Designing California Native Gardens - by Glenn Keator & Alrie Middlebrook (Paperback)

About the Book

"An excellent how-to book on California native plant landscaping . . . with plans, photographs, and plant lists which are sure to fire the imagination of any gardener."--Arvind Kumar, California Native Plant Society

Book Synopsis

Inspirational, practical, and easy to use, this book was created with the aim of conveying the awesome diversity and beauty of California's native plants and demonstrating how they can be brought into ecologically sound, attractive, workable, and artful gardens. Structured around major California plant communities--bluffs, redwoods, the Channel Islands, coastal scrub, grasslands, deserts, oak woodlands, mixed evergreen woodlands, riparian, chaparral, mountain meadows, and wetlands--the book's twelve chapters each include sample plans for a native garden design accompanied by original drawings, color photographs, a plant list, tips on successful gardening with individual species, and more. Both residential and professional gardeners will learn the benefits of going native with gardens that require less water and fewer fertilizers, attract wildlife, engage the senses, create a sense of place, and, at the same time, preserve our rich natural heritage.

Designing Native California Gardens includes:

* More than 600 selected native species recommended for the garden

* More than 300 photographs of native plants, natural plant communities, and residential native gardens

* Recommended places to visit for viewing each plant community

From the Back Cover

An excellent how-to book on California native plant landscaping . . . with plans, photographs, and plant lists which are sure to fire the imagination of any gardener.--Arvind Kumar, California Native Plant Society

Review Quotes

"A beautiful and very informative book."--Robert Francis "Aptos Times" (11/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Here's a beautiful and very informative book that any gardener who lives in California will love reading."--Robert Walch "Bookloons.com" (10/18/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"This book not only tells you all about hundreds of these beautiful plants but -- most important -- how and where to deploy them to great effect."-- "San Jose Mercury News" (5/17/2009 12:00:00 AM)

"This excellent book is a must-read for anyone interested in cultivating native plants and working them into a landscape plan."--Robert Walch "Salinas Californian" (10/15/2011 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Glenn Keator, a California plant specialist, is author of Introduction to Trees of the San Francisco Bay Area (UC Press), The Life of an Oak, Plants of the East Bay Parks, and Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California. Alrie Middlebrook is the founder and president of Middlebrook Gardens in San Jose, California, a design company that specializes in California native gardens. She is author of Eating California. They have been hiking California and teaching classes on California native plants for thirteen years.