For old hands or inexperienced newcomers, A Desert Gardener's Companion is the essential reference for creating and maintaining a bountiful and environmentally sensitive Southwestern gardens. Master Gardener Kim Nelson provides a wealth of information in an easy-to-use seasonal format, covering what to do week-by-week in the desert climates of Southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southern New Mexico, and West Texas. Nelson covers everything from planting agave americana to mulching melons to adding zinc chelates to desert soils: one hundred sixty specific topics in all. Delightful drawings by noted nature artist Paul Mirocha demonstrate proper planting and pruning techniques, suggest complimentary landscape groupings, and illustrate specific low water-use plants. No other single volume provides as much useful advice about selecting, planting, and caring for such a wide variety of plants and gardens as Nelson packs into A Desert Gardener's Companion. Her informative and entertaining prose reflects her years of successful, hands-on gardening experience in both Southern California and Arizona and her wealth of knowledge gained as chair of the Plant Clinic at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Tucson.

The Month-By-Month series is the perfect companion to take the guesswork out of gardening. With this book, you'll know what to do each month to have gardening success all year. Written by authors in your state, the information is tailored to the issues that affect your garden the most. When is the best time to plant trees and shrubs? Should I fertilize my lawn now? Is it time to prune my roses? What should I be doing in my garden this month? You'll find the answers to these questions and much more inside. This easy-to-use book highlights each of the ten major plant categories using a monthly format. It guides you through each month of the year, telling you exactly what your garden needs. It is like having an expert in the garden with you all year long. Valuable hints are located throughout the book, and beautiful photographs will inspire you. Written just for gardeners where you live, you can be confident that the information is right for you-and your garden will show it.

The Month-By-Month series is the perfect companion to take the guesswork out of gardening. With this book, you'll know what to do each month to have gardening success all year. Written by authors in your state, the information is tailored to the issues that affect your garden the most. When is the best time to plant trees and shrubs? Should I fertilize my lawn now? Is it time to prune my roses? What should I be doing in my garden this month? You'll find the answers to these questions and much more inside. This easy-to-use book highlights each of the ten major plant categories using a monthly format. It guides you through each month of the year, telling you exactly what your garden needs. It is like having an expert in the garden with you all year long. Valuable hints are located throughout the book, and beautiful photographs will inspire you. Written just for gardeners where you live, you can be confident that the information is right for you-and your garden will show it.

Explains how to grow organic foods in desert climates, with sections devoted to vegetables, fruits and nuts, and controlling extreme pests organically.

There is nothing lovelier than England in June, when it's in full blossom, when the sun is sinking down behind the hedgerows and the Queen Elizabeth rose, with its palest of pale pink petals, is unfolding into glorious summer bloom. Nothing lifts the spirit more than a glorious meander through an English garden in full floraison. The sweetly scented gardens and gentle landscapes of this great country have long drawn horticulture fans and Anglophiles searching for its natural idylls, made so redolent in literature, film, photography, poetry and song. Every summer, people from all over the world travel to England to stay at charming guest houses with bucolic gardens, drink at country pubs with flower-decked beer gardens, wander from gate to gate on garden tours, shop at stores for irresistible garden tools and seeds, and dine at cafés and restaurants with floral-themed interiors. Now, this beautiful new book by bestselling author Janelle McCulloch - part guidebook and part armchair delight for garden lovers - shows you where to find these wonderful garden destinations, from the celebrated and famous to the secret and little-known. It also details the private estates that only open several times a year; the ones that tend to go under the travel radar. Elegantly designed and illustrated, the pages within are also packed full of spectacular botanical-inspired hideaways to stay, linger, shop, dine and drink at, from garden-inspired restaurants to garden-enhanced hotels. AUTHOR: Janelle McCulloch is a journalist, author and photographer of more than 20 books on architecture, interior design, travel and gardens, including 15 bestselling design titles. She divides her time between Australia, New York and London. SELLING POINTS: * This garden-lover's guide to England is both a valuable resource and inspiring coffee-table book for those who adore exploring and strolling through charming garden destinations * Organised thematically into 'gardens' and 'places to dine, drink and stay' (surrounded by the best botanical spaces), with each section broken down by region, offering user-friendly itinerary planning * Showcases many of England's best public and private gardens, historic, classic and iconic gardens, writers gardens, kitchen gardens, walled gardens, rose gardens, grand estates, restored or contemporary spaces, floral shows, beautifully landscaped expanses, and more * Lists important information about how to choose the best time of year to visit; the most beautiful garden destinations to visit with detailed itineraries; where best to see springflowers, tulips, wisteria, rhododendrons, roses, dahlias, among many others * Includes a valuable index of wonderful places and activities to be inspired by, from courses and workshops on topiary and garden embroidery to museums and galleries that offer botanical exhibitions, along with specialist nurseries, gardens stores and other garden resources, entries on floral arrangements, memorable garden tours, and DIY garden trails for those who prefer an independent experience

What's the best time to plant or prune? When should you fertilize fruit trees? What's the earliest date to set out tomato plants? Gardeners in the desert Southwest can't rely on books that try to cover the whole country. Summer heat, less rain, and shorter, unreliable growing seasons are important factors in the desert. That's why The Desert Gardener's Calendar can be essential to gardening success. Whether you're raising vegetables, nursing citrus trees, or just trying to keep your front yard looking its best, you'll find that this handy book gives you a valuable month-by-month perspective on the year. It helps you to focus on necessary activities and reminds you of simple tasks you might overlook.It's especially valuable for people who've moved to the desert regions from other parts of the country and follow old gardening dates that seldom apply to their new home. The Desert Gardener's Calendar is a guide to the maintenance you need to do to keep your garden flourishing and your landscape attractive throughout the year. It combines the month-by-month gardening and landscaping activities from two separate books by George Brookbank—Desert Gardening, Fruits and Vegetables and Desert Landscaping—and was created in response to readers who have found the calendar sections of those books especially invaluable. And because not all deserts are the same, Brookbank is careful to point out differences in scheduling encountered by gardeners in low- and middle-elevation regions in California and the Southwest. "I believe," says the author, "that if you use this calendar and let your judgment become more accurate with experience, you'll soon be doing everything right." Although that might suggest a day when you don't need this book, chances are good that, if you're a desert gardener, right now you do.

You can have a totally edible garden in the Desert Southwest (and other similar year-round climates). Edible fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers can be as decorative in the garden as they are on the dinner table. Change your ornamental garden into a treasure for the eye, a safe environment for family and pets -- and you can eat it too!