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Gardening in the Desert: A Guide to Plant Selection and Care
Newcomers to the Southwest usually find that their favorite landscape plants aren't suited to the hot, dry climate. Many authors offer advice on adapting plants to the desert; now Mary Irish tells how gardeners can better adapt themselves to the challenge.
Drawing on her experience with public horticulture in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Irish explores the vexations and delights of desert gardening. She offers practical advice on plants and gardening practices for anyone who lives in the Southwest, from El Paso to Palm Springs, Tucson to Las Vegas.
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.
For anyone who has struggled to maintain a patch of green or blanched at their water bill after unproductive irrigation, the answer to an attractive landscape may be as close as the desert around you. And for anyone who has bought a catalog guide to desert plants and not known which to choose, this book can set you on the right path. Mary Irish shows how to take heart in available plants of adaptable beauty in a book to enjoy while waiting for the next planting cycle.
Drawing on her experience with public horticulture in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Irish explores the vexations and delights of desert gardening. She offers practical advice on plants and gardening practices for anyone who lives in the Southwest, from El Paso to Palm Springs, Tucson to Las Vegas.
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.
For anyone who has struggled to maintain a patch of green or blanched at their water bill after unproductive irrigation, the answer to an attractive landscape may be as close as the desert around you. And for anyone who has bought a catalog guide to desert plants and not known which to choose, this book can set you on the right path. Mary Irish shows how to take heart in available plants of adaptable beauty in a book to enjoy while waiting for the next planting cycle.
175 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2000
20 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2017
Mary Irish is the Goddess of Desert Gardening, the Oracle of Aridness. Therefore, when I moved to the blistering desert and found myself with an empty canvas for landscape, I turned to this book on the recommendation of a local librarian. It has been a godsend.
We seem to have lost the gift of patience, of waiting for time to unfold its story.
Such a lovely quote and so very true. I now live in a resort area where the part-time snowbirds want big things to grow very quickly so they can view them when they visit. For the rest of us, the year-rounders, being able to watch a small pot of something grow slowly, but strongly, into a more natural form is worth being patient.
Instant gardens planted with impatience and with scant attention to gentle development are disconnected and sterile; the personality and interest of the gardener are absent.
Following Irish's advice, I am being patient. Learning where the sun flows throughout the day is a worthwhile project, as I try to figure out what is shaded and when (well, not much). While others view sand as an impediment to gardening, I welcome it, having spent a lifetime dealing with clay. There is also a responsibility to grow native plants, to ensure that we replace what gets lost every time the developers destroy land to build more cookie-cutter communities. So, I visit public gardens and nurseries and follow the hummingbirds and the bees and the butterflies...if it works for them, so it will work for me.
Irish is so good at explaining her love for desert plants and also helps by breaking possibilities into shades. For example, I am planting a Prince hedge, a combination of "When Doves Cry" and "Little Red Corvette" (purple and red). This requires Irish's Left Hand Analogy. That is, just as left-handed little children are maneuvered into writing with their right hand, so do people plant something based on what we want, not what is natural. By understanding this, I was able to focus on soil and sun and still get the same result. Yay, Mary Irish.
Tree wood gains strength from buffeted in the wind, so give your tree every opportunity to toughen up.
And that's what I did. The Palo Verde Blue Emerald tree was planted, but then I noticed one of the branches was being scarred by the nursery stake. So, I had a good pep talk with the tree and removed the stake. So far, so good, and I feel as though the tree is on a tougher, yet better, path to success.
There is something else that sticks in my head. The following quote (not in this book) goes a little way to explaining the Mary Irish way:
"When things are expected (in the landscape), they become less powerful and impactful."
This was spoken by the Head of Horticulture at Disneyland. So if you find yourself in the desert with a yard to plant, don't just take the lazy way and insert a cactus and one or two agave, but read Mary Irish and learn the amazing possibilities that are available.
Book Season = Autumn (small benevolences of shade)
We seem to have lost the gift of patience, of waiting for time to unfold its story.
Such a lovely quote and so very true. I now live in a resort area where the part-time snowbirds want big things to grow very quickly so they can view them when they visit. For the rest of us, the year-rounders, being able to watch a small pot of something grow slowly, but strongly, into a more natural form is worth being patient.
Instant gardens planted with impatience and with scant attention to gentle development are disconnected and sterile; the personality and interest of the gardener are absent.
Following Irish's advice, I am being patient. Learning where the sun flows throughout the day is a worthwhile project, as I try to figure out what is shaded and when (well, not much). While others view sand as an impediment to gardening, I welcome it, having spent a lifetime dealing with clay. There is also a responsibility to grow native plants, to ensure that we replace what gets lost every time the developers destroy land to build more cookie-cutter communities. So, I visit public gardens and nurseries and follow the hummingbirds and the bees and the butterflies...if it works for them, so it will work for me.
Irish is so good at explaining her love for desert plants and also helps by breaking possibilities into shades. For example, I am planting a Prince hedge, a combination of "When Doves Cry" and "Little Red Corvette" (purple and red). This requires Irish's Left Hand Analogy. That is, just as left-handed little children are maneuvered into writing with their right hand, so do people plant something based on what we want, not what is natural. By understanding this, I was able to focus on soil and sun and still get the same result. Yay, Mary Irish.
Tree wood gains strength from buffeted in the wind, so give your tree every opportunity to toughen up.
And that's what I did. The Palo Verde Blue Emerald tree was planted, but then I noticed one of the branches was being scarred by the nursery stake. So, I had a good pep talk with the tree and removed the stake. So far, so good, and I feel as though the tree is on a tougher, yet better, path to success.
There is something else that sticks in my head. The following quote (not in this book) goes a little way to explaining the Mary Irish way:
"When things are expected (in the landscape), they become less powerful and impactful."
This was spoken by the Head of Horticulture at Disneyland. So if you find yourself in the desert with a yard to plant, don't just take the lazy way and insert a cactus and one or two agave, but read Mary Irish and learn the amazing possibilities that are available.
Book Season = Autumn (small benevolences of shade)
August 12, 2019
The book is a little dry (pun intended), but I like her approach to gardening. She recommends finding plants that work in the desert climate and require much less work. I didn’t know there were so many plants that can live off minimal watering. This book helped me see that you can get the garden you want using the plants that like your soil and climate, and there are lots of colorful and graceful desert plants available.
August 17, 2012
I like the way she really cares about the plants and gardens she's describing. I wish there were more pictures, and I wish it included information about vegetables and herbs. But a lovely place to start.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews