Marfa Garden - by Jim Martinez & Mary Lou Saxon & Jim Fissel & Martha Hughes (Paperback)

About the Book

"Marfa Garden is a celebration of more than 110 flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert. Marfa, the internationally acclaimed arts and cultural mecca in Far West Texas, sits squarely in the desert-North America's second largest, spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona-and a surprising showcase for colorful plant diversity. More than 360 stunning color images are presented in a style reminiscent of naturalist Karl Blossfeldt's Art Forms in Nature, with an array of vines, grasses, trees, herbs, shrubs, cacti, and succulents ranging from the little known to the popular to the iconic. Designed as a companion to the lavishly illustrated coffee table book of the same title, this compact field guide's photographs show plants in year-round cycles, with buds, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seedpods, and winter texture and color. Also included are introductory essays, a discussion of each plant's common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, and USDA classification, as well as abundant space for gardening notes. A visual appendix of 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 even joy in this essential field guide"--

Book Synopsis

Marfa Garden is a celebration of more than a hundred flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert, North America's largest hot desert, spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Hundreds of photos show plants in year-round cycles, with budding, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seedpods, and winter texture and color. Also included are introductory essays, each plant's common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, and USDA classification, as well as abundant space for gardening notes. Everyday gardeners, naturalists, landscape designers, architects, and anyone interested in dry gardens of the Southwest will find great value and joy in this essential field guide.

Review Quotes

"The book's overriding purpose is to encourage us to rethink our ideas about the desert land of West Texas... Marfa Garden's intent is to get the region's 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 Martinez's 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

About the Author

Dallas Baxter is the creator of the quarterly Cenizo Journal, which celebrates the people and ecosystems of the Big Bend. She serves as president of the Big Bend chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas, which she helped found in 2002.