The Drought-Defying California Garden: 230 Native Plants for a Lush, Low-Water Landscape

I purchased several gardening books for someone is San Diego.This was her favorite.

Perfect to plan a garden or to work with outdoors. Love the looseleaf binder. Lies flat and easier to use or write on when you don't have a table.The pages are smooth, and the flower's colors are sometimes described as pink but looks red in the picture . So, I am not sure about this. But there are codes next to each description which tell you the light it needs, the water, and the kind of soil. Very detailed and organized.

This is a good book for the Southern California Gardner. Was used to do basic planning for the front yard.

This is a great book, as someone who is a beginner, I loved the layout, easy to read and very informative descriptions, and helpful tips and tricks on prepping the ground and watering. A must read if you are in california looking to add native plants to your landscape

I bought this for myself. I'm an experienced planter of CA natives in my own gardens and currently have an all native yard. I own the first book and used it heavily for my current garden - it echoes what I'd learned from Las Pilitas over the years in a straightforward format. This second book was a slight disappointment in that I found nothing new. Perhaps I should have expected that! However, this second book has been heavily borrowed by friends as a straightforward place to start with a CA native garden. If you are looking for help getting started, this new book is based on years of experience and Greg's practical approach. Some years ago, Greg designed and installed a high end garden for my neighbor, but was generous with his time and expertise toward my amateur efforts across the road - and still gives his time spreading the CA natives message. Greg and Lucy have 'walked the talk' and no, you won't find many garden plans, because you will be taught to look at your own land, plot, container, whatever, assess the conditions and plant accordingly. My husband and I have half an acre planted from scratch with CA natives over the last three years. We do all the work ourselves and yet still have time for other hobbies. This book (and the previous one) will set you up for success.

California is a massive state. As another reviewer noted, it would have been helpful to sort this book by planting zone (preferably Sunset not USDA).My USDA zone — much like the daily weather report — is incorrect. I live at high elevation with cooler winter and summer weather than a zone 8 low-elevation neighboring city, yet I'm in Zone 9 despite having been snowed in more than once with 3-4' snowdrifts and more than one winter where temps hit 14 degrees for 2-3 nights per season.After struggling to landscape my "blank slate" backyard — having failed to grow everything from salvia and redbud to hollyhock and torch lilly — I called my local Extension office, which referred me to a Master Gardener help line. No response after a two week wait. Then I emailed the master gardener help line. No response after another week of waiting. It was suggested I contact someone at UC Davis. No response to that either. Meanwhile, I bought a book put out by Home Depot "Landscaping 1-2-3", which was supposed to be targeted to Zones 7-10, but many of those plants are not native and aren't necessarily available at the big box garden centers, either (COVID-19 seems to really have cut down on the supply chain of plants, too). At my local "native" nursery prior to the pandemic I found sweet gum trees, California buckwheat, juniper and the like — but not much of what is in this book was located there, either. Some five years in and the closest I have come to a success story with native plants is juniper, buckwheat and a "Joyce Coulter" lilac.One thing to consider when buying a native plant landscaping book is whether or not those plants are commercially available. Logically, one might think that with the persistence of Western droughts, climate change and the like that native plants should be more readily available but, alas, in many cases they are not. Conversely, those who are fortunate enough to live within proximity to a well-stocked and staffed native plant nursery many not necessarily need a book like this in the first place.

I love this book. I recommend it as the first book to read for those interested in converting their lawns/landscapes to drought tolerant plants/California natives. Greg and Lucy are very thorough to set the stage with the history and the biology of how the plants are connected. Then take you through the complete process of design, plants, installation, and maintenance. All of the chapters were informative, but I especially liked the chapter on design as I think placement is crucial for appeal.

It's an excellent book to learn and understand how to design a Garden in California. Easy to understand and the information is well organized with tips on how to verify the requeriments of the different areas or Counties.Highly recommended to rookies in the field.