Month-By-Month Gardening in the Desert Southwest

I have spent several years now trying to get my backyard thriving w/plants but with low water use and a minumum amount of digging in this vexing soil. I have tried everything in garden improvements and still have not achieved what I want. It finally hit me that the only thing I absolutely needed to do was to find plants that grow in heavy clay soil that contains various amounts of caliche. If the roots can't grow through the soil then no garden. Mary Irish is a pro at dealing with these issues. This book along with a couple of others by her also have become my only garden books that I will be using this season.

This book is a great resource for anyone wanting to garden in the Southwest. It gives a month by month summary of each class of flora (bulbs, cacti, trees, etc.) and what you should be doing for each. As a newcomer to the area, it is very valuable in teaching me what I need to now to be successful at planting in the desert.

Being a new arrival to a dry climate, this book has helped me understand more when to do things in this environment. Highly recommend.

This is my gardening bible. I read it at the beginning of every month to plan my gardening activity for the next few weeks. The Arizona desert is like no other climate in the USA. It has low rainfall, concrete-like soil and huge temperature variations. Gardening in this state is very unique and this book tells me what I need to do... so I don't have to remember. Information from books written by authors without the experience of gardening in Arizona, doesn't work in this state. Mary Irish has spent her life working for a variety of Arizona gardening organizations and is an expert on agaves. She knows the climate so her information works... simple as that The book is organized by section - trees, shrubs, grass with a chapter for every month in each section. Tasks are outlined so the information you need is easy to find.