Product Description

Newcomers to the Southwest usually find that their favorite landscape plants aren't suited to the hot, dry climate. Many books offer advice on adapting plants to the desert; this one tells how gardeners can better adapt themselves to the challenge.

In this entertaining and informative guide, Mary Irish encourages readers who may be new to the desert--or desert dwellers who may be new to gardening--to stop struggling against heat, aridity, and poor soils and instead learn to use and appreciate the wonderful and well-adapted plants native to the desert. She shares information and anecdotes about trees, shrubs, perennials, agaves, cacti, and other plants that make gardening in the Southwest a unique experience, and provides further information about plants from other desert regions that will easily adapt to the Southwest. In addition to descriptions of plants, Irish also offers tips on planting, watering, pruning, and propagation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #625834 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 175 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780816520572
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Entertains as it instructs. Reading this book is like talking with an expert friend rather than following a gardening recipe." -- Marty Eberhardt, Tucson Botanical Gardens

"Irish turns landscape gardening into an adventure." -- Jane Evans, Plants for the Southwest nursery

About the Author
Mary F. Irish is a garden writer, speaker, and consultant in desert horticulture in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was Director of Public Horticulture for the Desert Botanical Garden for eleven years and is the author of Agaves, Yuccas and Related Plants with her husband, Gary Irish.

Customer Reviews

desert gardening
An excellent book that should be in every desert gardener's library. Not only does she offer sound advice she is occasionally, and refreshingly, very candid in her opinions. I have just ordered my second copy as I made the mistake of lending my first copy.

Desert gardening made easy
Excellent beginner's guide to desert gardening. Not surprising, bias is to low desert where she lives. An expanded version to include intermediate and high desert would be welcome, but the priciples as laid out hold throughout the Southwest. Reads well.

a good narrative
I read this book cover-to-cover, which wasn't what I expected to do; I expected to use it more as a reference. However, it's written so well and contains so much helpful advice that I found it easy to read straight through. I'm new at gardening, but I'm already making good use of the information in my own yard.