"Creating a Backyard Haven..."

Many people approach gardening as a constant struggle against the outside world. They're perpetually at war with nature, investing in chemical treatments to fight off mammals, birds, and insects in an effort to preserve their garden as a pristine, unspoiled patch of earth.

Marlene A. Condon proposes a radically different method of gardening: What if, instead of battling the natural world, we invite it into our yards?

The result is a nature-friendly garden which attracts and meets the needs of common creatures while maintaining a thriving and varied landscape of flowers and other plants.

As this thought-provoking guide demonstrates, coexisting with nature doesn't mean turning your yard into a bramble-infested wilderness. The sustainable low-impact garden described in these pages is a model of environmental balance, fostering species diversity while keeping wildlife damage and invasive plant growth at an acceptable minimum.

Best of all, it offers a privileged look at the workings of nature, opening up a new and fascinating world for even the most experienced gardener.

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Purchase the book:

To order an autographed book for $19.95 plus shipping, you can order directly from the author by contacting her at marlenecondon@aol.com

About the author:

Marlene A. Condon is a nature writer and photographer with a passion for creating wildlife habitat around homes. Chosen as a field editor for Birds & Blooms when the magazine debuted in 1995, she contributed articles and photos to this popular publication for many years. Marlene has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines and is the author of The Nature-friendly Garden (Stackpole Books). Her yard has been certified as a backyard wildlife habitat by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the National Wildlife Federation.  It has been showcased on public television stations WVPT in Harrisonburg and WCVE in Richmond, Virginia. She gave slide presentations from spring through fall in Shenandoah National Park for 13 years.

Marlene has a degree in physics.  Her contributions to the scientific study of quasars and pulsars have been published in The Astrophysical Journal and The Astronomical Journal.