Leslie Jeffreys is pictured at the “seed library” at Warsaw Community Public Library, which is available for anyone to use for free. Gardeners are encouraged to save some seeds after harvesting to contribute back to the seed library for others to use. Photo provided by Warsaw Community Public Library.

By Ann Zydek
Library Director
Warsaw Community Public Library

WARSAW — As April begins, I encourage you to reconnect with nature.

From a very early age I enjoyed the outdoors. I listened to birds singing, climbed trees, made dandelion chains and helped on the family farm growing garden fruits and vegetables, planting hardwood trees, baling hay and feeding geese, chickens and sheep. On walks, I respectfully kept my distance from snakes, bees, spiders and wildlife and loved bird watching and identifying trees, flowers and mammals.

How aware are you of the natural world? Prepare for your outdoor adventures by exploring the Warsaw Community Public Library’s resources on trees, wildlife, agriculture and gardening.

Plant seeds from the library’s “seed library.” Try tomato and pepper seeds indoors and leafy greens outside. Learn about the value of trees and urban agriculture in Ben Wilson’s “Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City.” He shares that trees “are among our best defenses against the power of the elements” and “are a lynch pin in a wider ecosystem of wetlands, rivers, and lakes.”

Recently I was impressed by a children’s picture book, “Be a Tree!” written by Maria Gianferrari and illustrated by Felicita Sala. It starts with, “Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun.” Amazingly, readers discover tree roots “twine with fungi” networks, creating “a wood wide web of information” that enables trees to “talk, share food, store water, divide resources, alert each other to danger.” The interconnectedness and dependence of trees was compared to a community where people communicate, share and care for one another. Maria Gianferrari in an author’s note shares that she read Peter Wohlleben’s “The Hidden Life of Trees.”

The library offers access to a number of books by Peter Wohlleben, an internationally bestselling nature author, including “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate — Discoveries from a Secret World,” “The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature’s Secret Signs,” “The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things,” and “The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature.” Many of his titles are in eBook; a few are in eAudiobook. Currently on order is his latest title, “What’s Wild Outside your Door?: Discovering Nature in the City.”

Happy spring reading!