Arizona & New Mexico Getting Started Garden Guide

Book excerpt: Renowned Southwest gardening experts Mary Irish and Judith Phillips share their firsthand experiences with gardening in Arizona and New Mexico. The southwestern United States is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes and formations in the entire country. Alongside its famed attractions - the Grand Canyon, Rio Grande Gorge, and Havasu Falls among them - the region caters to a vast array of unique plant life, specially adapted to thrive in warm, dry climates as well as at high elevations. In Arizona & New Mexico Getting Started Garden Guide, authors and local gardening legends Mary Irish and Judith Phillips feature region-specific advice on planting, growing, and caring for more than 150 of the best-performing and most desirable plants across Arizona and New Mexico. Flowers and grasses, desert perennials and trees, shrubs and vines . . . this plant-by-plant guide includes useful information for the novice and the experienced gardener alike, paying special attention to low-water-use species that enjoy the specific climates of these two states. From the spectacular blooms of the claret-cup hedgehog to the puffballs of the Baja fairy duster, each plant is featured with full-color photography, detailed planting and care instructions, and recommendations for plants that can peacefully coexist with them. With an intuitive layout, pronunciation guides, a custom icon key for readily accessible plant facts, and color-coded USDA zone maps, Arizona & New Mexico Getting Started Garden Guide is the simplest, most foolproof plant manual for gardening everywhere from Carlsbad to Kingman.