Best southwest region gardening books according to redditors

Hello! I also am in Dallas and relatively new to gardening at a house.

My recommendations:

• I LOVE LOVE LOVE Easy Gardens for North Central Texas. It was so incredibly helpful to figure out easy-to-grow plants for the various parts of my yard. If you don't want to buy it, go check it out from your library and make photocopies.
  
  
• There are a lot of plants in that book that you won't always see at your local Calloway's or Home Depot. You can shop online for plants. Just shop around, and make sure you google "[online shop] review" and look for the reviews at Dave's Garden. Home Depot has a larger selection online than in its local stores, and shipping is free for orders over $20. I ordered Brilliance Autumn Fern and Kerria from HD, and all the plants were very nice.
  
  
• Shovel, hand trowel, rake, hoses, nozzle sprayer (you can get one with a bunch of different settings at HD), and most importantly good gardening gloves (usually by the garden cash register at Home Depot). Once you get your plants installed, consider buying soaker hoses. You can google about why those can be more effective than your generic sprinkler / sprinkler system.
  
  
• As suggested by others, study the lighting conditions in the various parts of your yard. Lighting conditions make all the difference in what will thrive and what will die. Google more about this - lots to read.
  
  
• Soil preparation is essential, particularly with our clay soil. You likely will need to till the soil and then (depending on your soil) till in compost or other stuff. You can google more about this or read Neil Sperry's book. You can rent a tiller from Home Depot, but I bought this electric tiller. It's $120 on Amazon, but rentals at HD were ~ $80/day, and I had multiple weekends of work to do. Easy to assemble and use.
  
  
• You asked about raised beds. I've always heard that here in N. Texas, you NEED to amend your soil to make it more nutrient rich. You may be adding in other stuff to help it drain better, too. You can google that, but generally what you want is compost, not the "garden soil" you see at HD. Call the nursery nearest you - all of the ones near me deliver for free. Some require a minimum $50 order, some don't.
  
  
• Don't forget mulch! Again, all the local nurseries by me deliver.
  
  Good luck!!
  

Go get you a copy of THIS