Series Editor: Cathy Wilkinson Barash
Fulcrum Publishing, 2005
The instruction manual that should have come with your yard!
For regional garden guides, the Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide is tops. –Bella Online
Cool Tool! … Explains the ecology of the Western garden and offers tips on plant choice, garden design and maintenance. — Boulder Daily Camera
From the beginning:
You can identify Rocky Mountain gardeners by the stories they tell: the wet spring snow that caused prized trees and shrubs to collapse, the grasshoppers that mowed down the emerging vegetable sprouts, the July hail that flattened every flower in the garden, the deer that munched the columbines, and the winter winds that toppled the spruce in the front yard. Gardening in this scenic but difficult region is all about weather. Like a good cutting horse or a high-tech mountain bike, Rocky Mountain weather can turn on a dime, from drought to deluge, searing heat to sub-freezing cold, dead calm to roaring Chinooks. Weather is not a Rocky Mountain gardener’s only challenge, howerver. The region’s spectacular scenery makes for topographic trials and soils that are, by and large, undeveloped. The region’s arid climate means that watered and fertilized gardens are a magnet for pests of every size from microbes to moose. Add in an increasing number of invasive weeds, the reality of water shortages, and the thread of global climate change, and painting the yard green begins to seem very attractive.
If you’re wondering how to nurture a thriving garden in the adverse conditions of the rocky Mountain region, this book is for you. It’s a compendium of one-page tips for dealing with regional gardening challenges, interspersed with brief essays explaining the fundamentals of garden ecology, design, and maintenance. It also includes suggested plants to deal with specific garden problems, plus public gardens and nurseries to visit for information and inspiration. …