I purchased this reference book when I was the chairman of our community's landscape committee. It was a very helpful reference for identifying and selecting desert shrub, trees, etc.

One of the better things that crossed my desk last month was a copy of a new book by John Krieg titled Desert Landscape Architecture (Saint Lucie Press; ISBN: 1574442252.) Whether you are a homeowner, a contractor, a builder, a wanna-be landscaper or a plant person, you need this book. Desert Landscape Architecture is a hands-on, step-by-step, "How To" book that will save anyone thousands of dollars on their landscape. The section on plants would make a great college text book all by itself. There's a plant compendium with over 750 species listed. John is one of very few authors who consider all of our Southwestern deserts, not just those in his home state of California. Desert Landscape Architecture provides the reader a better understanding of desert environments, climatic conditions and how man-made environments are designed and installed in order to cope with the harsh deserts. Best of all, the book is written in the English language....not full of obscure technical terms known only to Zen Landscape Architects living in Madrid, Spain. With this book, and only this book, you'll learn about deserts, the soils, the plant life, design, basic standards of landscape design, site grading, drainage planning and whew!....much, much, more. Water-saving ideas are found by the barrel-full in the chapter on irrigation. This chapter emphasizes the critical nature of irrigation design and explains it as an environmental necessity, not a technical issue. There are pages and pages of charts which contain the basic information needed by everyone interested in landscape design. This book should be required reading for every Planning and Zoning Department in the Southwest. The author knows which end of the hammer drives the nail and his saw is plugged in and ready to rip. This is a hands-on approach, with hundreds of hints on how to plan ahead and bypass a lot of problems that seem to plaque a landscape job, whether it's on a new site or an existing site that needs refurbishing. John Krieg is a former student of the Dean of Desert Landscaping, Dr, Eric Johnson of Palm Springs, California. I spoke with Eric about John's book and he said: "John is one in a million. He knows his work and best of all, he knows how to write! His book moves right along, without a hitch. It's not just another dry old text book with footnotes in small print. This book will become the Bible of desert landscaping in the future." Sure enough, a glance at the text shows bibliographies set in "jumbo" print and the author has included personal comments on each reference cited. Simply stated, Desert Landscape Architecture is the only book you will ever need to buy. It's an investment that will easily save you several thousand dollars. I am proud to have been among the pre-publication readers of Desert Landscape Architecture. Many times, writers get talked into being a reader and when the suggestions get back to the author they are ignored. Folks, John doesn't play that way...each and every suggestion I made was followed. Ditto for the suggestions made by Eric Johnson. Congratulations, John, you've written a winner!

Desert Landscaape Architecture is straight-forward in its approach, and delves deeply into many aspects of the landscape trades that most books merely gloss over - irrigation, lighting and on-going maintenance. The opening chapter on North American deserts shows a love and sensitivity of these regions that most people simply want to pass through to get to someplace else. A complete and very thorough look into the profession of landscape architecture.

This book puts a high premium on the terminology used by the profession. The book's expansive glossaries, occurring at the end of every chapter when related information is still fresh in mind, are worth the purchase alone. The nuances of a little understood profession are provided by the author, who has considerable experience for many decades. Highly recommend it.

This book is well written and outlined by an experienced author with vast knowledge on the subject. Readers will get a perspective fromt the world of Academia and practical apptitude for the subject matter. A great book on the Desert!!!