Texas Gardener’s Resource: All You Need To Know To Plan, Plant & Maintain a Texas Garden
By Dale Groom and Dan Gill (with Steve Dobbs, James Fizzell, Joe Lamp’l and Joe White), Cool Springs Press, Brentwood, TN.
Nice book! I was sent this great resource by Cool Springs Press to review a couple of months ago, and have really enjoyed paging through it. Truth be told, I come from a family of gardeners and we all live in Texas, so parts of the Nybro clan had a great time reviewing this book with me.
Fist, the layout of this book is really great: thorough chapters on annuals, perennials, bulbs, grass, vines, etc.–but with each chapter comes a calendar for what to do each month in that category. The chapters are also color-coded at the tops of the pages for quick reference, something that I’m finding I appreciate. In addition, there’s detailed information on pest control, watering, soil preparation and mulching. I really love the section on roses–I”m not a huge rose gardener, but we have so many antique roses in Texas that are super-tough and defy the dainty, fussy rose reputation, that it’s great to have special attention paid to this group of plants for those who are ready to try them. It’s solid information, and not every book I read includes accurate information on these topics. And the photographs–they are gorgeous!
The only issue I have is one that the authors themselves note in the opening introduction: Texas is probably one of the most incredibly diverse states, with four hardiness zones and terrain ranging from piney woods to prairies to deserts. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to write a gardening book that covers the whole state–there will always be an exception to whatever rule or info you put out there. For example, salvia and lantana are listed as both annuals and perennials. They’re annuals in the northern part of the state, and solid perennials where I live in Central Texas. If you’re not clear about this or are a new gardener, this could be very confusing to you.
I do recommend this book–my sisters loved it, and one of my teenage sons kept picking it up and saying, “This book feels good!” Informationally, it’s one of the most thorough and solid books on Texas gardening that I have read; just make sure that the information you are taking is appropriate to your part of the state and you’re good to go!
