High and Dry: Gardening with Cold-Hardy Dryland Plants

Maybe I missed the fine print but none of the plant images in the book are color. A big disappointment since I bought this based on the hard back version I checked out at my local library (all color images). Oh well, the information is still top notch.

Really great book. I just moved to the high desert of northern Nevada from North Carolina. The climate is so very, very different that I have felt at a real loss when it came to gardening. This book has been incredibly helpful so far and I've only made it halfway through the first chapter. I really appreciate the author's humor which makes reading about all the details enjoyable to read.

I see this book as a nice, pretty introduction to the world of plants that grow in dry areas with hot summers and cold winters. I like the catchy title, which describes this situation perfectly. If you are an occasional gardener who wants an amusing read and an overview of plant options for this climate, this is a good book for you. If you are an experienced gardener who wants more in-depth discussion, you may find the glib comments and frequently superficial treatment of plants annoying, as I did. Still, if you can't get enough of plant reading, and have other books as resources, such as Lauren Springer's  The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty , Springer and Proctor's  Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates , and Judith Phillips'  Plants for Natural Gardens: Southwestern Native & Adaptive Trees, Shrubs, Wildflowers & Grasses , you can use this book as I do, as a cross reference for various plants, simply to see what another person's opinion is on a plant. As with any gardening book, keep in mind the location in which the author gardens. The author's climate (In this case, Lakewood, Colorado) may differ significantly from where you garden, especially considering the range of microclimates that exist throughout the west. The plants may perform differently, even though you may also be in a "High and Dry" location (in my case, Albuquerque). For example, he describes Artemesia tridentata (Big Sage) as growing to 10 feet where he lives, but here in Albuquerque, you'd be hard pressed to find a plant bigger than 2 feet tall, even with irrigation. With this in mind, I've given this book 2 stars because of its frequently superficial treatment of plants and because of the writing style. It is not without its usefulness. Just not very much use on my bookshelf.Addendum:I just picked up this book and began reading it again. I've come to appreciate this book for what it is: an argument for, and a justification for a type of gardening specific for the climate, for passionate plant people, and for no-irrigation gardening. It is not just about lowering water use, but for precipitation-only gardening. In this climate, precip-only gardens are quite challenging and Nold explains the difference in technique of gardening in this manner in the first chapter. This type of gardening also requires a different plant palette, which the rest of the book is about. I've seen arguments for it being short on pictures, but I see the photos that exist as being a good representation of a significant genus, and whetting the appetite for investigation into those plants that are not illustrated. Yes, many plants are superficially treated, but this simply reflects Nold's personal experience (which is better than parroting someone else's opinion which may be wrong). I must have been in a bad mood when I gave my first review. I'm changing it to 4 stars.

As a fairly recent transplant from coastal So. Calif. (Sunset Books Zone 24) to northern Utah (Sunset Zone 3A) about to embark on taming the huge expanse of swampy bluegrass in the yard (can't call it a garden yet) my newly-purchased home, I am thrilled to have found Nold's book. I really don't think I will have the courage to do a fully dry-garden approach as he does, but I found his narrative extremely thought-provoking and wise. The fact that it is frequently hilarious is an added bonus.Some reviews have criticized the book because it is somehow not a complete guide. I never had the impression that it was intended as such. And, who has just one garden book, anyway? The illustrations are really nice, although as some said, there may not be enough of them; that is easily remedied by reference to another book or so.I didn't really see this book so much as a plant guide (although the author may have intended that) as much as I valued the discussion of the ways in which gardening in the "Intermountain West" is so much different from gardening anywhere else. I appreciated his take on the reasons why people seem to think all gardens, wherever they are, must somehow emulate the ones they had elsewhere. And, learning that well-drained soil and the addition of copious amounts of organic matter may not be necessary was music to my ears.If you just want a book for looking up things, probably this is not for you, but if you, like me, read garden books (or cookbooks) for the pleasure of reading them, I highly recommend this one.

Nold clearly has a lifetime of personal experience with high and dry gardening, but some of his advice seems restricted to his experience and/or corner of the West. For example, he says that propagating rabbitbrush from seed is difficult to impossible; if he still wants rabbitbrush seedlings I have roughly 3,987,122 volunteers I'd love to get rid of! Nonetheless, the writing is entertaining and the references on individual native plants are unparalled, although again somewhat constrained by Nold's experiences (which often conflicts with the lessons learned in dry gardens in northern Utah's limey clay soils). Overall the reference section is the best I've seen for true native plant gardeners in the Intermountain West.