Calif Desert area gardening book recommendations?

I just glanced up at the link for books; and yesterday spent a couple hours in a Barnes & Noble trying to figure out what's a good book for gardening. I realize there's many reference books and landscaping books and vegetable gardening books. I live in the desert and other than 3 live trees on the property, I'm out here in dirt and sand.

Basically a blank slate to work with and am wondering what are some good books to consider for "gardening" . I'm also interested in a pond, and I realize there's a special forum for that that I read, but just don't know what to get for a book on ideas and what would survive out here. Any ideas?

Hi Skittles,

First of all, welcome to DG.

I don't quite live in your zone, but I do know what your talking about. I can't recommend any special books but I can direct you to a great Mail Order site for your needs. They are rated highly in our Garden Watchdog. If you go to the site, you can browse through their plants and get some ideas on what would be good for your area. They sell mostly drought tolerant and desert type plants. One plant that should do well in your area, is Salvia's. Here is a link to their site: http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

Someone else will surely come along and help you with some more information.

Donna

You may find this site helpful http://www.desert-tropicals.com/ Although aimed at Arizonians (sp?) it has good suggestions for desert type climate. The Sunset Western Garden Book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0376038519/103-1410467-0479840?v=glance is a good general purpose guide and Gardening in the Southwest http://www.sunset.com/sunset/bookstore/article/0,21684,1035934,00.html is a new publication by Sunset that may be helpful for you.

Here are a few books I'd recommend. I own them and use them a lot. They are in my order of preference.

Jones, Warren & Charles Sacamano, Landscape Plants for Dry Regions, Fisher Books, 2000; ISBN 1-55561-190-7

Perry, Bob, Landscape Plants for Western Regions - An Illustrated Guide to Plants for Water Conservation, Land Design Publishing, Claremont, CA 1992 (3rd Printing 1996); ISBN 0-9605988-3-9

Hodoba, Theodore, Growing Desert Plants - from Windowsill to Garden, Red Crane Books, Santa Fe, NM 1995; ISBN 1-878610-54-6

Go to www.bookfinder.com to search for them. I use this resource a lot, and have always purchased the cheapest book and have never been dissatisfied.

If you want something more along the line of idea books, I have a couple of recommendations there too. Let me know.

Hope this helps.

Hi,
I am a desert gardener in Palm Springs, Calif. I just moved into a new house with a lot of landscaping newly planted. I have been in Germany for the summer and dreaming about my garden. I prepared the site for a veg garden and have been reading up about veg growing in the desert.
I grow lots of Agave's, Cacti, Succulents..These are the back bone of the garden. I also have many native shrubs that bloom and are easy maintenance.
My trees are Museum Palo Verde and lots of citrus. I also have Loquat tree that I planted from a seed. When I moved I took 39 plants from my old garden.
Roses do very well and I love them.
I will be back in Palm Springs August 17 and after Jet lag nightmare is over I will take Pic's of my garden. I have each plant on auto water and I hope my house sitter is checking for salt build up, as with all our 115 days this summer new plants and transplants could die very quickly without consistent water.

I'm bumping this up because I think the info is great for all of us.

Marilyn

Hi Skittles2u,

You might try Las Pilitas http://www.laspilitas.com/ They have lots of information for different types of gardening, and a great database you can search for native plants based on your requirements. The staff at the Escondido nursery are very helpful and also might be able to give book recommendations.

We are in the same situation, having started with a LOT of dirt and not much else. It takes time, but is so rewarding when things start growing. We did our first planting a year ago next month and one of our chitalpa trees is now as tall as me!

Good luck.

Kathleen