The Drought-Defying California Garden: 230 Native Plants for a Lush, Low-Water Landscape Paperback – April 6, 2016

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.

Excellent quality pictures, great inspiration.

I didn't find it necessarily gave out certain design guidance, but the photos gave good ideas of plant groupings and did kickstart my project to refurbish part of mom's yard to make it more tolerant for some brutal summer days that are sure to come this year, Due to climate change and adverse conditions, we really needed new inspiration and a way to pick things that won't easily shrivel up. I bought some other books with beefier ideas to supplement this one, This is a small enought book to take in your tote to a succulent nursery to point out what you are considering.

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.

Read this book before you sink more money on buying plants!! I almost returned this purchase when I first got the book because I thought that I could get a lot of information online already. However, the systemic format with helpful landscaping ideas throughout really made me appreciate how invaluable this book is after delving into it for more than 6 months. I am glad that I chose this as my pandemic reading. I have been trying to replace current water hungry plants with native plants. This book really helped me plan my garden with more informed decisions.Thank you to the authors for your contribution to a better California habitat!!

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

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