Dry-Land Gardening: Xeriscaping Guide for Dry-Summer, Cold-Winter Climates

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

Xeriscaping (from the Greek for dryness) is a gardening approach that
conserves not only water but also time, energy, and other resources. In
Canada, one thinks of the prairies as vulnerable to droughts, but many
small areas, including parts of eastern Ontario, may be exposed and
windy and liable to receive less rain than nearby locations.

Jennifer Bennett gardens on a limestone hill. A month can pass without
rain, yet her plants survive. Xeriscaping keeps them flourishing.
“These gardens depend more on ground covers and mulches,” she
explains. “There are apt to be more tall grasses and few vines.” The
work is concentrated in spring and fall.

The guide includes scores of striking color photographs (many by the
author) of plants suitable for such terrain. The photos, along with
quality paper and a well-planned two-column format, make for a very
attractive volume. Bennett’s clear, detailed, lively, and
authoritative text, covers grasses and groundcovers, perennials, bulbs,
vegetables, annual flowers, roses, shrubs, and herbs.

Dry-Land Gardening celebrates gardens “with a different sort of
beauty” that leave your time and conscience free and easy.