How to harvest water and nutrients, select drought-tolerant plants, and create natural diversity Because climatic uncertainty has now become “the new normal,” many farmers, gardeners and orchard-keepers in North America are desperately seeking ways to adapt their food production to become more resilient in the face of such “global weirding.” This book draws upon the wisdom and technical knowledge from desert farming traditions all around the world to offer time-tried strategies for: Building greater moisture-holding capacity and nutrients in soils - Protecting fields from damaging winds, drought, and floods - Harvesting water from uplands to use in rain gardens and terraces filled with perennial crops - Delecting fruits, nuts, succulents, and herbaceous perennials that are best suited to warmer, drier climates Gary Paul Nabhan is one of the world’s experts on the agricultural traditions of arid lands. For this book he has visited indigenous and traditional farmers in the Gobi Desert, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara Desert, and Andalusia, as well as the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Painted deserts of North America, to learn firsthand their techniques and designs aimed at reducing heat and drought stress on orchards, fields, and dooryard gardens. This practical book also includes colorful “parables from the field” that exemplify how desert farmers think about increasing the carrying capacity and resilience of the lands and waters they steward. It is replete with detailed descriptions and diagrams of how to implement these desert-adapted practices in your own backyard, orchard, or farm. This unique book is useful not only for farmers and permaculturists in the arid reaches of the Southwest or other desert regions. Its techniques and prophetic vision for achieving food security in the face of climate change may well need to be implemented across most of North America over the next half-century, and are already applicable in most of the semiarid West, Great Plains, and the U.S. Southwest and adjacent regions of Mexico. Garden Writers Association Media Award, Silver Award for Achievement New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, Gardening Category "All of Gary Nabhan's books carry us on deep, enchanting journeys to the hearts of people, plants, and cultures across the world. . . I'm inspired and heartened by this timely and important offering from a true desert sage.”—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture “This information, which includes detailed instructions and lists of plants and pollinators, will undoubtedly be useful to farmers and gardeners facing more volatile weather patterns. Their spirits may lift as well with the book’s somber but hopeful poetic tone.”— Publishers Weekly “Nabhan’s guide is highly specialized, technical, and insightful. . . The book is a must-have instruction manual for surviving climate change for desert farmers, orchard growers, crop farmers, ranchers, and backyard gardeners.”— ForeWord Reviews “Gary Nabhan’s books never fail to inspire and inform me. This book is no exception. After just one read through I’ve dog-eared, highlighted, and noted countless gems, facts, and stories to which I will return again and again” —Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond “If the 20th century strove to insulate us from the harsh realities of nature (whilst exacerbating its extremes), Gary Nabhan’s latest book introduces us to the 21st century's rude reminders that change is here, uncertainty commonplace. With little room for the hand-wringers, Nabhan provides everyone else, from novice gardener to deep ecologist, important food for thought and the practical know-how to address our modern problems with ancient desert wisdom. I couldn't put it down.” —Richard McCarthy, executive director, Slow Food USA “In a world where climate change is the new normal, Gary Nabhan offers a blueprint for food production. Using desert agriculture as a backdrop, Nabhan is the ideal guide for understanding and addressing the challenges of rising temperatures, depleting water resources, and ever-shifting conditions. It is a cautionary book of hope, full of dry-farming wisdom, to-do lists, and Gary Nabhan’s enjoyable combination of insight and humor.” —Dan Imhoff, author of Food Fight, CAFO, and Farming with the Wild “Drylands are home to 40 percent of the world’s people: a figure sure to rise in the coming decades as our world grows more parched. That is why Gary Nabhan's latest book is indispensable. Everyone who grows food -- make that, everyone who eats food -- should be grateful he wrote it. An homage to old wisdom and to the latter-day soil magicians who are Nabhan's living muses, it is a rich herbarium of delicious, hardy sustenance and a manual for our future.” —Alan Weisman, author, The World Without Us and Countdown "All of Gary Nabhan's books carry us on deep, enchanting journeys to the hearts of people, plants, and cultu