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Rating: 
Summary: Not a xeriscaping guide
Review: I bought this book primarily for the plant listing, and am disappointed. After looking through it, I reviewed the title of the book and realized that it is not actually billed as a xeriscaping guide. There are some xeric selections, but lot of these plants grow great in New Mexico only if you water them like crazy. Some of them shouldn't be planted here at all, such as silver maple (browning at the edges of the leaves by the end of July, not just in my yard, but elsewhere in my neighborhood too), and salt cedar (a significant environmental hazard even within the Albuquerque metro area).
I liked the first part of this book the best - the general overview of gardening in New Mexico is informative and easy to read. The final section of the book, city-by-city plant guides, is just not very useful to me since I only garden in Albuquerque.
Rating: 
Summary: stop wasting money and water!
Review: Keeping plants alive in New Mexico is very difficult. If you're thinking of buying this book you already know this. If you do buy it you'll find out how to solve all of your yard and garden problems. This book tells you everything you need to know to successfully surround your home with attractive plants instead of the tiresome and difficult to maintain bluegrass lawn or gravel pit one sees so often in New Mexico. Most importantly, the book lists plants suitable for every inhabited part of New Mexico. If you've learned to garden in Gallup but want to know what to plant in Deming or Santa Fe, this book is for you. The plant lists and photographs make this book an essential money and water saving gardening tool for the New Mexico gardener. Buy it for yourself and give a copy to to your new neighbors!
Rating:
Summary: Best Resource of New Mexico Landscapes and Gardens
Review: Xeriscape doesn't mean ugly. This book will help you find plants that are pretty and that won't take up a lot of water. IT's a great book. This is our reference book for when we are adding something to our yard. We have a full acre that we are working on (slowly!) and this book has helped us every step of the way. The color pictures make it easy to see exactly what a plant looks like. The color pictures also help when you are trying to find the name of the tree in some yard that you thought was pretty. The information it has on each plant is very useful- it gives you the area it will grow best in (example: Albuquerque or statewide in the shade or statewide up to 800 feet elevation). The other thing that makes this book a good buy is the plant list for different areas. For example, there is a plant list for Gallup/Grants area. These lists give you trees, grasses, shrubs, flowers and more that will grow well in your area. This is the best resource out there if you live in New Mexico and want to have a lovely landscaped area.
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