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Event at Changing Hands: Monday June 29th, 7:00pm

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:58:36 -0700

I’ll be headed up to the Valley of the Sun tomorrow to give a presentation and sign my new book, The Hot Garden, at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe (6428 S McClintock Dr.)

In my talk, I’ll highlight innovative garden design strategies for the desert Southwest, show some striking landscape photos, and talk a little bit about Star Wars (to find out how I work Luke Skywalker into a gardening talk, you’ll have to show up).

I would appreciate the attendance of any of my friends and family who can make it.

The Hot Garden, Available Locally Now!

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 15:35:46 -0700

My highly anticipated (at least by me!) new book, The Hot Garden, is now on the shelves of local Arizona booksellers. With this book, I’m attempting to create a minor new religion, or at least a fervent cult, based on the worship of desert plants and design. No, I don’t want to be the charismatic leader of the group, but I’m okay if my new book serves as a canonical text. It is full of design and planting ideas from people who I consider the gurus of desert design and horticulture. You can join the sect by purchasing the new book.

My publisher, Rio Nuevo, gives local independent bookstores about a month to sell their new titles before they go out to the mass market (e.g. Amazon). The following Arizona independent stores have ordered copies. For out-of-state readers, B & B Cactus and Rainbow Gardens Bookshop both ship.

Kartchner Caverns State Park, Benson
Singing Wind Book Shop, Benson
Book Shop, Green Valley
Meredith's Hallmark Shop, Green Valley
Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix
Pueblo Grande Museum Store, Phoenix
Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Superior
B & B Cactus Farm, Tucson
Harlow Gardens, Tucson
Native & Nature, Tucson
Rainbow Gardens Bookshop, Tucson
Sallie Sue's Gift Shoppe, Tucson
Tohono Chul Park Gift Shop, Tucson
Trail To Yesterday, Tucson
Tucson Botanical Gardens, Tucson

For Phoenix readers, it is rumored that Changing Hands Bookstore, the granddaddy of Phoenix independent booksellers, will have copies in stock very soon.

Stylish Sheds Book Review

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:34:54 -0700

By now, most of us know someone personally who is working out of a “third space”—a place that is not a home, nor an office, but rather some wi-fi enabled middle ground--like a Starbucks or public library. If the thought of inhabiting such a space appeals to you, but the idea of jockeying for a power outlet with dromedary techies is a drawback, you need to take a look at Debra Prinzing’s book, Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways.

In Stylish Sheds, Prinzing gives us a good look (in part through William Wright’s insightful photos) at the alternative to public third spaces by highlighting a collection of intensely personal backyard outbuildings. Why sit around buying 5 dollar coffees when you can have your own napping couch? What is striking about these sheds and hideaways is their diversity. The style of buildings ranges from recycled barn to modern shed (which is actually the name of a company that produces modern sheds:www.modern-shed.com )For some, such as Patrick Anderson’s bold pavilion in a cactus and succulent studded San Diego area garden, the outbuilding is intimately connected with the outdoors, while others, like Amy Bloom’s New England writer’s shed, are much more introverted and geared toward the uninterrupted production of novels—no phone and no internet.

I am so woefully delinquent in writing this review, that Prinzing’s book has already received the 2009 Garden Writers Silver Award, and by all accounts is a fabulous success. Prinzing has clearly tapped into a national zeitgeist—people want a little third space on their home turf. Personally, I lean toward clean modern designs and Prinzing’s Stylish Sheds has me pining for my own modern shed. I think it should be a 10’ x 15’, palo verde green with a shiny steel roof, and internet access for 2 hours a day and no more. I could write some books in place like that.

Sorry, No Agave and Goat Meat, Part Two

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:22:21 -0700

Because I’ve decided to turn some of my agave hunting and goat meat adventures into a book, I’m suspending the blog posts on these subjects for now. Thanks for your understanding.

My Fantastic Agave and Goat Meat Adventure, Part One

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 10:37:37 -0700

When Greg Starr approached me about traveling with him to Northern Mexico to find some interesting new agaves, I didn’t have to think twice. For one thing, Greg is kind of a big deal among desert plant geeks. Greg began traveling to this part of Mexico in 1986 with Mountain States Wholesale Nursery owner Ron Gass and the plants that they discovered on that trip (blue nolina, smooth spoon, blue ranger, and fragrant ranger, among others) have been rocking the Southwest garden world ever since. Beyond bringing those plants (and many others) into horticulture, everyone with a passing interest in agave genus knows that Greg is the guy who described whale’s tongue agave. Greg’s business, Starr Nursery is a kind of mecca for agave lovers and everyone who comes to Tucson seems to stop in to pay homage. Besides his deep plant knowledge, Greg is easy to travel with--his affable personality, sense of humor, and insatiable curiosity make him a great plant hunting companion.

It quickly became apparent that Greg Starr might be even more obsessed with plants than me. He thought nothing of driving his white 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup (aka “The White Stallion”) 3000 miles into northern Mexican States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas with the sole purpose of finding plants. The first sign that Greg might more a more ambitious plant hunter than me came from the ice chest. There I discovered a package of white flour tortillas, “in case we don’t have time to stop,” Greg remarked. I found it hilarious that we were importing tortillas into Mexico! As Greg’s wife Carol had commented on seeing the tortillas before we left, “you know, I think they have those down there.” For the rest of the trip, I teased Greg about our contraband, “tortillas importadas”, and took it upon myself to point out each tortilleria in every little town we passed through, remarking, “Can you believe it! There is another one of those places where they sell those round bread things!”

But Greg wasn’t kidding about the schedule, we had plants to see and places to be. On our first full day in Mexico, we were up with the sun scrambling up two spine covered hillsides toward patches of Yucca linearifolia (a beautiful green headed species with fine narrow leaves that rustle in the wind. A plant that quite frankly I can’t wait to use in AZ landscapes); by early that afternoon, we had driven into Monterrey and up in Huasteca canyon admiring sheer cliff walls dotted with Queen Victoria agave and Mexican orchid vine.

One of the true joys of the trip came deep up Huasteca canyon, where, with directions from a fellow agave hunter, we located a new species of agave so rare that Greg estimated that less then a dozen people had ever seen them in the wild. After finding them, I could see why. We had to bushwhack through a dense undergrowth of thorn scrub to reach a 100 yard scree slope that extended up to the base of sheer limestone cliffs. In the scrub, I scratched my my arms so much that when I looked at them later they looked I like I had been searching for pesos in a gunny sack of feral cats. On the cliffs, we could see the beautiful re-curving leaves of squid agave (Agave bracteosa), and the strong green and white markings of Queen Victoria agave, but we couldn’t see the signature tufty white tips of the new species we sought. I was scanning an adjacent slope when Greg called out that he had found them. I headed up the scree slope as fast as I could and finally came to the cliff face were we came face to face with the little beauties. For certain, they were unlike any other agave I had seen. Since we had a seed collecting permit, we looked for seed but could only see one plant high up on the rock face with an old bloom stalk. Without rock-climbing gear, we would be risking our hides big time to get to it, so we settled for photos.

By the time we exited Huasteca Canyon at dusk, we negotiated the modern freeways of sprawling Monterrey with a Guia Roji map and my headlamp. After escaping Monterrey, we headed south. Earlier in the day, we had consumed some of Greg’s tortillas importadas along with hunks of cheese that I sliced off with my Leatherman knife, but when we stopped in Santiago for dinner, I was ready for a big meal of something local.

It was there that I bit into my first tender bites of cabrito (kid goat) at restaurant at the Hotel Santiago Apostol. I had ordered the relleno de cabrito, and which was a wonderful deep green pasilla chile (without the usual batter, which was a plus) stuffed with tender goat meat. We washed down the goat with what might be me new favorite Mexican beer, Bohemia oscura, or dark Bohemia. Since it, and Indio, were brewed in Monterrey, we had started a kind of unspoken pact to order those local brands with our meals. Thinking about that goat relleno right now still makes my mouth water. Who knew goat could taste this good?

After dinner, we were back in the truck and headed up a canyon toward cola de caballo, a horsetail-shaped waterfall. Past the waterfall we wound our way up the mountain toward a 9000’ high saddle ominously named, Mesa de Oso (Bear Mesa) on an increasingly bad dirt road (a terracerria as the locals call them). Sometime around 11pm, we called it a day and decided to camp on a hairpin turn in the pines. Greg slept in the bed of the truck while I rolled out my sleeping bag on the side of the road and slept soundly under a dark clear sky glowing with stars. My bed was surprisingly soft due to the fact that I had chosen a shallow depression full of dried cowshit in which to make bed (which I discovered in the morning). After a quick tailgate breakfast of oatmeal, dried apricots and coffee, we drove higher up to the land of big Gentry’s agaves, as well as a new species that neither of us knew growing next to a friendly pig chained to a tree. It was a great feeling to be high up in the pines under a bright sun looking at agaves in January. Although the pig would likely be next week’s chicharones, it was nice to hear his seemingly contented oinking as we took agave photos.

To be continued...

More photos of the trip can be viewed here: http://gallery.me.com/zonagardens#100065