My new book is here! Plus Digging is up for BHG Blogger Award

February 23, 2016


After two years in the making, my new book is released today! To celebrate, I offer you a big bouquet of Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora) blossoms. Just sprinkle a little grape Kool-Aid powder on your screen, and breathe in — that’s what it really smells like. Don’t inhale the Kool-Aid though!

The Water-Saving Garden: How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water is for anyone who cares about conserving our most precious resource, smart gardening solutions, making a drought-tolerant garden, keeping runoff-borne pollutants out of our waterways, holding onto rainwater when it comes, creative design ideas to evoke water without using any, and water-thrifty plants, all while still having a beautiful garden. That’s all of us, right?

I wrote it for gardeners everywhere, because saving water is an important issue no matter where you live or how wet or dry your climate is. But there’s a special emphasis, of course, on gardening in a dry climate, and on making a garden that works harder for you: that holds onto water when it rains, that manages runoff, that needs less water on a daily basis, and that reflects the beauty of the native landscape. I hope you’ll take a look. If you like what you see, I’d love it if you’d take the time to leave a review on Amazon or Good Reads.


In other good news, yesterday I learned that voting for the 2016 Better Homes and Gardens Blogger Awards is underway, and Digging is one of the top 10 garden blogs nominated! Thank you, readers, for the nomination. I’m honored to be in the company of such excellent bloggers (and I know of other blogs that should be there too).


If you “dig” Digging, I’d love to have your vote. You can vote once per day in each category. Click here and select “Skip This Category” to get to the garden blog nominees. Whomever you vote for, I think it’s wonderful that Better Homes and Gardens recognizes garden bloggers in their own category. Thanks to them for hosting the awards, and thanks to you, friends, for reading Digging!


And now one more sniff for the road.

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Upcoming Events and News

Join me for my kick-off garden talk this Saturday, February 27, at 10 am, at The Natural Gardener nursery in southwest Austin. My talk is called “Hold the Hose! How to Make Your Garden Water Thrifty and Beautiful,” and it’s free to the public. Afterward I’ll have signed copies of my new book, The Water-Saving Garden, available for purchase ($20 each, includes tax) and will be glad to autograph one for you! Dress for the weather, as the talk will be held in the big tent outside.

Look for me on Instagram as pamdigging. See you there!

All material © 2006-2016 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

10 responses to “My new book is here! Plus Digging is up for BHG Blogger Award”

  1. Congrats on all fronts. Gotta run and see if it is in my reader. I’ve had it preordered for months.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I hope it’s there, Marilyn. They’ve managed to ship actual books to people today, so they have no excuses on the Kindle version. Happy reading! —Pam

  2. Renee says:

    Congratulations! I’m thinking of making your book an early birthday present to myself.

  3. Congratulations on your new book!! My mom bought me your other book a couple Christmases ago, I’m excited to read this one!

    I planted a Texas Mountain Laurel last year after reading about yours here. It’s right outside our bedroom window, I can’t wait to smell the blooms!

    I finally started a gardening blog just now! There’s not much there yet, but it’s at least a start.

    Thanks for all you do!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Laurin, congratulations on starting your garden blog! I hope you’ll find blogging as rewarding as I do, especially in joining a wonderful, welcoming virtual gardening community. I’m going to add your blog to my blogroll, and I look forward to following your gardening adventures!

      If I may make one small suggestion…if you’ll enable the Name/URL option in your comments settings (look for the comments settings in your dashboard), people like me who aren’t logged into Google or WordPress will be able to leave a comment on your posts. Google’s default is Name/URL turned off, but that blocks those of us who aren’t logged in. 🙂

      My three young Texas mountain laurels aren’t blooming yet, but I’ve seen quite a few mature trees already blooming in Austin. I hope yours will bloom soon. Nothing says spring quite like a mountain laurel’s grape soda fragrance. —Pam

  4. Diana Studer says:

    I’ll pass on the KoolAid, but the flowers are exquisitely detailed.

  5. Congratulations on your new book! I have always enjoyed reading your posts and one of my favorite gardening books is Lawn Gone, so I will be heading over to check out your latest publication. You have also been an inspiration to me, as I have just published my first book. Of coarse I am new at this, but I can say that I now understand the amount of time and energy that goes into your beautiful works of art…bravo!!!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Lee, thank you for the good wishes, and a big congratulations on the publication of your own first book! A Guide to Northeastern Gardens will surely be a valuable resource for gardeners in your region. I am sure it will do well.

      What I learned last time around is this: the publicity side of publishing a book is just as much work as writing the darn thing. And ironically it’s completely opposite of what a writer loves to do: sit in a quiet room and think. Good luck with the big push! 🙂 —Pam