Reading List
Recommended native plant books for Iowa
A few favorites that inspired this site — and will help you turn your own yard into habitat.
Nature's Best Hope
A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
The book that first sparked this site's interest in native plants. Tallamy shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide real wildlife habitat — a grassroots strategy built on practical, achievable steps at home.
Buy on Bookshop.org
100 Plants to Feed the Birds
Turn Your Home Garden into a Healthy Bird Habitat
A reference guide profiling 100 native plant species that support birds year-round — trees, shrubs, and wildflowers — complete with range maps and photographs to help you plant with birds in mind.
Buy on Bookshop.org
The Midwest Native Plant Primer
225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden
A practical sourcebook covering 225 native plants for thirteen Midwestern states, noting which wildlife species benefit from each plant — with the photos and details you need to choose confidently.
Buy on Bookshop.org
How Can I Help?
Saving Nature with Your Yard
Tallamy answers the questions most often asked at his popular lectures — on ecology, native plants, invasive species, and supporting wildlife — with practical, achievable steps. A reassuring guide that shows how one person, and one yard, really can make a difference.
Buy on Bookshop.orgPurchase links go to Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores. The developer of this site also recieves a commission from sales attributed to this site.
Iowa's Natural Heritage
As we reflect on our connections to Iowa's native heritage, nature, and the land, let us also remember that the state of Iowa rests on the territorial lands of the Sioux, Sauk, Meskwaki, and Ioway people.