Dry-land Gardening by Jennifer Bennett (Hylea Publishing, 176 pages, soft cover, $24.95 CDN).

This latest book by well-known Canadian garden writer Jennifer Bennett walks the reader through the plants and principles of energy-saving gardening. Everywhere freshwater supplies are becoming more scarce, and landscaping with tough, self-reliant, drought tolerant plants is a practice well suited to the new millenium.

Though she writes from an experience base of a cold winter and dry summer climate, the book's basic guidelines and directories of plants are as helpful in the Pacific Northwest, where summers are typically dry, as they are in harsher environments.

The opening chapter, Water Ways, looks at watering priorities, systems for delivering water, and the use of rainwater. Garden Survival Techniques is a primer on crafting a garden that survives without coddling, with guidelines on plant choices, propagation, transplanting and mulches.

In place of the stately perennials of English borders, dry gardens rely rather on ground covers. Lawns, Grasses and Groundcovers holds an extensive descriptive dictionary of tough, reliable ground covers as well as a directory of ornamental grasses and tips on tough love for lawns.

Remaining chapters give cultural guidelines and descriptive lists of suitable bulbs, perennials, vines, herbs, shrubs and roses. A source list includes publications, equipment, seeds and plants.