50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants

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.

Media reviews of this book:

"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, March 18, 2009

"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, February 25, 2009

"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, 2008

"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, January 31, 2009

"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, January 18, 2009