Designing California Native Gardens: The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens

By Alrie Middlebrook and Glenn Keator

Book Overview

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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520251105
• ISBN13: 9780520251106
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.9" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Help for ecological minded gardeners

This book is a tremendous help in designing a garden that uses the plants that have evolved into appropriate and ecologically sound plants for a native garden. Good suggestions for building the garden and explications of the plants and their needs and abilities.

must have for the bookshelf

This book is a must have for the California native gardener. I'd say the book's biggest strength is in its' inspiration- contains nice photographs of natural landscapes and gardens modeled after them. It groups plants by communities which is nice, though maybe hard to do. I know I live in an area which doesn't fit exactly into of any of the communities they list, but I can still get the idea they are trying to convey, and look around at what is in my community. California is so diverse you almost want a bunch of more specific and in-depth books for different areas inside California, but I guess maybe those areas of interest are too small to sell enough books to make it worth the while. It does a good job listing different kinds of plants, my only complaint with this book is that I would have liked more pictures accompanying each plant for which information is given- because you really can't tell from the brief physical description what the plant looks like. As someone else has mentioned, this book is best paired with California Native Plants For The Garden. However, this complaint should be taken with a grain of salt, for designing a California native garden I think this book is the best on the market. Together, these two books provide the backbone to build your California native plant book collection around.

The Perfect Book for Any Californian Who Wants to Save the Environment in Their Own Backyard

This book is excellent, with many good photographic examples of complete native landscape. It also set for an excellent philosophy for landscape design for the both the use of native and non-native plants. However it really shouldn't be thought of as a complete source for native gardening. I would also suggest that you pick up 'California Native Plants for the Garden' by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien. Even between these two books all of the possibilities for beautiful California native plants and landscapes created using them have not yet been fully explored, but these books are an excellent start.

best book for gardeners

This is the book I have been waiting for! It has all the information to learn about and appreciate the value and beauty of native gardening. Practical and inspirational, with lovely photos and illustrations. The book helps the reader incorporate the beauty found in nature in a home plot. If I were going to buy one book about making/keeping a garden, this would be it.

Great guidebook!

As a beginner with CA natives I found this to be the book I was seeking. There are good explanations of the state's plant communities, examples of design plans, guidance on how to implement a plan for that community and good photos of real landscaping and the plants. The plant selections presented for each community have good descriptions and and seem from my weekly increasing experience to be those that succeed in home landscaping. I refer to it all the time as I take on areas of my yard to restore. North, south, east, west our yards are complex. This book helps one figure them out relative to CA natives.