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The Water-Smart Garden Book

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In The Water-Smart Garden, AHS award-winning author and horticulturist Noelle Johnson makes it easy to help save this precious resource and still have a resilient, attractive, and low-maintenance landscape.

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As freshwater shortages increasingly strike regions around the globe, it’s more important than ever to employ water-conserving practices in the garden. Whether your landscape is filled with shrubs and perennials or fruits and vegetables, in The Water-Smart Garden, you’ll learn dozens of techniques to limit water use while growing a gorgeous and thriving garden. Not only will you learn how to make smart plant choices and improve the water-holding capacity of your soil, you’ll learn xeriscaping techniques, drought-tolerant growing tips, and plant care advice to make the most of low-water situations.

Inside you’ll find:

  • Harvesting and redistributing rainwater in cisterns and rain barrels
  • Employing methods like ollas and drip irrigation to target water directly to plant roots
  • Being more water-efficient in the vegetable garden by using mulches and targeted irrigation
  • Planting containers that require less-frequent watering
  • Replacing a lawn with more drought-resilient plants
  • Building swales and berms to redirect water to where it’s needed

You can create a resilient, beautiful outdoor space by implementing water-efficient strategies for today and tomorrow’s garden.

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My Award-Winning Book, Dry Climate Gardening

In Dry Climate Gardening, author and desert horticulturist Noelle Johnson delivers all the know-how you need to grow a breathtaking, colorful, and vibrant garden in low-water conditions.

What others are saying…

This 2024 AHS Award Winning Book has broader applicability than many other dry-land gardening books and clearly explaining the thought process you need to go through when you garden in a dry climate. The author frames the information in a way that is really easy to understand. It’s sort of like she’s kind of your friend, you know, holding your hand as you read along. – American Horticultural Society

Dry Climate Gardening is a valuable reference for both beginner and experienced gardeners in the Southwest. – American Gardener Magazine

With the ever-increasing reality of drought in mind, the author provides readers with a pathway to creating beautiful, low-water-use gardens that thrive in the heat, overflow with style, texture, and color, and support wildlife. – Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine

This book includes information and photos on the best plants to feature in a dry climate landscape and also includes insightful plant care techniques specific to dry climates, including pruning and fertilizing. Noelle’s book won a 2024 American Horticultural Society Book Award because, quite frankly, it’s a terrific book. – Home Garden and Homestead

The most tantalizing chapter, “Plant List” – reaches into the depths of deserts and semi-arid regions worldwide to deliver plant profiles of trees, shrubs, vines, cacti, and grasses from genera many gardeners have never before encountered. The “plant candy” alone is reason to tear through this book! – Northwest Perennial Alliance

Love it! I’ve spent a lot of time reading and researching this past year, but this book makes it gel. For whatever reason, maybe her writing style, makes all of this make sense. If anyone is on the fence, just buy the book. Seriously, this is the best gardening book I’ve ever read. I read a lot of them in FL and now here in AZ.– Chryste Psik

This book is awesome!  So much great information for the low water user in the southwest area. The photos are beautiful and are good examples of what to do and not do.  The book covers everything to meet my needs.  Each chapter guides through all the steps from choosing the right plants, planting basics, caring for plants, designing, and lists of plants.  This book is a winner! – Kathy R.

This is a really great book! I have killed many plants (sadly) and hopefully, it will be rare for me now will all I have learned from your book! Thank you for teaching me to love my garden in the desert! – Angie D

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Gardening in an arid climate doesn’t have to mean a yard full of rocks with a few cacti plunked in. With careful plant selection and thoughtful design, you can create a low-water landscape that’s an oasis for humans and wildlife alike. There are hundreds of plants well-suited to xeric conditions, and with the proper care, they create a living desert landscape that will stop passersby in their tracks. Let Dry Climate Gardening be your guide to crafting a climate-appropriate outdoor living space that’s the envy of the neighborhood, whether you live in the American Southwest, the Mediterranean region, or any other arid climate.

Inside you’ll find:

  • The best arid-adapted plants to feature in your landscape
  • Information on which plants struggle in dry climates and how to avoid them
  • The five “desert seasons” and which are best for planting
  • How to handle desert soils
  • Plant care techniques specific to dry climates, including pruning, fertilizing, and more
  • How to design a planting for maximum impact and minimal water needs
  • Plant profiles and charts for every category, from trees and shrubs to groundcovers, vines, succulents, and perennials
  • Sample garden designs and plant lists you can adapt to your own space

With water restrictions and the number of gardeners dealing with drought conditions on the rise, we all need to get more creative in the way we grow. Water-wise landscaping is a must for millions of gardeners. In Dry Climate Gardening, you’ll learn how to do it with care and style.

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The Water-Smart Garden Book

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