In our current climate crisis, insect numbers are declining. While this is bad news for many reasons, we rely on pollinators for our food supply. And, generally, people love butterflies and honeybees. This book covers the many wonderful pollinators and plants that can attract them to your yard with an emphasis on pollinators found in the UK (so if you are outside the UK, this book probably won't do you too much good as it was fairly specific in its content).

This book works through many different plants that can attract pollinators to one's yard. Plants that act as primarily pollen and nectar food sources. Then the book works through each specific species of pollinator and what they would eat or be attracted by. The author's expertise lies in bees, and so there was considerably more information available there. But I did enjoy the space that was dedicated to the commonly unsung heroes of pollination such as flies, beetles, and the all-important moths.

While I appreciate the message that this book is trying to make, it was hard for me to agree with several of the statements and sentiments found throughout the book. For example, the emphasis in planting was in pollen and nectar sources, and the actual act of pollination. However, one of the best ways to increase pollinator activity and presence is not to increase the amount of plants that need pollinated in an area, but instead to increase the habitat that the pollinator needs to live in. Sure, those plants, sticks, and muddy environments are not as attractive to flower gardeners, but it is a sure fire way to increase pollinator survival. Second, there was a strange blurring of weed versus invasive species in part of the book. I wish the author had made it more clear what separated the two. In addition to that, the author seemed to not care about whether something was invasive or not in the garden and as someone who works directly with insects, concerned me greatly.

Overall I learned a lot about various pollinators and potential plants that they could feed from, but would personally want to do far more personal research before I chose any of the plants to grow in my garden (assuming I lived or gardened in the UK)

*I would like to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful book with a lovely cover. With all that's happened in the world recently, I found this book fascinating, and interesting to know that if we each do our bit we can make a difference. Now to put it all into practice. Wonderful and inspirational reading.

Good information, and Vernon's passion for bees, butterflies and other pollinators comes through in every paragraph, but this is very UK-specific so I'm not sure how much of the species-specific info applies to me here in Colorado.

This was a very interesting book...who knew how much was involved with pollinators? There were so many things I never really realized about the process. This is a great book to have as a reference book. I'm heading out right now to get more plants of the right type to attract the insects that I want.

Attracting Garden Pollinators is a well written guide to understanding local pollinators and planning an appropriate garden environment to attract and support them. Due out 6th June 2022 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 176 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

The introduction covers the basics of pollinator entomology and concepts: what are beneficial insects, how they work and why they're important. The intro is followed by a "bestiary" with some of the most common groups of pollinators (butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, hoverflies, flies, and beetles). The rest of the book covers habitats, attractor plants, and thuggish plants like bindweed and Japanese knotweed (and some techniques for controlling them).

The book is lavishly illustrated with clear color photos throughout. The photos show featured insects in various life stages including pupal and adult which make identification easier. Tips and extra info is included in highlighted text boxes throughout. Photo captions are well written and easy to understand. The chapter on useful plants for native pollinators and parasitoids has been written with a good eye toward garden design and diversity. There are a lot of plants which are beautiful and useful and which people will want to plant in their gardens (instead of hiding the weedy looking ones).

There's an abbreviated resource and links list in the back of the book which is mostly slanted toward readers in the UK but will also provide relevant info for readers living in other parts of the world. The book also includes a cross referenced index.

No single book is going to be the holy grail of gardening information; this one does a good job of deep diving into an important (and often overlooked) aspect of natural controls and organic methods which happily co-align with much needed biodiversity support and regenerative gardening.

Five stars. This would make a good selection for public or school library acquisition, makers groups, gardening and activity groups, home and community gardeners, smallholders, and the like.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

An excellent reference volume for anyone who wants to learn more about pollinators and how to encourage them in your garden. This is written from the UK perspective by an expert on insect pollinators; North American gardeners might have to make small adjustments, but overall the information is still very applicable. The book begins with an introduction to pollinators.. Then each specific pollinator is profiled, complete with identification photos and suggestions for attracting that pollinator. There is also an interesting section on bee behaviors. It should be noted that the pollinators in this book are limited to those that are insects. Other pollinators (e.g., mammals) are not addressed.

The last half of the book describes some important pollinator habitats and then profiles some plants for pollinators. The plants are sorted by growth habit, and also by seasons. Finally, there is a chapter on undesirable plants.

I would consider this a great science-based reference on insect pollinators that would be useful for any gardener. While it has a good amount of detail, it's still written in a way that's understandable by the lay gardener. There are an abundance of photos, though a few are a bit unfocused (though, this may be an artifact of conversion to reviewer format). The author also provides a generous list of references at the end of the book.

Attracting Garden Pollinator's is exactly what it says on the tin!

I have always been an advocate at welcoming wild creatures and pollinators, especially into my garden, I have so many bee-loving plants already so most of what is featured in this book I knew already but there are some things that I will be taking away to enhance my pollinator friendly borders.

This is a wonderful and eye-catching selection of colour photograph's which show the little critters in their full glory, which is very handy if you are looking to spot and keep a lookout for what's popping up in the garden. Plus full images of the flowers which will attract all manner of creatures.

it is evident that the author has a lot of passion for the subject, the writing it clear and precise makes the book incredibly easy to read, it's laid out in a way that helps you flick through and jump to a particular section - always handy!

It's a very informative and knowledgeable book which will appeal to anyone who has a passion for gardening, for attracting pollinators and basically for helping the environment as we all know how important bees are for the world, so helping pollinators helps the environment.

Overall, a easy-to-read, basic and insightful book.

I love the tone of this book! I wasn’t surprised to find out it’s written by an English author as I connect better with the UK’s sense of humor and style.
However, since it is UK-centric, some of the information isn’t applicable to myself and the patrons of my library.
A lot is though, and there is a LOT of great information presented in a very digestible manor.