Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest [Paperback]

George Brookbank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1992

George Brookbank has distilled nearly twenty years' experience—as an extension agent in urban horticulture with the University of Arizona—into a practical book that tells how to avoid problems with desert landscaping before they occur and how to correct those that do. In the first part, "How to Start and Maintain a Desert Landscape," he provides 28 easy-to-use chapters that address concerns ranging from how to start a wildflower garden to how to cope with Texas root rot. In Part Two, "A Month-By-Month Maintenance Guide," he offers a handy almanac that tells what to do and what to watch out for each month of the year, with cross-references to the chapters in Part One. Homeowners who maintain their own landscape will find in this book ways to make the work more satisfying and productive, while those who hire landscape contractors can make sure the work is done effectively and economically. "You'll find all kinds of books on desert landscape design and materials, irrigation system and design, and landscape installation," says Brookbank. "So far as I know, however, this is the only book that tells you what to do with what you've got and how to keep it growing."
CONTENTS
Part 1 - How to Start and Maintain a Desert Landscape
1. Desert Conditions: How They Are "Different"
2. Plants Are Like People: They're Not Alike
3. Use Arid-Land Plants to Save Water
4. How to Irrigate in the Desert
5. How to Design and Install a Drip Irrigation System
6. Soils and Their Improvement I: How to Plant in the Desert
7. Soils and Their Improvement II: How to Use Fertilizers
8. What to Do When Things Go Wrong: A Troubleshooter's Guide
9. How to Avoid—and Repair—Frost Damage
10. How to Control "Weeds"
11. Palo Verde Borer Beetle: What to Do
12. How to Avoid Texas Root Rot
13. When You Move Into an Empty House
14. What to Do About Roots in Drains
15. How to Dig Up Plants and Move Them
16. How to Have Flower Bed Color All Year
17. Landscape Gardening with Containers
18. Starting Wildflowers
19. Starting a Lawn
20. Making and Keeping a Good Hedge
21. Pruning Trees and Shrubs
22. Palm Tree Care
23. Caring for Saguaros, Ocotillos, Avages, and Prickly Pears
24. Roses in the Desert: Hard Work and Some Disappointments
25. Landscaping with Citrus
26. Swimming Pools: Plants, Play, and Water-Saving
27. Landscape Maintenance While You're Away
28. Condominiums: Common Grounds, Common Problems

Part 2 - A Month-by-Month Maintenance Guide

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is this hands-on approach that makes Brookbank's books, like the man, so accessible." —Phoenix Home and Garden "The spare supply of books on this subject makes any new entry welcome. . . . But this is not just any new entry, but an exceptionally practical and helpful one." —Prime Time "Exceptionally practical and helpful . . . This is a dandy!" —Book Talk

About the Author

George Brookbank learned landscape maintenance in his native England and as a Government Agricultural Officer in Tanganyika. He has spent nearly thirty years in Arizona, first teaching landscape maintenance classes at Arizona Western College in Yuma and then serving as an Extension Agent with the University of Arizona.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (August 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816512019
• ISBN-13: 978-0816512010
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING, February 21, 2001

By 

"choral" (DUBLIN, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest (Paperback)

THIS BOOK APPEARED TO BE WRITTEN IN THE EARLY 1900'S. THE ILLUSTRATIONS WERE SMALL, OR POOR QUALITY, AND IN BLACK AND WHITE. NOT A SINGLE COLOR PHOTO! COMPREHENSIVE INSTRUCTIONS ON SOIL PREPARATION, I.E.LEVELING THE SOIL ETC. VERY LITTLE ON ANUALS, COLOR, BALANCE, OR ANYTHING ESTHEITCALLY PLEASING. THIS BOOK WAS A CHORE TO LOOK THROUGH.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hardly about desert plants, October 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest (Paperback)

I returned this book because it was full of advice about how to plant and maintain plants that are not native to the desert: bermuda grass, citrus, grapes, tomatoes, mums...
Almost nothing about the native plants of the desert Southwest. I would not recommend it.

32 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garden Guru for the Desert, September 2, 2000

By 

Nellie Nichols (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest (Paperback)

A man of the soil. Brookbank has turned this lowly phrase into a high compliment. If any gardener takes these words too lightly without digging deep into the properties of the soil, let him/her beware. For atonement let him be given the task of counting the millions of microbes in a mere handful. With such detailed knowledge of the chemistry of plant life Brookbank is a desert gardening guru......Advice on what to plant, how to make a soil probe, and exactly how to install an irrigation system, is clearly presented. There are wonderful illustrations throughout the book. Are you sure you know how and when to use fertilizer? Read how plants extract nutrients from the soil-- these are valuable words that must be read with close attention for a real understanding of what's going on below visible plant life. You will stop thinking of soil as mere dirt.....A hard lesson for many gardeners to learn: don't fight nature. The advice on "What to Do When Things Go Wrong" will solve many problems. Recognize your poor gardening decisions. "Had you done the right thing," Brookbank says, "there wouldn't be any problem.".....Read on and learn: establishing year round color, caring for hedges, lawns, roses, palm trees, wildflowers, cacti, and how to dig up plants and move them. Vital to know re cacti. Everything is here and every gardener, novice or expert, will benefit.....I'll be leaving Atlanta and moving to Tucson this Fall so the chapter "When You Move into and Empty House" gave me good advice. The key is to take your time, look around and make notes as you observe. "Don't prune yet and don't remove the plants that irritate you." This comment really got to me. The man understands that some plants are just un-standable. One man's marigold is another man's poison ivy!.....Brookbank closes with a very useful monthly reminder list of what chores need your attention now. Take Novemeber: "Chart garden tempera- tures in various areas so you know how to act when a frost warning is issued. With a chart of your grounds you can see whether you are colder or warmer than the weatherman's predic- tions. A few degrees do make a big difference." Landscaping is a never-ending learning process. To be a man or woman of the soil is an honorable achievement. --by Nellie Nichols [e-mail]