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50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants

By Tracy DiSabato-Aust

Proves that low-maintenance doesn't mean low-interest. Tracy has packed the book with traffic-stopping garden stars that require less care and less fuss. Now you can actually find time to enjoy your garden!

P. Allen Smith, Garden Home

Tracy DiSabato-Aust has taught thousands of readers how to design and maintain their gardens. Her first book — The Well-Tended Perennial Garden — is Timber's best-selling title and widely considered the bible of perennial maintenance. 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants is packed with useful tips, practical hints, and Tracy's own gardening experience. It is sure to find a place on the shelf and in the heart of every gardener. Tracy has identified 50 show-stopping plants that anyone can grow. Each selection is a dynamic choice for nearly every garden. Even better? All 50 plants have passed Tracy's test for toughness, beauty, and durability. These are Tracy's personal favorites, chosen after years of studying how to make beautiful outdoor spaces with a minimum of maintenance.

Each plant has most or all of these important characteristics: Multi-season interest, colorful foliage, long-lasting blooms, outstanding texture, lasts five years or longer, tolerates heat and humidity, cold-hardy, deer-proof, pesticide and insecticide free, infrequent or no deadheading, no heavy fertilizing, no staking, requires infrequent or no division, requires infrequent pruning, not invasive or overly aggressive, tolerates drought, architectural form.

Filed under: beginner, annuals, cultivation, ferns, gift ideas, perennials, trees

Format: Paperback
Pages: 168 pp.
Book dimensions: 7½ x 9 in. (230 x 190 mm.)
Images: 141 color photos
ISBN-10: 0881929506
ISBN-13: 9780881929508

Media reviews

"DiSabato-Aust's experience with and passion for plants infuses every aspect of the book, from its engaging style to her discipline in keeping it short but thorough."

—Kym Pokorny, Oregonian

"This colorful guide gets right to the point, promoting the stars of the garden with a full-page close-up, a few smaller images, plus a fact and bio sheet highlighting why each deserves center stage in your garden."

—Marianne Binetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"DiSabato-Aust is an approachable garden writer. She knows we all love to garden but that we have lots of demands on our time and need astute guidance, which she provides in this fantastic book."

—Renee E. D'Aoust, Idaho Farm Bureau Quarterly

"Gardeners who want the wow without the work will find plenty of ideas in Tracy DiSabato-Aust's new book."

—Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal

"A must-have because it will tell you when and how to prune your perennials for better vigor — and how to get them to bloom more than once a season where possible."

—Henry Homeyer, Caledonian Record

"DiSabato-Aust has created a checklist of flowers and shrubs, fruits and vegetables that combine toughness, beauty and durability. These practical attributes can save a gardener hours of work."

—Dean Fosdick, Associated Press

"Proves that low-maintenance doesn't mean low-interest. Tracy has packed the book with traffic-stopping garden stars that require less care and less fuss. Now you can actually find time to enjoy your garden!"

—P. Allen Smith, Garden Home

"For those gardeners who love plants but lack the time to spend hours in the garden, this is an excellent book."

—Stephanie Cohen, American Gardener

"Sure to find a place on the shelf and in the heart of every gardener."

—Marion Star

"Guaranteed to help ... readers "'create their dream garden.' ... The book has stunning photography, its organization is good, and there's a brief informational box on each plant along with a longer, more detailed description."

—Sara Busse, Charleston Gazette

About the author

Tracy DiSabato-Aust

Tracy DiSabato-Aust, aka "the Queen of Deadheading," has earned international acclaim as one of America's most entertaining and knowledgeable garden writers and professional speakers. A gifted and award-winning designer, and a dynamic speaker, Tracy combines artistic vision with practical horticultural strategies.