Customer Reviews

Native Landscaping From El Paso to L.A.

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I really enjoyed this book. It helped me design and implement a hummingbird garden area. I now have a seating spot in the garden to enjoy the many H that come. I am buying another one of these great books for a friend who admired my garden. Thank you author Sally Wasowski

I have the hardcover version (Native Gardens for Dry Climates) and I highly recommend this book. The Wasowski's do an admirable job of showing off the best of each plant - you get the idea that ALL these plants are worth having, and so we covered the book in post-it notes...

The information is detailed enough in terms of native habitat, water, and sun/shade requirements and growing habits that we could build a great "hit list" of plants that we took to the local native nurseries. We found almost everything on our list, so the plants covered seem easy enough to find, at least in Los Angeles.

The best feature of this book can be found under the "Other Value" subhead for each plant listing: whether the flowers are used by hummingbirds or bees; whether it's a larval plant for butterflies or moths; and whether the seed or fruit is eaten by birds. I wish all books had this essential information for the wildlife gardener.

Native Gardening from El Paso to L.A. is actually the Wasowskis' previous book, Native Gardens for Dry Climates published under a new name. The only differences I noted were a change in the format of the introduction and new photographs substituted for a couple of the plants. Nevertheless, as I did not own the previous version, I found this edition very helpful in deciding what type of desert trees, cactus, shrubs and plants to include in a desert landscape. The authors provide full color photographs of the entire plant or tree plus pertinent details such as water needs, amount of sun, type of soil, maximum height and width, native habitat and the desert regions it will grow in. A map included in the book outlines seven distinct regions covering California, Southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and a portion of Texas. A general description and landscaping tips for each of the 146 plants are also provided. Tables are included which outline the color and bloom time for each plant. Several sample gardens plans are reviewed providing the reader with landscaping ideas. I found this book to be an extremely helpful resource.