles in a sunny corner will attract all the common butterflies to the garden.

There is much in this book to intrigue the reader, even to mute the ire of the most ruthless of gardeners. And it provides a ready and engaging answer for any parent whose child has ever asked ‘ What’s That?’.

Although the dust jacket is worn, and has rubs, splits and creases, the lovely painting by Yvonne Skargon is largely intact. The cover itself has a small amount of minor shelf rub to the extremities.

The pages are nice and clean, the book is still tightly bound, and there are 24 stupendous colour plates, of very high quality.