Essays discuss wildflower gardening, the ecology of native grasses, wildland seed collecting, principles of natural design, and plant/animal interactions for California gardens.

Dry summer, wet winter climate? This is your must have plant guide. Selecting plants suited to your climate is the first step toward a thriving, largely self-sustaining garden that connects with and supports the natural world. With gentle and compelling text and stunning photographs of plants in garden settings, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates by Nora Harlow and Saxon Holt is a guide to native and climate-adapted plants for summer-dry, winter-wet climates of North America's Pacific coast. Knowing what these climates share and how and why they differ, you can choose to make gardens that maintain and expand local and regional biodiversity, take little from the earth that is not returned, and welcome and accommodate the presence of wildlife. With global warming, it is now even more critical that we garden in tune with climate.

Offering a collection of essays, this work provides advice on various aspects of gardening, from design to habitat gardening, dealing with pests to improving the soil.

The beauty, resources, and natural processes of the California landscape are brought to the home garden in this fine testament to ecological gardening, culture, and design. 117 illustrations, 30 in color. 4 site plans. 6 tables.

Local Master Gardeners lend their expertise on everything from propagating plants to dealing with snails, slugs, and slime to having a successful rose garden in a coastal climate. Bay Area Gardening provides comprehensive answers in sixty-four diverse essays on landscaping, garden design, pests, chemicals, and a multitude of topics endemic to the trials and tribulations of Bay Area home gardeners. Book jacket.

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.

Explains how to transform backyard gardens into living ecosystems that are not only enjoyable retreats for humans, but also sanctuaries for wildlife.

Inspiring, profound, intimate, and moving, this updated edition of the classic self-help book brings solace, hope, and advice to anyone who has suffered loss. Everyone experiences grief, but few books offer real help with the debilitating emotions of bereavement. Now, an internationally respected authority on personal change maps the terrain between life as it was and life as it can be. Readers can move at their own pace through the seven distinct phases of loss and can work towards a stronger, more balanced self. The author's own story of the loss of a young husband, combined with the tales of dozens of individuals, and the most recent research on coping with loss, helps readers to become happier, healthier, and wiser beings.

A practical volume for the home or business owner on landscaping with native, drought-tolerant plants in the Rocky Mountain West. Filled with color illustrations, photos, and design sketches, over 100 native species are described, while practical tips on landscape design, water-wise irrigation, and keeping down the weeds are provided. In this book you will learn how to use natural landscapes to inspire your own designed landscape around your business or home and yard. Included are design principles, practical ideas, and strong examples of what some homeowners have already done to convert traditional "bluegrass" landscapes into ones that are more expressive of the West. Landscaping on the new Frontier also offers an approach to irrigation that minimizes the use of supplemental water yet ensures the survival of plants during unusually dry periods. You will learn how to combine ecological principles with design principles to create beautiful home landscapes that require only minimal resources to maintain.

An insightful, personal, and timely exploration into the wonderful world of seeds. In What We Sow, Jennifer Jewell brings readers on an insightful, year-long journey exploring the outsize impact one of nature's smallest manifestations—the simple seed. She examines our skewed notions where "organic" seeds are grown and sourced, reveals how giant multinational agribusiness has refined and patented the genomes of seeds we rely on for staples like corn and soy, and highlights the efforts of activists working to regain legal access to heirloom seeds that were stolen from Indigenous peoples and people of color. Throughout, readers are invited to share Jewell's personal observations as she marvels at the glory of nature in her Northern California hometown. She admires at the wild seeds she encounters on her short daily walks and is amazed at the range of seed forms, from cups and saucers to vases, candelabras, ocean-going vessels, and airliners. What We Sow is a tale of what we choose to see and what we haven't been taught to see, what we choose to seed and what we choose not to seed. It urgently proves that we must work hard to preserve and protect the great natural diversity of seed.