Touch a Butterfly: Wildlife Gardening with Kids--Simple Ways to Attract Birds, Butterflies, Toads, and More to Your Garden

The simple act of gardening with children is wonderful, but when elevated to embrace wildlife, it can become an even more exciting and joyful family experience, full of surprise and delight. When you work your garden so that it invites wildlife—the flutter of butterflies, the croak of toads, the quick zip of hummingbirds—a wider world of nature opens up for investigation and inspiration. Discover the plants that attract colorful birds and bugs. Embrace the sensory experiences that a garden can bring, from the symphonic rustling of seed pods to the calming drip of water from a sprinkler. Understand the ecosystem of your yard and how the landscape, plants,and animals all work together.

In this family-friendly guide to wildlife gardening, April Pulley Sayre leads readers on a path to discovery, where trees are transformed into habitats, sunny spots are revered for dragonfly viewing, and where your garden is an active and alive kingdom. See your yard from an animal's perspective and discover the simple ways you can more actively support the wildlife in your immediate environment, no matter where you live.

Turn your garden into a hummingbird hotspot, a haven for butterflies, and a thriving ecosystem that will delight and inspire the young and young-at-heart

 

Gardening with children is a pleasure in itself, but when you learn to include wildlife in your plans, gardening becomes an even more joyful family experience. Creating a garden that invites wildlife opens up a wider world of nature for investigation, inspiration, and delight. Begin to see your yard from an animal’s perspective; discover plants that attract colorful birds and bugs; embrace sensory experiences that native plants and creatures bring; and understand how your yard fits into the surrounding landscape. Along the way you will discover simple ways you can actively support wildlife in your immediate environment, no matter where you live. This family-friendly guide to wildlife gardening leads you on a path to discovery, where trees are transformed into bird and animal habitats, where sunny spots are revered for dragonfly viewing, and where your entire garden becomes an animal-welcoming kingdom.

April Pulley Sayre is the award-winning author of over fifty natural historybooks for young readers. Sayre has a biology degree from Duke University and editorial experience working at the National Geographic Society and the NationalWildlife Federation. She has written books about the climate, weather, andecology of every continent and every biome on Earth, including a twelve-bookseries on Exploring Earth's Biomes for middle school readers. Her books have been lauded for their lyricism and originality.