Transform your ordinary backyard into the garden of your dreams with A Desert Gardener's Companion. Master Gardener Kim Nelson's indispensable, year-round guide will help you create a more beautiful, bountiful landscape ideal for Southwestern living. She offers a wealth of information in an easy-to-use month-by-month, week-to-week format, with the desert climates of southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southern New Mexico, and west Texas in mind.

Delightful drawings by noted nature artist Paul Mirocha demonstrate proper planting and pruning techniques, suggest complimentary landscape groupings, and illustrate specific low-water-use plants.

No other single volume provides as much useful advice about selecting, planting, and caring for such a wide variety of plants and gardens as Nelson packs into A Desert Gardener's Companion.

Includes indexes.

January Checklist Mail order catalogs Keeping a garden journal Pruning trees and shrubs Pruning deciduous trees Water: How much and how often? Christmas trees Poinsettias Houseplant care Houseplant pests Fickle, unpredictable January weather Selecting and planting deciduous fruit trees Bare-root roses Creating annual flower and vegetable beds Fertilizing flower and vegetable gardens Pruning grapes Selection and care of garden tools Bumper crops from winter vegetable beds The beauty of asparagus in the garden Your garden's general checkup Automatic irrigation systems February Checklist Starting from seed for spring planting Winter care of roses Citrus inspection Planting new grapevines Fertilizing deciduous fruit trees Onion sets Speaking of Bulbs A basil primer Xeriscaping Hardscape ideas Fertilization and irrigation: Roses, lawns, grapes A quick bit of annual color Planning future landscape projects March Checklist A jump-start on the vegetable bed A citrus synopsis A sunflower house Simple yet sophisticated common sunflower The luxuriant splendor of Texas mountain laurel Caring for pecan trees Thinning fruit trees Propagating cacti and succulents Fabulous figs Insects in the garden Beneficial insects Common pests April Checklist Finally frost free The ants return Intensive planting of warm-season vegetables Ready to fertilize Manure: Is it safe in the garden? Annuals flowers from seed By the light of the silvery moon The desert cottage garden Growing gourds Creating a standard topiary The drought-tolerant treasure called penstemon May Checklist Much to do in May The sage garden Tomato troubles Chile peppers The southwest herb garden Jerusalem sage Soil mixes Pests and more pests Container gardening June

Checklist Accent plants in the garden Hot! Hot! Hot! Creating a desert oasis with palms The stately saguaro Water: A constant desert issue Melons and beans Persistent pests A summer planting frenzy Euphorbias July Checklist A Native American vegetable garden Your garden during monsoon Protecting plants from the summer sun Summer pests and parasites Water harvesting Texas root rot and other fungi Dethatching Bermuda grass An indoor vegetable garden Growing sprouts General July chores August Checklist An indoor herb garden Composting: Making your own black gold Tending the vegetable and herb beds The butterfly garden Creosote Iris Swarming ants and termites Palo verde trees Late August activities September Checklist Week 35 Beautiful bulbs for the desert Rose rejuvenation Winter vegetable beds Revisiting the herb garden Back to landscaping Poolside plantings Edible landscape plants Poisonous plants Wildlife in the garden The Hummingbird garden Mesquite Sennas and jojobas Still more pests October Checklist 'Dig-less' vegetable gardening Those black nursery pots Fall and winter color What to plant in October Preparations for cooler weather A green winter lawn Erosion control Pomegranate Wildflowers Ripening citrus Eucalyptus Pruning palm trees November Checklist Amaryllis Forcing bulbs Pressing flowers and foliage Preparing for first frost Problem-solving in the vegetable garden Sharing the bounty Sweet potato houseplants Bird feeders and bat houses Harvesting pecans The asparagus bed