The Book – Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates

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At its core, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates encourages gardeners to understand and work in harmony with their region. By choosing naturally occurring, climate-appropriate plants, gardeners can promote healthier ecosystems and make a difference from their own backyards.
Working with rather than against the summer-dry climate means reducing impact on water supplies and creating spaces that attract and sustain wildlife. It means taking a step back, letting nature assert itself in the garden, and welcoming in the unique wildness of these special regions.

California Coastal Hills

The plants we showcase in this book are not intended in any way to limit your choices. We hope they will inspire you to look beyond what is described here. There are many more selections, in almost every genus, than what we had space to to include. Plant collectors and nursery professionals continue to develop and introduce new plants, which seem to appear almost every day.

Nora Harlow is a landscape architect and gardener with wide-ranging experience in the summer-dry climates of California. She is the author of Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the Bay Area, co-editor of The Pacific Horticulture Book of Western Gardening, and co-editor of Wild Lilies, Irises, and Grasses.

Saxon Holt is a photojournalist who has spent more than 40 years exploring Kingdom Plantae. His work has been featured in diverse publications, from Architectural Digest and Pacific Horticulture magazine to Smithsonian and Money magazines.

“In the midst of tumultuous climate change, we realize it’s all the more important that gardeners be stewards of the land, attuned to the local environment on behalf of all creatures. Every small act we do adds resiliency.”

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