If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know that its climate is unique in the U.S. and that there are many microclimates within the region. It’s all mediterranean, as you can tell by its dry summers and mild, wet winters. But near the coast, summer fog carpets the land for weeks and winter is rarely frosty, while inland summers are hot, winter frosts are frequent. I live here and use my academic and first-hand experience with plants to help regional gardeners create year-round beauty and harvests in all of our wonderful, often perplexing microclimates.
I wrote...
Golden Gate Gardening, The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area & Coastal California
Now in its third, revised edition, Golden Gate Gardening introduces readers to food gardening in California from Eureka to San Luis Obispo, and from the coast inland to the edge of the Central Valley. This mediterranean-climate region is like no other in the U. S. Summers vary from cool at the coast to hot inland, with rain only in winters. The whole region allows year-round production of vegetables, herbs, fruits, edible, and cutting flowers.
This book is an indispensable source of information on all the topics you need for success: what to plant and when, how to start seed, prepare the soil, conserve water, control weeds, and manage pests in less-toxic ways. It is a clear, friendly book that will guide you to garden success and enjoyment.
There
are 5 regions of the world with mediterranean climates. They are similar in
having a dry summer and a mild, wet, winter, but they differ in exact rain
patterns and temperatures. Peter Dallman has done us the service of analyzing
each of them, showing how they compare to California, and what grows in each
one. Charts and maps help us compare the regions and understand what we can
grow here and why.
This book provides a beautifully illustrated overview of the landscapes, vegetation types, and plants of the five regions of the world that have a Mediterranean climate. This climate of mild, rainy winters and dry, warm summers is found in the Mediterranean Basin, the south-western part of Australia, the Cape region of South Africa, Central Chile, and California. The regions are widely separated and the flora of each is distinctive, having for the most part developed independently. Nevertheless, the plants share remarkably similar characteristics which allow them to survive in these unusual conditions. Peter Dallman's non-technical prose is complemented by numerous…
Written originally for Great Britain, this book (and also Volume II) describes plants that grow outdoors in California's mediterranean climate. You will delight in recognizing old friends and discovering new plants that grow well in our region. There is a photograph of each plant in its native habitat and information on its basic care. An index in Volume II includes the plants in Volume I as well.
The indispensable new reference book for every gardener.
A unique photographic guide to plants that grow outdoors in subtropical climates (from Florida to California) or indoors in areas that have frost in winter. All can be grown outdoors in the summer. Includes introductory chapters on garden and greenhouse cultivation and on the habits of species in the wild.
With details on the history, characteristics and cultivation of each plant, Indoor and Greenhouse Plants is an essential addition to the popular Random House garden series by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix.
An
introductory chapter describes our greater Bay Area climate and its
microclimates. The plants listed are ones that will thrive in the region with a
minimum of summer water. The glory of the book is in the photographs by Saxon
Holt, which include close shots for identification and wider shots that will
inspire you to combine plants handsomely in your garden.
Historically,
California native plants were often grown in European gardens before they were
accepted into California gardens. Now they are being grown in California for
their beauty and frequent drought tolerance. Here you will see photos of plants
in garden landscapes with information about the regions in which they will
grow, their needs, and their care.
California Native Plants for the Garden is a comprehensive resource that features more than 500 of the best California native plants for gardening in Mediterranean-climate areas of the world. Authored by three of the state's leading native-plant horticulturists and illustrated with 450 color photos, this reference book also includes chapters on landscape design, installation, and maintenance. Detailed lists of recommended native plants for a variety of situations and appendices with information on places to see native plants and where to buy them are also provided.
In
this book are directions for planting and pruning roses and protecting them
from pests, all keyed to the climate of the greater Bay Area. The separate
chapter on rose-growing in the fog will be especially welcomed by coast-side gardeners, as will the list of rose varieties rated for the SF Bay Area. Order
the book's current edition on the San Francisco Rose Society website using the direct link below.
This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto in the grips of severe water scarcity.
Single mother and limnologist Lynna witnesses disturbing events as she works for the powerful international utility CanadaCorp. Fearing for the welfare of her rebellious teenage daughter, Lynna sets in motion a series of events that tumble out of her control with calamitous consequence. The novel explores identity, relationship, and our concept of what is “normal”—as a nation and an individual—in a world that is rapidly and incomprehensibly changing.
Centuries from now, in a post-climate change dying boreal forest of what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, discovers a diary that may provide her with the answers to her yearning for Earth’s past—to the Age of Water, when the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity in hatred—events that have plagued her nightly in dreams. Looking for answers to this holocaust—and disturbed by her macabre longing for connection to the Water Twins—Kyo is led to the diary of a limnologist from the time just prior to the destruction. This gritty memoir describes a…
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