If you’re new to Arizona, you’ll quickly realize that gardening here is very different from what you knew in the Midwest or the East Coast. Learning to garden in the desert Southwest is a fun challenge and can be delightful when armed with good information. Even if you have been gardening here for 20 years, there’s always more to learn to enhance your enjoyment of growing a variety of cacti, succulents, flowers, herbs, citrus trees or vegetables. There are so many options in our climate zone!
The two gardening clubs in SaddleBrooke offer many opportunities to exchange information with other gardeners. Also, mark your calendars for Thursday, February 13 at 4 p.m. in the DesertView Theater. The Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries are sponsoring a lecture on Engaging the Desert with your Gardening, featuring Larry Lyman, Pima County Master Gardener. The lecture is free to FSL members, $5 for non-members.
But there is another resource readily available to you—the Southwest collection in the DesertView Library. Did you know the library has about 50 books on gardening in the Southwest and plant identification? There is something for everyone, from ideas for creating pots of succulents to low water use gardening, growing citrus, and identifying wildflowers.
Succulent plants offer an entire world of choices whether you want to grow something in a small pot in a window in your kitchen, or large specimen plants in your back yard. Succulents also lend themselves to grouping in pots offering an endless variety of shapes, foliage, flowers and sizes. Look for creative ideas for succulent gardens in books such as “Hot Color, Dry Gardens,” “Designing with Succulents” or “Succulent Container Gardening”.
Many of us want to learn more about cacti and there are many varieties beyond Saguaros and Ocotillos! The library has books to help select, care for and enjoy growing cacti.
Some gardeners are free wheeling, others like to garden “by the book.” For those in the latter category, pick up Mary Irish’s book “Month-By-Month Gardening in the Desert Southwest,” “Arizona Gardener’s Guide” or “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening”.
If you’re looking for information about landscaping, water conservation, correct pruning, propagating plants, etc., pick up the very informative book, “Dry Climate Gardening” or “The Water-Smart Garden” both by Noelle Johnson, also known as the AZ Plant Lady. And then there are the challenges of growing shrubs, trees and flowers that do well in the desert. The library has books to help with this too! Try “Cool Plants for Hot Gardens” by Greg Starr or “Landscape Plants for Dry Gardens”.
In the spring, when we hopefully have an abundance of wildflowers, pick up one of the wildflower identification guides from the Southwest collection. They are right sized to fit in a backpack while hiking or to take along in your car.
Stop in the DesertView Library to find a book to answer your gardening questions!
For more information about the three libraries in SaddleBrooke see our website at sblibraries.com. Funding for the purchase of new books is provided by the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries. For more information, visit sbfsl.org.
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