Easy Gardens for North Central Texas

We bought this for our daughter who lives just north of Dallas. It’s a great book full of information and guidance for the home gardener. Unfortunately, we discovered that we had already given her the same book (which she uses all the time and loves). Chalk that one up to senior citizen memory. We returned this one, but based on her feedback, we can recommend it to anyone serious about gardening in North Texas.

Wish I had this book before starting landscaping around our home. Concise and easy to follow. Each plant is categorized in groups like Blue Ribbon, Red Ribbon, etc. Colorfully illustrated and shows companion plants in an actual landscape environment.

I wish all gardening books were like this. They start off by telling you thoroughly about all the basics, but making it relevant to the local North Central Texas locations (I'm in Dallas). They even go into some details. For example, they don't just tell you to use fertilizer, don't just say slow-release is preferred, don't just tell you about N-P-K, but they also say, "look for boron, copper, iron, manganese, and magnesium as well [in the fertilizer]." And for our local soils, these minerals are important. But I rarely read about this in other gardening books.I adore the detail, and wish other books would give this much detail on each plant. Two pages for the many featured plants instead of one paragraph. For the featured plants, they tell you: leaf retention, size, growth rate, leaf description, flower description, origin, spacing, cautions, colors, light, water, soil, hardiness, propagation, pest problems, when to plant, trimming, fertilization, and division. And that's just in the side panels. They go into more detail and history in the main paragraphs. They even give you buying tips, warnings, and reassurances. And, yup, like the other reviewers, I, too, really appreciate the suggested companion plantings, complete with pictures of these plants and the page number for where more detail can be found.And I very much like how for most featured plants they not only show you a close-up of the bloom, but also the whole plant. I hate how most books just show you the bloom. And for plants that look different in different seasons, they include pictures of what the plant looks like in these other seasons. So my one and only "complaint" about this book is how a featured plant here and there doesn't have a whole-plant picture. But that's a tiny complaint.At the end of various chapters and sprinkled throughout, they have the smaller one-paragraph-with-one-picture format for other plants. They do this for "other plants that deserve mention" and to give a list for plants that are easy in the shade, for plants to give your garden lots of color, etc. And towards the beginning of the book they even made text lists of "best plants for wet spots", "worst plants for wet spots", "plants that do well in unimproved clay", and so on.Oh, and I can't forget to mention how on the featured plants they even have icons on top of the pages to quickly tell you whether the plants attracts birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, repels deer, number of days/weeks of color, whether the plant can survive on rainwater alone, and whether it's a Texas native.I just counted. For the "featured" plants they show 27 annuals, 36 perennials, 44 shrubs or vines, and 18 trees. I'm not going to count the multitudes of "other [plants] that deserve mention" that only have the standard one paragraph and one picture.I very eagerly await a "Easy Gardens for NC Texas 2".

This book is indispensable for the Texas DFW area. Since I first found this book last year, I have read it front to back nearly every other month. More helpful to the beginner with a brand new landscape than anything Neil Sperry has written. (Although, he is the next author you should buy from :P)Let me tell you why I'm so passionate about this book. First, it's divided in four simple sections. Annuals, Perennials, Shrubs and Vines, and Trees. (It also has some helpful info up front like all these books do.) For each section it lists about 30 excellent plants.Each of these plants have their own two page spread chock full of information. They are rated blue ribbon, red ribbon or no ribbon based on how many times you've got to mess with them during the year, their performance, and bug/disease resistance. The blue ribbons are no fail. These pages tell you everything you could possibly want to know about these plants. The characteristics, the growing conditions, the maintenance requirements, the reasons why they are so loved, informative blurbs, color period, buying tips, and the most helpful thing of all: Companion Plants. These are based on color period, color, water requirements. texture of the leaves, height, etc. These are the best looking plants that contrast with the star. This is no fail. It also has some identifiers at the top of the page that inform you in a glance if it's a texas native, if it attracts birds/butterflies/hummingbirds, if it resists deer, etc.For instance. One of the many companion plants listed for red yucca (blue ribbon) is lantana. It softens the whole appearance of the Red yucca. If you pick purple, it will enhance the purple tone of the leaves that I never realized were there. I actually chose yellow because my garden is all red and yellow, but it worked. They look great together.When it talks about cannas, it talks about why that plant is so excellent, but they didn't win a ribbon because they attract too many bugs. A great plant but you'll have to either treat it or cut off the damages leaves once a month. So you can see, this book is very selective on showing us the EASIEST no maintenance plants we should get.Anywho, after all those great plants are listed, at the end of the sections is a longer list of other great plants for that section and a short informative blurb about them.I filled my gardens in my new house with plants from this book. As I grow more confident in my abilities, I've started to branch out. If you or someone you know is a new gardener or just bought a new house, get this book. It is awesome. :)