Marfa Garden: The Wonders of Dry Desert Plants

(Hardback)

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Marfa Garden is a full-color celebration of more than sixty flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert and neighboring regions. Marfa, the internationally acclaimed arts and cultural mecca in Far West Texas, sits squarely in the Chihuahuan DesertNorth Americas second largest at 140,000 square miles spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona. The desert is a surprising showcase for colorful plant diversity.

Presented in a style reminiscent of naturalist Karl Blossfeldts Art Forms in Nature, the book includes an array of vines, grasses, trees, herbs, shrubs, cacti, and succulents ranging from the little known to the popular to the iconic. Photographs show the plants in year-round cycles, with buds, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seed pods, and winter texture and color.

Also included is a discussion of each plants common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, USDA classification, and other helpful details. A visual appendix of detailed botanical and gardening information consists of illustrations relating close-up botanical details.

Everyday gardeners, naturalists, landscape designers, architects, and anyone interested in dry gardens or the Southwest will find great value and joy in Marfa Garden.

Reviews

The books overriding purpose is to encourage us to rethink our ideas about the desert land of West Texas... Marfa Gardens intent is to get the regions visitors and residents to look away, for a moment, from the stunning vistas and pay attention to what is happening on the ground. The photos more than make the case, highlighting not just the prickly cacti and agave that one might expect, but a host of plants that sport colorful flowers and berries. Texas Monthly Jim Martinezs garden in the desert of Marfa thrives by being useful to the natural area surrounding it. Texas Standard A visual celebration of flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Big Bend Sentinel

Author Bio

Jim Martinez has been creating water-wise and environmentally friendly landscapes for more than thirty years. He is a landscape designer specializing in native and xeric plants of Texas and the Southwest and the principal of Jim Martinez and Associates. He is also a member of the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and the Big Bend branch of the Native Plant Society of Texas. He lives in Marfa, Texas.