Garden writer Jennifer Bennett's home is atop an exposed limestone hill, where the soil dries quickly after a rain and rains seldom come. Gardening where the summers are hot and prone to periods of drought, where the winters are snowy one week and freezing rain the next, has led Bennett to xeriscaping -- a gardening approach that favors not only water conservation but also the conservation of time, energy and other resources.

Xeriscaping enthusiasts exist everywhere throughout North America, from the California desert to the Canadian prairies. Thus Dry-Land Gardening is not about Bennett's eastern Ontario garden only but about dry-land gardening strategies: coping with limited access to water, invasive plants and trees under stress; nurturing groundcovers and grasses; starting bulbs, perennials and vines; and growing vegetables, herbs and annual flowers successfully. Bright and open, with gray foliage and the waxy leaves of succulents, the dry garden depends more on groundcovers and mulches than on stately flowering perennials. In her latest book, Bennett celebrates "a garden with a different sort of beauty, one that leaves your time and your conscience free and easy."