Xeriscape Gardening: Water Conservation for the American Landscape

MacMillan Publishing Company, 1992. Hard cover. Very Good/Very Good. 10x8x1. As the authors of this superb volume take great pains to point out, a Xeriscape (a trademark developed by a Colorado task force) landscape consists not merely of "a few forlorn cacti surrounded by gravel." Rather, it is an outdoor environment that can flourish "without pouring thousands of gallons of expensively purified water down the drain in the process." Surely this is a concept whose time has come nationwide, given the recent droughts in the Northeast and South, in addition to an ongoing water crisis in the West. Garden writer Ellefson, landscape architect Stephens and water management expert Welsh take the reader firmly by the hand and concisely explain how to conceive, design and install a Xeriscape home landscape anywhere in the country. It's all here, from a comparison of mulch materials to what irrigation system to use--and how to set it up--to mind-boggling lists of perennials, shrubs, trees and annuals rated according to water needs for a score of geoclimatic regions in the U.S. (including Hawaii). Rounding out the book are exhaustive appendices listing yet more plant material.