California Native Gardening - A Month-by-Month Guide

By Helen Popper

This is the first month-by-month guide to gardening with native plants in a state that follows a unique, nontraditional seasonal rhythm. Beginning in October, when much of California leaves the dry season behind and prepares for its own green "spring," Helen Popper provides detailed, calendar-based information for both beginning and experienced native gardeners. Each month's chapter lists gardening tasks, including repeated tasks and those specific to each season.

Popper offers planting and design ideas, and explains core gardening techniques such as pruning, mulching, and propagating. She tells how to use native plants in traditional garden styles, including Japanese, herb, and formal gardens, and recommends places for viewing natives. An essential year-round companion, this beautifully written and illustrated book nurtures the twin delights of seeing wild plants in the garden and garden plants in the wild.

Reviews

“Eminently readable. . . . This is the book I’ve been looking for to guide me through a year’s program of maintenance of the increasing number of native plants in my own garden. The native gardener in California should not be without it.”—Pacific Horticulture

“Helen Popper's month-by-month guide lists the chores specific to the calendar up front and fleshes them out in the pages that follow, many of them accompanied by plentiful, colorful images. Particularly useful is a rough guide for when cuttings of specific plants can be taken for propagation.”—San Francisco Chronicle