Customer Reviews

Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge and Everything in Between

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Water is the key to all life on this planet, and without it, everything would shrivel and die. "Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge, and Everything in Between" is a guide to optimizing one's garden for the local region's rainfall, and growing even in conditions that get very little rain. Aimed at creating a beautiful vew in one's front or back yards, "Rain Gardening in the South" is every southern gardener's best friend.

After a year of drought in my state, this is a timely book. Lots of us have bought rain barrels and are thinking about ways to both save water and maintain our gardens. The text is concise and easy to follow. The illustrations are beautiful but informative. I particularly like the descriptive charts in the "Plantings" chapter.

Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge & Everything in Between

I was looking for a special gift for my neighbor who is an avid gardener and conservationist. This beautifully illustrated and practical guide to rain gardening was perfect for her. It is not overly technical and would appeal to a wide range of gardeners, even gardening wannabees.
While the title suggests it's target audience is the US South, I suspect it would be just as useful to gardeners from many different regions.
My neighbor loved it and has already started planning some great gardenscapes.
Wonderful book!

The book is actually an interesting read; more than just an instructional manual. The book goes into excellent detail on bed prep, rain garden design, and plant selection. The book also does a good job of covering other ornamental gardening basics. Although the book is primarily focused on the South, I think the basics taught would be applicable anywhere in the country.

I am one of the authors of Rain Gardening in the South--thank you for considering adding this book to your gardening library! I wanted to share with people how this book has impacted gardeners, and not just those in the South! Major concepts in the book--the what, why, and how of rain gardening as well as the general design information is useful for *any* gardener, no matter where you live. It's only the plant list that is tailored for the South. We were ecstatic to receive glowing reports not only from gardeners in our neck of the woods, but also from gardeners in California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey...just to name a few. Several books have even made their way overseas to England, Italy, and Yemen. So don't let the "...in the South" part of the title hold you back! You can obtain appropriate plant lists for your area from your local county extension office or closest university horticulture department. Enjoy the drought and the deluge!

Lots of good pictures - I think I would like more details in this book in terms of planting designs. The list of plant possibilities is good but would like a little more design help.

Problems with excess water, run-off, polluted water, unsightly yards? This book gives you the answer. Who knew this simple landscaping technique could solve so many problems. You must read this book.

The book seems interesting, but when I turned to the plant list for rain gardens, I was appalled that so many invasive plants were listed. I was looking for information on plants that had deep tap roots to carry the water down deep and other information like that. I was disappointed.

I received this book as a gift, and though I live in the Midwest, I can adjust the information, also beautifully presented, and apply the basics to create a rain garden up north!

I thought this book was really well done, except for two issues. I was shocked to see that the authors have some exotic invasive plants in their plant list (barberry, spirea, vinca, mahonia, nandina, yellow flag iris, miscanthus and butterfly bush.) My first reaction was maybe those plants are invasive in Tennessee where I live but not across the south, but apparently they are. So, in my opinion the title of the book "Ecologically Designed Gardens" is really a misnomer. There are lots of wonderful resources on the web about exotic invasive plants. I also suggest the book "Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide)" by C. Colston Burrell. If you are a skeptic about the threat of exotic invasive plants, I suggest you talk to the naturalists at your local park to hear first hand how exotic invasive plants are destroying native plant communities in our natural areas. The threat is very real and gardeners need to be responsible when they choose plants.

The other issue is that the authors use a "constant" to calculate the size of the rain garden, which does not make sense to me and results in a rain garden that's much too small. Based on my research, the authors of "The Blue Thumb Guide to Rain Gardens" use an approach that makes a lot more sense. They suggest you do a simple infiltration test to see how deep your rain garden should be to allow the rain water to infiltrate within 24 hours. Then you do some simple math to calculate the surface area that will drain into the rain garden and the size necessary to capture that rain. For example, assume you were planning to have a 6 inch deep rain garden and you have 600 square feet of roof. Multiply 600 square feet by 1/12 feet (assuming 1 inch of rain on average per rainfall) equals 50 cubic feet of rain water, divided by 1/2 feet (6 inches) depth equals 100 square feet for your rain garden to capture 50 cubic feet of rain. (If you have 2 inches of rain per rainfall on average, you would double the size.) According to the Rain Gardening in the South book, the authors suggest only a 30 square feet rain garden for 600 square feet of roof.