The Water-Saving Garden book party and giveaway! (Winner Update)

Today fellow bloggers are helping Pam Penick launch her new book The Water-Saving Garden:  How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water.  There's also a nice giveaway for a lucky reader at the end of my post.  I'm excited to help get the word out about Pam's new book on water-saving gardening since I've followed Pam's blog Digging for years, loved her first book Lawn Gone!, and now she has even upped her game with her second book.

Love the cover!  Pam knows her subject well since that's her own gorgeous water-saving garden on the cover.

Having made her case for ditching lawn in her first book Lawn Gone!, Pam moves the conversation forward to answer our questions about what's next.  In a writing style that's just like chatting with her about gardening, she goes beyond the basics as she shares her thoughts and experiences so you can choose the best approach when designing your own water-saving garden.

Gardeners interested in saving water often express similar concerns that water-saving gardens are basically ugly and the neighbors will object or it's more work than a lawn.  In Part One of The Water-Saving Garden:  How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water Pam addresses such concerns with detailed tours of beautiful water-saving gardens from different geographic regions of the country.

Pam's usual awesome photos serve to further inspire us.

She then leads us through the steps to our own gorgeous water-saving garden while dispensing her practical wisdom along the way.  Part Two is packed with information on holding that precious rainfall whether through rain barrels, swales, terraces, or rain gardens.  Using chapter titles like "Think Saltines" for permeable paving or "Irrigation Without Irritation" she holds our attention with humor while dispensing advice on everything from soils to shade sails.

One of my favorite things about the book is that Pam doesn't shy away from sharing her opinions.  Just in case you missed reading her first book Lawn Gone!, there's more encouragement to "Lose the Lawn" in Part Three. She challenges lawn keepers to consider their reasons for maintaining turf grass.  While understanding everyone has their own views of what looks best, she gently prods us to action.  No, you aren't limited to cactus and rocks.  As she demonstrated with tours of gorgeous water-saving gardens in Part One, there are many great options with no one right or wrong way to approach water-saving gardens.

Pam covers the subject of creating the illusion of water in Part Four, showing how plantings, stones and other features can evoke a sense of water in the garden.  I particularly enjoyed this part of the book on the important role of water features or sense of water in a water-saving garden as her treatment of the subject is something I haven't seen emphasized quite this way before.

Flowing stone steps in a desert garden.

The last section is devoted to 100 favorite water-saving plants beginning at ground level with groundcovers and topping out with trees.  I noted a number of my own easy care, low water favorites like Pine Muhly and Butterfly Vine on the list.

Even if you live in a region where water is plentiful, Pam's ideas will help you conserve this important resource. Either stand alone or as a follow-up to Lawn Gone! Pam's new book is packed with practical advice on creating a gorgeous water-saving garden.

You can find The Water-Saving Garden:  How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water at Amazon and other online booksellers.

Fine print:  An advance copy of The Water-Saving Garden:  How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water was provided to me by the publisher without obligation.  This review reflects my own views and is the same review I would write had I purchased the book myself.

All photos reprinted with permission from The Water-Saving Garden, by Pam Penick, copyright © 2016, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Photographs copyright © 2016 by Pam Penick.

Update:  And the winner of the Flat Back Rain Barrel with Chesapeake Stand from The Rain Barrel Depot is Martha from Austin!

Thanks to you all for your interest in The Water-Saving Garden and for entering the giveaway.

Flat back design allows the barrel to sit close to the wall.  Other great features include brass spigot, screening to keep out bugs, and a front overflow to direct excess water away from the house.

Learn more about this cool flat back rain barrel here

And the generous folks at The Rain Barrel Depot will include the sturdy Chesapeake Stand for your new Flat Back Rain Barrel.

The Rain Barrel Depot website is fun to browse.  Great styling, recycled materials and prices include shipping.    They also carry DIY kits so I can finally convert that old water softener container into a proper rain barrel.  Videos on the website show how easy it is to install.

For your chance to win the flat back rain barrel and Chesapeake stand from The Rain Barrel Depot, just leave a comment below and the winner will be selected at random on Monday, March 7, 2016.

A few rules:  One entry per person for each giveaway, and you must provide an email address so you can be notified if you win.  If you prefer to keep your email private, just send it to me using the contact form on the right sidebar under my profile and I'll delete it after the winner is notified. (Please note, the contact form will not count as a comment.)  Shipping available within the continental U.S. only (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).

Join the party and follow the links below to visit 6 more bloggers and a chance to win a gift from each:

Clay and Limestone: Rain Barrel from Epoch Rain Barrels

Danger Garden:  Circle Pot from Potted 

Digging:  $100 gift certificate from High Country Gardens

Gossip in the Garden:  Live Succulent Planter from Boxhill

North Coast Gardening: 3 bags of 1/8-in. pumice (to 3 winners!) from General Pumice Products

Red Dirt Ramblings: 65-Gallon Rainwater Urn from Gardener’s Supply Company

Book Review and Giveaway: Refresh Your Garden Design With Color, Texture & Form

**The winner of the book giveaway is Jackie Holliday!**

This week I'm reviewing Refresh Your Garden Design With Color, Texture & Form just in time for the spring garden spruce-up we look forward to each year.

If you've had an exceptionally cold winter and lost quite a few plants like I have then this spring brings a good opportunity to make some changes to the garden.   You might be thinking your garden doesn't look as pulled together as you originally envisioned or maybe you just know it's time to update your garden.  At this point questions such as how to decide what to change and how to get started come to mind.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a top-notch garden designer "visit" to share her ideas for bringing a fresh look to your garden?  Even very good gardeners would welcome that opportunity.

In the book Refresh Your Garden Design With Color, Texture & Form, author Rebecca Sweet
speaks to you as if she is visiting your garden to share her tips on how you can restore harmony to your own garden.   Rebecca addresses the concept of "harmony in the garden" as what's often missing in gardens that aren't living up to expectations.

Book Review: Plant-Driven Design

It's garden book review time so I'm joining Holley at Roses and Other Gardening Joys for her garden blogger's book review meme on the 20th of each month by reviewing Plant Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit by husband and wife team Scott and Lauren Springer Ogden.

Lawn Gone! A Review!

Have you recently been looking at your lawn as more of a chore than an asset?

Want to do something about it but don’t know where to start?

You can start with Pam Penick’s new book Lawn Gone! which provides not only the philosophy and rationale for partially or completely replacing your lawn but also follows it up with clear options and steps you can take to get there.  So it provides both food for thought as well as planning and execution tips.

Today I’m joining Holley at Roses and other Gardening Joys for her garden book review meme.  Of course, you knew my first garden book review would be for Pam Penick’s Lawn Gone!