Gardens of Texas, and Designing the Lush Dry Garden, two of the best!

I recently finished two of the best gardening books I’ve read in a long time; Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State, by Pam Penick, and Designing the Lush Dry Garden: Create a Climate-Resilient Low-Water Paradise, by Cricket Riley, Alice Kitajima, and Kier Holmes. First up, Gardens of Texas. 

Pam’s book takes you on an extended tour through the state of Texas, the very large state of Texas. It was really interesting to see how the gardens changed—via photographer Kenny Braun’s gorgeous photos—as we moved from Central Texas (gardens around the Austin area, including Pam’s own), to the long vistas of West Texas, on through the South and the North and finishing in the comparatively lush gardens of East Texas.

Gardens of Texas isn’t just pretty photos—although it has a lot of them. Reading the book’s deep-dive garden profiles, I felt like I was right there in the garden with Pam and the gardener or garden designer, walking the garden, discussing their challenges and hardships, their inspiration, and their passion. Through Pam's garden travel and years spent writing/blogging about the gardens she’s visited, Pam has honed the ability to translate the essence of a garden into words.

It was great to see gardens I've visited in the mix, such as Coleson Bruce's garden which I visited with Pam in 2021.

In addition to the photos and detailed profile, each garden has a spread with a useful “try this at home” list of tips covering subjects like; Make a Texas-Tough Crevice Garden, Use Boulders for Garden Seating, Color Coordinate Containers, Embrace Place with Local Materials, and Plant a Pocket Prairie…

There's also a plant feature for each that pulls plant recommendations from the profiled garden. Although I already grow several of both Yucca rostrata, and Agave ovatifolia, I have a serious lust for more of each after reading this book.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that our changing climate works its way into nearly every garden profile, talk of the extremes and how they’re changing the landscape. In the section on her own garden Pam writes; “Weather extremes in recent years have caused me to reevaluate certain plants, especially semi-tender agaves (oh how I loved them) and formerly dependable evergreen shrubs like ‘Soft Caress’ mahonia and loropetalum.” Yes. This. So much! I could have written that exact sentence. The climate we’re gardening in is changing, if you’re not already experiencing it then you will be. In another section of the book Pam advises; “Plant more of what succeeds, discard what doesn’t, and just keep planting. Gardening is an act of optimism and experimentation, and it rewards doggedness.”

A couple of other climate and plant-choice quotes from Jackson Broussard that I found myself wanting to underline; “The big freeze in 2021 killed a lot of plants,” he says. “I’d always looked at gardening as, they’re going to get better as they age. Well, with climate change, that may not always hold true.” And; “You can’t keep putting your hand in the fire. I’m not planting olives anymore. I’m planting desert willows instead….[e]verything doesn’t have to be a crazy, exotic plant. Experiment, but don’t play with your entire yard.” 

An interesting thing about reading these books concurrently is that while Pam’s book appears to be narrowly focused on Texas, its topics and lessons-learned actually go far beyond just the Lone Star State. Whereas Designing the Lush Dry Garden sounds as though its focus will be on all regions that lack rainfall, but in truth it’s basically about California. I found myself wondering, why not include the entire summer-dry West Coast? 

As I read though I came to understand that as a book born from the Ruth Bancroft Garden it has a naturally limited scope, for example the plants they include. “Chapter 3, Plants for a Lush Resilient Garden” (some 55 pages) is mainly just plant porn for anyone outside of California’s Zone 9 and up—and this is coming from an Oregonian who’s been accused of growing “California plants!” 

Another surprise, I thought I was going to enjoy this book for the garden profiles, “Part 2: Gardens Inspired by the Ruth Bancroft Garden.” While that section was a pleasure to read—the gardeners reference Ruth and what they took from the RBG and made their own, one even called them “Ruthian design principles”—what really hooked me was “Part 1: Designing a Climate-Resilient Garden.” I can’t remember ever reading a book that delved into the principles behind designing a garden in such a concise and approachable way. Nor did Alice and Cricket dumb down the process. Included are; site analysis, recording your site conditions, additional facts to consider (aspect, exposure, microclimate), and more. They talk about color theory, plant placement (layers and groupings, massing, rhythm, wayfaring, specimen size, moderation) all within a framework of designing with your climate. 

I’ll wrap up with a quote from the “Gardens Inspired by” section and the garden belonging to my friends Max and Justin Cannon. Kier (who wrote this section) refers to their garden as a “Densely Layered Horticultural Oasis,” which it definitely is! She goes on to write...“Max adds, "Vignettes of bold succulents and drought adapted perennials are a hallmark of RBG, and despite the fact that we don't have as much space as Ruth, instead of massing single types of plants as she has done, we repeat colors and textures." The below photo is from my visit to Max and Justin's garden last spring...

Designing the Lush Dry Garden captures Ruth Bancroft’s gardening spirit and continues her legacy. I can imagine Ruth walking through Max and Justin’s garden and feeling right at home. 

So, perhaps there's a gardener you need a holiday gift for? Or maybe you're looking for a book to inspire you over the long winter? Either way, to give or to get, you cant go wrong with these books, they’re so good!

The Bit at the End

Since today's post is about books, I thought I'd share a gift link to the NY Times year-end "100 Notable Books of 2025" post, figuring that some of you probably enjoy an occasional book beyond the garden realm.  

—  — —

Disclaimer: Pam sent me a gift copy of Gardens of Texas, although I was under no obligation to write about it. Designing the Lush Dry Garden was a loan from my local library. To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note: these are sent from a third party, their annoying ads are beyond my control. 

All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.