September 21, 2020
Growing native plants to encourage wildlife is a new trend in gardening, according to this helpful primer from Clausen, former horticulture editor for Country Living Garden magazine, and horticulturist Tepper. Thanks to gardeners’ interest in cultivating a healthy landscape for foraging birds and pollinating insects, plant species “once considered simple roadside wildflowers are now sought after as attractive and enviable additions to the garden plant palette.” The fly in the ointment is the white-tailed deer, which can ravage a garden and, more generally, deplete an environment capable of sustaining other wildlife. To help gardeners repel them, Clausen and Tepper go over 75 deer-resistant native plant species and how and where to plant them—christmas fern “is most content on shady, wooded slopes and at the base of trees,” where it helps “hold leaf debris in place that acts as mulch,” while tufted grass “is an excellent addition to any meadow edge, or massed in beds and borders.” The tips are accompanied by plentiful color photos and pithy sidebars—à la “Deer Candy: Native Plants That Deer Prefer!” For gardeners looking to create natural space that will serve as lasting havens for pollinators and birds, this practical guide will prove the ticket.