#Review By Lou of Expert Gardening Guide – Create Your Own Nature Garden By Joe Swift #JoeSwift #GardenersWorld #CreateYourOwnNatureGarden #Gardening #GardeningGuide #Spring #Summer #Nature #Plants #Flowers

Nature Garden
By Joe Swift

Now’s the time to start thinking about your garden and planning ahead for spring and summer. Will you add to it? Change it? Nature Garden is inspiring. Find out more in the blurb and my review below of Create Your Own Nature Garden, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or expert, there’s always something new to pick up.

Blurb

Support and protect the natural world with tips from expert gardener Joe Swift.

With around 16 million UK gardens covering a larger area than all our nature reserves, you could say our largest nature reserve is one big garden! In this practical guide, Joe shows you how to support and protect our rich and varied wildlife habitats.

Joe’s no-nonsense approach covers everything you need to know about doing your bit for wildlife. Learn how to manage soil and carefully select plants to create rich and varied habitats, from tall trees down to tiny, spring-flowering bulbs.

In this book, Joe demonstrates how to manage your outdoor space sensitively, and debunks the common misconception that ‘wildlife-friendly gardens’ have to be unkempt.

From bug hotels to pollinators, he also shares his ideas on fun and innovative projects to help kids, as the future custodians of our planet, engage with nature.

Joe Swift is an author, TV presenter and garden designer. He makes regular appearances on BBC’s Gardener’s World and the RHS Flower Shows

Review

I like Joe Swift’s books. I reviewed a book of his about Houseplants. It was so good, I bought a copy for a friend’s Christmas and she loved it very much for its tips.

Nature Garden is another book with a great, easy to use layout, full of hints, tips and practical advice for what to plant to create or add to your garden.

We all know garden’s are great for the environment and for wellbeing. With this book, you can attract bees and butterflies etc and create a wonderful chilled out space for you and your family.
This book shows it doesn’t have to be complicated and you can create something good, whatever your budget and space.

Gardens change in fashion all the time and now is the age of the nature garden, where plants and configurations of them is to encourage wildlife and help it along. Joe Swift guides you by the hand to do this, in a gentle and helpful way. Even on the page, it feels like he could easily be there in-person as the book tells you everything you need to know, even which plants are best and how to plant them.

I highly recommend this easy to use book, that you can dip in and out of for help and to inspire. So, I wonder what you’re going to plant this year…

#Review By Lou of War of the Wind @NeemTreePress #TheWriteReads #BlogTour #YoungAdult #MiddleGrade #EcoThriller

War of the Wind
By Victoria Williamson

Eco-Thriller with neuro-diverse characters, War of the Wind has energy to it that sweeps you away into its locale to find out what’s mysteriously happening on the Scottish island. Crossing Middle Grade and YA, War of the Wind is good for 11 to 15 year olds, although ages above this will also get something from the characterisation and vibe.

Find out more in the blurb and my thoughts in my review below.
Discover more about the author who also works for widely known and used, education company Twinkl, her other books. For schools, there is also a link to free education resources and to request a school visit.
Thanks to The Write Reads for the blog tour invite and book.

Blurb

AN ADVENTUROUS ECO-THRILLER FROM AWARD-WINNING CHILDREN’S AUTHOR VICTORIA WILLIAMSON

On a remote Scottish island, fourteen-year-old Max’s life changes forever when he loses his hearing in a boating accident. Struggling to make sense of his new life and finding it hard to adapt in school, he begins to notice other — even stranger — changes taking place when a new wind farm appears off the island’s coast.

With the help of three school friends with additional support needs, Max discovers that a sinister scientist, Doctor Ashwood, is using wind turbines to experiment on the islanders. They must find a way to shut down the government’s secret test before it spins out of control…

Review

Set on a remote Scottish Island that is surprisingly inhabited by humans as its a tough terrain and is so cut off from the rest of the world, it doesn’t even have internet. No one has even installed anything like that for their own use, like I saw someone miraculously get onto the net in factual programme: Ben Fogle’s programme, New Lives In The Wild.

Life is precious and not to be taken for granted. 14 year old, Max, had it all ie a normal, healthy life, until he was involved in a boat accident and lost his hearing. He has 3 friends who also have additional support needs. Each are portrayed fairly accurately for the higher functioning end of spectrums. For Max’s character, it is good that struggles are portrayed in adapting to a different type of life as opposed to gone deaf and gets on with things. Readers will gain a sense of either themselves or empathy and understanding as well as it being more realistic.

As other senses sharpen and Max gets more curious about what’s going on about him, he notices a new company has moved in and is erecting wind turbines just off the island’s coast and there are scientists too. Science, of course has many advantages, but some scientists and some science is not all good as Max and his friends are about to find out. This is where the mystery really begins and the book becomes more captivating as weird experiments are carried out on the islanders, using the wind turbines to see how they react and what happens and you discover what Doctor Ashford’s motives are and what he hopes to achieve…
It has a sinister vibe to it that keeps you wanting to know how it will all end.

About the Author

Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.

Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.

Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.

You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com

#BookReview By Lou of 100 Plants To Feed The Birds By Laura Erickson #LauraErickson #Gardening #Nature #FeedTheBirds #NaturalWorld #USA #Plants

100 Plants To Feed The Birds

Turn Your Home Garden into a Healthy Bird Habitat

By Laura Erickson

We all know how everything is interlinked in the world, from humans to animals to plants; well this list also works in reverse and everything has a role to play. Humans can also do their bit, in this case, the focus is on birds. This is most suited for North America.

The growing group of bird enthusiasts who enjoy feeding and watching their feathered friends will learn how they can expand their activity and help address the pressing issue of habitat loss with 100 Plants to Feed the Birds. In-depth profiles offer planting and care guidance for 100 native plant species that provide food and shelter for birds throughout the year, from winter all the way through breeding and migrating periods. Readers will learn about plants they can add to their gardens and cultivate, such as early-season pussy willow and late-season asters, as well as wild plants to refrain from weeding out, like jewelweed and goldenrod. Others, including 29 tree species, may already be present in the landscape and readers will learn how these plants support the birds who feed and nest in them. Introductory text explains how to create a healthy year-round landscape for birds. Plant photographs and range maps provide needed visual guidance to selecting the right plants for any location in North America.

Review

Perhaps you’re a bird lover who wants to know more about feeding them or encourage more into your garden, or perhaps you’ve suddenly got space to grow plants, whether in the ground or pots and want a wildlife food-bar. Whether you’re a novice or know a lot, this is a book I recommend for you. You don’t need to feed the birds with only “tuppence a bag” of seed, you can also grow your own.

In my garden, in the UK, for example, we grow cornflowers. Leave the flowers after they’ve finished flowering and birds like goldfinches will gorge on the seeds. This book will show you more plants and trees you can also grow and native to North America. It gives clear information about the plants to grow, how to care for them and a guide for sun exposure.

It’s useful as a reference and guidebook for those wanting to create or expand their own wildlife haven, as of course the plants you grow will attract more than birds too.