Waterwise Plants for Sustainable Gardens: 200 Drought-Tolerant Choices for All Climates [Paperback]

With the weather changes we all experienced last growing season, gardeners and plant lovers are wondering which way to go. Wait and see? Or assume this year will be better, back to normal or terrific. I'm holding back somewhat.

One of the gardening chores that never goes away is watering. What about planting more and more water-wise plants to have the same amount of beauty with a lower water bill and less work? And, if you're living in an area with water restrictions, water wise gardening will make a big difference.

The 200 plants covered in the book include trees, shrubs, perennials, ground covers, grasses and sedges, bulbs and their relatives, vines, annuals, biennials, succulents, cacti, palms and fiber plants.

Each plant has its own page with photo, growing preferences, attributes and best zones. In addition, the Ogdens say which other low-water plants will be good neighbors.

Example of one page:
Prairie Skullcap, Scutellaria resinosa
grows 8-inches tall and up to a foot wide
Native of the Great Plains, gray-green leaves, small purple flowers.
Short lived but will self-sow.
Combine with cacti, yucca, agave and others.

Related perennials: Suctellaria wrightii, Violet Cloud for zones 6-9 and Suctellaria suffrutescens for zones 7-9 is longer lived, has rose red or cream flowers and is good for roof gardens.

This is a handy volume to have on your desk when making your seed order this winter. I know I am going to have it in hand and use it to help make my final decisions with the catalogs in front of me.

Water is a resource; so are your time and energy. Conserve them all at the same time by selecting ornamental plants for their ability to use less resources!

I wanted to review this book because; well I have a black thumb. I am not very good at keeping green things alive (except an African violet I kept alive for three years and had to give away when we moved- but that was a fluke), especially if the plant needs regular watering when it is not rainy. I always figured the perfect thing for me to plant would be something that could pretty much live on its own but plants like that are hard to find. Even at garden stores and green houses the experts always tell me, "oh it's hardy, it could survive just fine" but let me tell you a deep dark secret, I once killed two hosta plants. I know, I have been told that is next to impossible, but I went on vacation for 3 weeks and when I got home, my beautiful little garden had two dead hostas. I was sad and mortified, especially since we lived in a cul-de-sac and everyone would comment when they walked by.

This book is perfect. I am eager to plant some of these drought resistant plants when we get into our new house. I am already planning my garden.

This book is quite thorough. It gives a couple different tables, one is a key to the different symbols used in the book and the other is zones, broken down by temperature. It then breaks the plants into varieties, such as trees, shrub, perennials, ground cover, grasses, bulbs, succulents, palms, and fiber plants. The descriptions are easy to read and quite complete. For each plant the book lists a "grows" section that explains how tall a plant gets and how quickly it grows, best zones for it to grow in, each plants special attributes, a couple design ideas, and a related plant in the same genre.

Waterwise also has really beautiful pictures of the plants, and in most cases there is more than one picture of the plant and if the plant looks different during different seasons, like some trees, there are pictures of both seasonal looks. The wording is colorful, eye catching, and an easy to read font. It is also a pretty large font, which is nice on the eyes.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what types of plants to plant in areas where you get occasional droughts. I know this book has been quite helpful to me, and I am a total novice. If you have any experience, this book will be a great resource for you to add to your collection.

I received this book as an ARC. I do not get paid to review books; I do so in order to assist you in recognizing books that you might enjoy.

Please read more of my reviews on my blog: sarahereads(dot)wordpress(dot)com

this book serves as a good source of information about drought tolerant plants, their daily care and and yearly needs for pruning and/or fertilizers.

For me, I would have loved to see the plants more in a landscape setting to see how the plants
work well with others.