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  HOWARD GARRETT

Howard Garrett is a landscape architect by training, with extensive experience in landscape contracting, greenhouse growing, golf course planning and maintenance and organic product development. Howard has devoted his  life to educating the public on organic and natural landscaping, gardening, farming, ranching, and basic land management.

Currently, the show called The Natural Way  is on KSKY-660 AM, Sundays 8:00-11:00 a.m.  He also writes a weekly column for the Dallas Morning News, also called The Natural Way, in Friday’s “House and Garden” section segments  He has taught organic gardening at SMU in the continuing education department, lectures extensively and continues to consult on organics, horticulture and agriculture.

PUBLICATIONS

Plants of the Metroplex was the first book, self published from 1975 to 1994. It contains over 300 color photos of landscape plants for Texas together with information on the cultivation, uses and problems of each plant with practical pointers for beginning gardeners on such basics as soil preparation, planting, watering, fertilizing and pest control. UT Press, Austin, Texas.

Howard Garrett’s Texas Organic Gardening is written especially for Texans, explaining how to use native plants, vegetables and fruits. It also covers soil improvement and maintenance instructions for production of organically healthy lawns, gardens and landscapes without harmful chemicals. Lone Star Books, Lanham, Maryland.

The Organic Manual is a non-regional guide to organic gardening. It explains how to work with nature to promote healthy gardens without the use of toxic chemicals or artificial fertilizers. Tapestry Press. Irving, Texas.

Plants for Texas is a book on native and introduced ornamentals and food crop plants for Texas. It is arranged in alphabetical order rather than chapters and cross referenced for ease of finding detailed information on landscape plants, fruits, vegetables, cover crops and herbs. UT Press, Austin, Texas.

Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening and Edible Landscaping is a book about food crops for Texas including vegetables, fruits, nuts and herbs. Lone Star Books, Lanham, Maryland.

Dirt Doctor’s Guide to Organic Gardening and Ask the Dirt Doctor, are essays on The Natural Way  UT Press, Austin, Texas.

Texas Bug Book, co-authored with Malcolm Beck, is an instructional book covers the protection and use of beneficial insects and detailed information on how to organically or biologically control troublesome insects. UT Press, Austin, Texas.

Texas Herb Book written with Odena Brannam covers the landscape, culinary, and medicinal uses of Texas native and introduced herbs. UT Press, Austin.

Howard Garrett’s Texas Trees covers over 100 varieties of native and introduced trees along with state of the art planting and maintenance instructions. It includes color photos and detailed descriptions of the flowers, fruit, bark, foliage, fall color, preferred habitat, maintenance needs and interesting notes. Lone Star Books, Lanham, Maryland.

Dear Dirt Doctor is a book covering the most asked questions from the Dallas Morning News and WBAP radio. UT Press, Austin Texas.

Texas Gardening the Natural Way – the Complete Handbook is the latest and most comprehensive book. It contains over 800 photos of 600 native and adapted plants, insects and their control, diseases and their control and complete planting and maintenance instructions. UT Press, Austin, Texas.

The Dirt Doctor’s Dirt is a monthly online magazine that covers up-to-date organic information and the most commonly asked questions and answers on organics.  Ground Crew Production, Inc., Arlington, Texas.

The Natural Way is a weekly column in the “House and Garden” section of the Dallas Morning News that has been running since 1989. It covers a wide range of topics including organic gardening, landscaping, pest control, compost making, health matters and environmental issues. The paper has a circulation of approximately 500,000.

DirtDoctor.com  is the web site devoted to the Natural Way, a journey to healthy living.