Perennial Gardening in Texas presents its own unique challenges, especially with the state's wide variety of climate zones. This book focuses on individual plants—some 120 species—but also brings with it the expertise of a landscape architect in providing designs that will work both damp and water-scarce areas.
Texas Month-by-Month Gardening, the companion to Texas Getting Started Guide, presents a month-by-month breakdown of what to plant, when to plant, and how to take care of it in order to have a beautiful Texas garden year-round.
A perennial garden is an ever-changing source of delight. Each season brings new colors and textures in flowers and foliage. As the years go by, perennial plantings mature and interweave into forms more beautiful and surprising than a season's growth of annuals can ever give. Best of all, a perennial garden can grow almost anywhere with plants suited to local soils, temperatures, and rainfall. This book is a complete guide to perennial gardening in Texas and similar regions of eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas. In Part One, Julie Ryan offers a historical sketch of cottage gardens and perennial borders, with a sampler of some of their modern variations. In Part Two, she defines the major ecological regions of Texas and, with words and color photographs, takes you on a tour of lovely public and private gardens in each region. You'll find all the "how to" information for creating your own garden in Part Three. Ms. Ryan describes and pictures over 300 flowering perennials, bulbs, foliage plants, and old roses suitable for Texas gardens, with lists of companion annuals, vines, shrubs, and small trees. Accompanying charts provide quick reference to each plant's preferred regions and cultivation requirements. In addition, Ms. Ryan discusses how to design a garden and select plants, prepare the beds, and deal with garden pests. She concludes with substantial lists of resources, including mail-order suppliers of perennials, bulbs, and old roses.
A new edition of the classic gardening handbook details a simple yet highly effective gardening system, based on a grid of one-foot by one-foot squares, that produces big yields with less space and with less work than with conventional row gardens. Reissue. 30,000 first printing.
There is a fantastic array of vegetables you can grow in your garden, and not all of them are annuals. In Perennial Vegetables the adventurous gardener will find information, tips, and sound advice on less common edibles that will make any garden a perpetual, low-maintenance source of food. Imagine growing vegetables that require just about the same amount of care as the flowers in your perennial beds and borders--no annual tilling and potting and planting. They thrive and produce abundant and nutritious crops throughout the season. It sounds too good to be true, but in Perennial Vegetables author and plant specialist Eric Toensmeier (Edible Forest Gardens) introduces gardeners to a world of little-known and wholly underappreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such "minor" crops as ground cherry and ramps (both of which have found their way onto exclusive restaurant menus) and the much sought after, anti-oxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as goji berries), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and satisfaction. Perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible landscape plan or permaculture garden. Profiling more than 100 species, illustrated with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.
Make your garden a healing place. If you love to garden but also worry about the physical strain, or if you are in search of ways to promote a healthier lifestyle, and even combat specific chronic health issues, then noted garden author and speaker Shawna Coronado has good news for you! You can stay active, fight chronic pain, and keep the garden you've worked so hard to cultivate. In The Wellness Garden, Shawna details exactly how she has learned to use her garden as a key tool in her battle with osteoarthritis and other chronic pain issues. In this inspiring but highly practical book, you will learn from Shawna's life-changing garden experience how to create your own Wellness Garden—and gain the healthier lifestyle you desire and need. Shawna's Wellness Garden Program: Grow and eat produce with specific healing benefits Use ergonomic tools and methods to redefine garden chores as beneficial exercise Redesign your garden as a space for beauty and relaxation
Think of Doug Welsh’s Texas Garden Almanac as a giant monthly calendar for the entire state—a practical, information-packed, month-by-month guide for gardeners and “yardeners.” This book provides everything you need to know about flowers and garden design; trees, shrubs, and vines; lawns; vegetable, herb, and fruit gardening; and soil, mulch, water, pests, and plant care. It will help you to create beautiful, productive, healthy gardens and have fun doing it. Writer, educator, and broadcaster Doug Welsh gives a wealth of practical gardening advice in this book. Encouraging us to “think like a plant,” Welsh holds pruning school in February, conducts a lawn clinic in April, builds a perennial garden in September, and shows us how to grow fresh vegetables for Thanksgiving. Yet this barely scratches the surface of all that is offered in this comprehensive, fun-to-use guide. With colorful and instructive illustrations and helpful information boxes, plant lists, charts, sidebars, and tips, the book is written in the engaging, conversational style that anyone who has listened to Welsh’s radio show will recognize. Whether your passion is roses or green beans, wildflowers or trees, reading this book is like having a personal garden consultant and friend at your side. Doug Welsh’s Texas Garden Almanac will inspire you throughout the year and make you more eager than ever to get out into your garden.
Dubbed the Bulb Hunter in a 2006 New York Times feature story, Chris Wiesinger took his passion for bulbs to vacant lots, abandoned houses, cemeteries, and construction sites throughout the South in search of botanical survivors whose descendants had never seen the inside of a big-box chain store. The vintage specimens Wiesinger sought came from hardy, historic stock, adapted to human neglect and hot climates, reappearing faithfully over decades without care or cultivation. Traveling back roads, speaking to strangers, looking for the telltale color of a remnant iris or lily, Wiesinger started digging, then began trying to grow and share the bulbs he collected. From its humble beginnings on an East Texas sweet potato farm, his Southern Bulb Company has now grown into a full-fledged business known throughout the world, propagating and selling the rare, tough, heritage plants Wiesinger still seeks out and champions. Nicknamed “Flower” by his fellow cadets at Texas A&M University, Wiesinger relates his adventures in bulb hunting, telling stories of the bulbs he has discovered and weaving in his own life story as a student, plantsman, and small business owner. He then teams with veteran horticulturist William C. Welch to provide advice on how to grow and appreciate the bulbs that have been rescued and reintroduced. This “primer” gives gardeners information on what bulbs to grow where, when to plant them and when they bloom, and how to incorporate them with other plants in the landscape. Finally, Welch describes how bulbs have enhanced his personal gardens and brought him and Wiesinger together in the common cause of heirloom gardening. Entertaining, informative, and loaded with beautiful photographs, The Bulb Hunter is sure to be a favorite of gardeners and plant lovers everywhere.
Recreate the wild beauty and thriving ecology of meadows, prairies, woodlands, and streamsides in your own garden. In New Naturalism, horticulturist and modern plantsman Kelly D. Norris shares his inspiring, ecologically sound vision for home gardens created with stylish yet naturalistic plantings that mimic the wild spaces we covet—far from the contrived, formal, high-maintenance plantings of the past. Through a basic introduction to plant biology and ecology, you’ll learn how to design and grow a lush, thriving home garden by harnessing the power of plant layers and palettes defined by nature, not humans. The next generation of home landscapes don’t consist of plants in a row, pruned to perfection and reliant on pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides to survive. Instead, today’s stunning landscapes convey nature’s inherent beauty. These gardens are imbued with romance and emotion, yet they have so much more to offer than their gorgeous aesthetics. Naturalistic garden designs, such as those featured in this groundbreaking new book, contribute to positive environmental change by increasing biodiversity, providing a refuge for wildlife, and reconnecting humans to nature. In the pages of New Naturalism you’ll find: Planting recipes for building meadows, prairies, and other grassland-inspired open plantings even in compact, urban settings Nature-inspired ways to upgrade existing foundation plantings, shrub beds, and flower borders to a wilder aesthetic while still managing the space Inspiration for taking sidewalk and driveway plantings and turning them into visually soft, welcoming spaces for humans and wildlife alike Ideas for turning shady landscapes into canopied retreats that celebrate nature Creative ways to make an ecologically vibrant garden in even the smallest of spaces New Naturalism approaches the planting beds around our homes as ecological systems. If properly designed and planted, these areas can support positive environmental change, increase plant and animal diversity, and create a more resilient space that’s less reliant on artificial inputs. And they do it all while looking beautiful and improving property values.