Review of "Watching the Prairie Bloom," by Sonja Van Dusseldorp and Alan Fox

Review of

Watching the Prairie Bloom, by Sonja Van Dusseldorp and Alan Fox

Five out of five stars

 This collection of images with explanatory text describes a 50 acre century farm in New Sharon, Iowa that has been taken out of row crop production and returned to native prairie and timber. Alan Fox is a retired veterinarian and like every other vet that I have encountered in Iowa, is known by all as “Doc.”

 Over 10,000 trees were planted on the property and there is a pond that is 28 feet deep and covers over an acre. A tiny creek also flows through the land. There are houses specifically constructed for different types of birds and accommodations for other creatures living in this ecologically diverse land.

 The book consists of a series of high quality colored images with a short segment of explanatory text. Most of the images are of the beautiful flowers that bloom out over the course of the growing season, although a few creatures manage to be included in some of the images. This is a description of natural Iowa, before it was all row crops and carefully tended lawn grass. My family owns a 100 acre piece of real estate that has not been farmed or pastured in roughly 50 years. Many of the images in this book are similar to what I can see when I walk through our land.