Water-Smart Gardening ─ Save Water, Save Money, and Grow the Garden You Want

You can have a colorful, striking garden that's drought resistant too!

Water-Smart Gardening gives you all the tools needed to create a water-smart landscape and garden. Drought is spreading throughout the country. Even areas that previously had plentiful supplies are feeling the strain, and the price of water is climbing. If you have to water your garden during non-drought years, many of the water-saving techniques from this book could still pay for themselves in no time.

Choose water-smart plants that survive and even thrive in low-water situations. Tap into the power of evolution and use plants native to your area. Add water-holding polymers to your container garden. Time your irrigation and install water-collection devices such as cisterns and rain barrels. Creating a water-efficient garden can even be as simple as designing your landscape to harvest as much rainfall as possible, using berms, terraces, and raised beds.

Gorgeous photos throughout Water-Smart Gardening will inspire you with beautiful garden ideas and help you see your way to a garden that sips water instead of gulping it. Helpful how-to information gets to the nuts and bolts of everything from installing a cistern to using seep irrigation.

Author Diana (Dee) Maranhao brings over 30 years of experience to help you create the garden of your dreams and save water at the same time.

Diana (Dee) Maranhao has been an active member of the horticulture and landscape industry for over 35 years. She has been a featured garden columnist for over ten years, authoring hundreds of gardening and horticulture articles for the public and the horticulture industry. She is the author of Rocky Mountain Fruit and Vegetable Gardening (Cool Springs Press). Diana and her husband Steve live and garden in southern Utah. Her gardens are her muse, serving as a constant education and a source of inspiration for her writing.