California Gardener's Guide Volume II (Gardener's Guides) [Paperback]

Nan Sterman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gardener's Guides | Publication Date: September 4, 2007

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value. This book contains easy-to-use advice on the top landscape plant choices.   It also recommends specific varieties, and provides advice on how to plant, how to grow and how to care for the best plants.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When you visit a nursery, do you wish you had a personal shopper in tow to help you sort out the confusion of choices? ....Nan Sterman's new book, California Gardener's Guide, Volume II .... feels like that personal shopper." -- Sharon Cohoon, Sunset Magazine

"Pick up the book and thumb through its pages loaded with color photographs, and you'll find an amazing array of plants that are California friendly and water wise, yet lush and beautiful enough to satisfy any gardening style or palette, from minimalist to the cottage garden look." Sterman "writes with the knowledge and confidence of a hands-in-the-soil gardener.... She knows how their roots feel in her hands. She knows what their bark looks like and how the flowers smell." -- Pat Rubin, Home and Garden Writer for the Sacramento Bee

"Nan Sterman's `California Gardener's Guide' .... provide(s) a satisfying mix of down-to-earth advice on planning, planting and maintaining your landscape along with a healthy dish of stunning visuals."

In an interview with Hayes, Sterman describes the target audience for her book, "As I write and speak about gardens and gardening, I often encounter people who have purchased their first home or purchased a new home and want to create a beautiful garden but have no idea what to plant or even where to start. My goal for this audience is to take the mystery out of gardening and provide them with the courage and the basic nuts and bolts to jump right in and get started.

As California's water becomes more and more precious, California Gardener's Guide Volume II is fast becoming the essential book for every California gardener." -- Holly Hayes, reporter for the San Jose Mercury News

Book Description

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value. This book contains easy-to-use advice on the top landscape plant choices.   It also recommends specific varieties, and provides advice on how to plant, how to grow and how to care for the best plants.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591862671
• ISBN-13: 978-1591862673
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars California Gardener's Guide completes the library, January 3, 2008

By 

Billy Goodnick "Cultural omnivore" (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: California Gardener's Guide Volume II (Gardener's Guides) (Paperback)

We all know that the Sunset Western Garden Book is "the bible" when it comes to horticulture on the Left Coast. But after reading Sterman's fabulous book, it was plain to see what was missing from the other tome. Nan takes us through the rationale for what makes a California garden such a rewarding and unique setting.

As great as her encyclopedic listing of plants is, an equally valuable part of the book is the first 27 pages that help us understand the climate, soil, resources, and the design process. This introduction is worth the price of the entire book and is a must read. Her approach to sustainable practices will resonate with readers, and creates an easy to understand framework for how we can have a beautiful garden while remaining good stewards of the environment.

Though there are only 186 plants featured (far less than Sunset presents), they represent a good cross section of the many categories of plants that play a role in any garden. And the plants are conveniently grouped by category of use.

The information offered for each plant is thorough, and unlike Sunset, gives the same essential information for each plant. By breaking each plant description into four mini-essays, we learn: "When Where, and How to Plant" (about soil type, sun requirements, etc); "Growing Tips" that help us get the plant off to a good start; "Companion Planting and Design" helping the reader to imagine how the plant fits in with an overall composition; and "Try These" which introduces us to other cultivars and varieties of the species plants. The photograph on each page is clear, though two images (one long shot for overall character and another for flower detail) would be even more helpful. Lastly, the array of cartooned icons helps the reader quickly understand opportunities and constraints, like water and solar requirements, habitat value, adaptation to various micro-climates, etc.

I have taught landscape design to average homeowners for nearly 20 years and always recommended the Sunset W. G. Book as a necessary reference. Now there's one more book my students will be needing.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed for USDA zone 9B / Sunset 14, December 20, 2008

By 

N. Hattori (Sonoma County, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: California Gardener's Guide Volume II (Gardener's Guides) (Paperback)

One of the best plants guides for beginning/intermediate San Francisco Bay Area gardeners that I own.

I love plants but am not a talented green-thumb. I want easy-to-grow and not-too-thirsty plants, but don't want my garden to look like any plant bed in a shopping center parking lot. This book includes enough California natives and other unique plants to create a sense of "my own garden," but still are manageable for someone with the level of my green skills. I also like the "Companion Planting and Design" sections to help me with design, or just have fun imagining what her recommendations might look like.

I have Sunset Western Garden Book, which is a wonderful reference book that I treasure. But, it includes too much info not relevant to my zone. Choosing plants from that book is simply overwhelming. Sterman's book is tailored for California gardeners. It has a lot of info for the plants included, each with a photograph (although more will be better). Colorful icons for plant requirements and benefits make choosing plants easy. Chapters categorized by growth type and using common names, rather than botanical names, make this book very user-friendly.

I live in USDA 9b / Sunset 14 zone. Most plants in Sterman's book work in my zone (as well as in the rest of California), and most are non-thirsty. In comparison, California Gardener's Guide volume 1 by Asakawa is geared too much for Southern California, and includes too many plants that are too large for my garden.

On a separate note, if you live in the climate zones similar to mine, I also recommend "Plans and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of San Francisco Bay Region."

Happy gardening!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but a little water hungry IMHO, February 27, 2010

By 

Horse (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: California Gardener's Guide Volume II (Gardener's Guides) (Paperback)

When I purchased this book I did so too quickly and didn't realize the word NATIVES was missing.

All the same, I kept the book and like it immensely.

This is a good book, and shows many plants that can be used in a California garden...

HOWEVER:

As the 3rd year of Drought in California goes on (They say it may be ending (2/27/10) I just read in the news) I think that this book and others like it is in part to blame for the water crisis.

Furthermore, due to recent environmental rulings even if we come out of drought, some places will receive %40 less water in coming years.

While many of the plants are excellent, some of them are WATER HUNGRY especially the tropicals that can be used down in L.A and those areas.

People (some of my good friends down by San Bernadino area included) are partially to blame. They have huge water hungry gardens in the desert, well it was desert a year or two ago. Now it's golf course and new sprawling subdivisions.

E.G. My friends live on a golf course and their yard is grass and tropical flowers, and the land was desert.

As FARMERS fields lay fallow due to water restrictions and the fish are dying, people over-water tropical plants not meant to be anywhere near CA.

No salmon fishing again this year they say, they come from Oregon now, but those grass lawns sure are green.

Fisherman are mad, and so are farmers, and they should be.

I understand this book is not to blame, and is rather a symptom of letting populous locales in the desert drain dry the Delta up North... but come on guys.

There are plenty of beautiful CA native plants, some of which are nearly identical, except they are suited to the climate and rainfalls of the area which are not included.