Welcome to the Website of Mary Irish
  
Also visit me at my blog site:
     Gardening on the Dry Side

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Gardening in the Southwest is a delight to me and I want to share my enthusiasm for all the great plants, native and otherwise, that can be grown in Southwestern gardens.

For 25 years, I lived, worked and gardened in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The building of that garden and all the lessons learned there are the subject of my book Intertwined Lives (in press, University of Arizona Press). Arizona and that garden, as well the gardens of good friends there, gave me a strong appreciation for how many exquisite plants there are that are tough enough to thrive with the twin challenges of drought and heat.

In 2012, I moved to Castroville (just west of San Antonio), Texas at the tail end of the greatest drought Texas had ever recorded. This part of Texas marks the eastern end of what I have long considered the warm, low elevation portion of the Southwest; a region that extends from the southern California to Central and South Texas. While the western end, where I lived for many years, is drier and hotter than the eastern edge where I now live, the entire region shares a wide array of species that thrive in gardens and landscapes in the region. For years, I have worked with horticulturalists, designers, nursery owners and gardeners throughout this region, and three of my books were written for use throughout the entire area.

I strive to provide through my writing, teaching and consulting work quality information on the plants that thrive where it is hot and dry, from the deserts of California and Arizona to the hills and plains of central and south Texas. I am currently working part time at the San Antonio Botanical Garden managing its plant sales program and working with a group of wonderful volunteers for that program. See the San Antonio Botanical Garden's Event Calendar which contains the dates of the plants sales. I hope to see you at one or all of them!

I hope you enjoy the site and visit often.

Look For My New Book - A Place All Our Own - From The University of Arizona Press

For twenty years my husband Gary and I tended a garden in Scottsdale, Arizona. Over the years
we transformed it into a lively and lovely spot that reflected both its place in the world—hot, dry, and
often hostile to gardeners who don't understand its ways—and our particular passions. Of course, not
everything went as planned, and the garden talked back as much as it obeyed. But for us, the unexpected
outcome is one of gardening's great pleasures.



Read an interview with Mary - about the writing of A Place All Our Own from the AZCentral website

For information on book signings - for A Place All Our Own see my Speaking Schedule





Mary Irish part of Award Winning Design Team - Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects

 
A Design team for the Sunnylands Center and Gardens in Rancho Mirage California recently
won a 2012 Honor Award for Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Mary Irish participated as a Horticultural Consultant on the team lead by the firm of The Office
of James Burnett of Solana Beach California. The team developed a world class garden on the
grounds of Sunnylands, the 200 acre desert estate of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. The ASLA
awards jury recognized the fabulous design developed by the team but also the extensive
horticultural knowledge and experience required for the design and development of the
Sunnylands Gardens.


For More Information - and to view a slide show of the project
see the Project Profile on the ASLA Website


           A secluded spot in the Garden at Sunnylands
          Photo by Dillon Diers, Office of James Burnett


A Video Interview with Mary

Mary talks about her book Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest at KLRU, Austin Texas

More about Mary