Volume 3, Issue 10
New Parent/Teacher Resource: Richard Louv's Vitamin N
suggested by Laura Blumhagen

New on our shelves this month you'll find Richard Louv's new book, Vitamin N: the essential guide to a nature-rich life. Joining his earlier work, Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder, this thought-provoking yet hands-on manual introduces many simple ideas for getting outside and benefiting from everything nature has to offer, no matter one's age and ability.

While the book will be useful for parents of small children, it also covers what individual teens and adults can do to have a nature-rich life as well as how teachers and grandparents can support outdoor play and learning for the children in their lives. Check it out!

Wildlife-related resources in the spotlight

In support of students and faculty studying wildlife ecology this term, the library is featuring animal-related books, magazines, and DVDs in the display area near the magazine display shelves.

Not just for scholars, these offerings include field guides, works on habitat restoration, wildlife gardening handbooks, urban natural history tomes (such as local author Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s Urban Bestiary, pictured here), and much more. In this collection, a tiny ground-dwelling bee might appear alongside a pileated woodpecker or a mighty Roosevelt elk. Visitors are encouraged to browse, perusing or borrowing items directly from the display.

Recommended: The wildlife-friendly vegetable gardener
by Tammi Hartung
reviewed by Rebecca Alexander

Here's a book on growing edible crops with a unique perspective, that our vegetable gardens can be planned and designed to encourage or at least coexist peacefully with wildlife. For example, you may not want to share your lettuce with slugs and snails, but you can make the garden hospitable to predators that consume mollusks (such as birds, toads, lizards, foxes, and skunks).

Many of the author's recommendations are common-sense organic approaches to gardening, such as starting with the soil: respect the microorganisms and other soil-dwelling life forms by not over-tilling and disturbing soil structure; observe nature in your garden (keep a journal or sketchbook) and get to know the insects—beneficial and nuisance—and their life cycles, and the other creatures who visit regularly or seasonally. ...

Deer and rabbits are grazers, so they may not wipe out an entire crop in one fell swoop in the way that gorgers (such as raccoons) or hoarders (like squirrels) can. My own garden has become a favorite spot for these creatures, and they do not even wait for fruit to ripen before absconding with it. I was familiar with many of the "scare tactics" and devices the author suggests, but I had not thought of putting rubber snakes around fruit tree branches to intimidate birds, squirrels, and small rodents, or perching fake owls atop poles to ward off nocturnal foragers. ... This is an excerpt. Read the full review in our online Gardening Answers Knowledgebase.

Service alert: Library open 9 to 1 Thursday, October 13

On Thursday, October 13^th, the Miller Library will close at 1pm so the staff can attend the Celebration of Life for UW Botanic Gardens director Sarah Reichard.

New to the Library