by Diane Flyr, U. C. Master Gardener
Like most gardeners, I have a secret passion for books on plants and gardening. I have almost 70 books on the subject, and friends have many more than that. I still can spend hours perusing the shelves of used and new bookstores and usually find something I have to have.
But some books are more than pretty pictures and inspiration. These are the books I turn to again and again for information and guidance on choosing plants that will do well in the Napa Valley.
When I first started to garden in San Francisco 30 years ago, someone gave me Sunset's Western Garden Book. This was my major resource for years, and it taught me a lot. With its 24 climate zones (Napa County includes zones 7, 14, 15 and 17), it spans the Western states and includes thousands of plant choices.
But after moving to Napa Valley and becoming more serious about my gardening, I find that I want to focus on plants and techniques that particularly suit our Mediterranean, dry-summer climate. Luckily, many books fit the bill.
One of my favorites is Northern California Gardening, a Month to Month Guide by Katherine Grace Endicott (Chronicle Books, 1996, $22.95). Her introduction is a lovely description of the joys and wonder of gardening. After a brief basic gardening section, the book is divided into monthly sections with tasks for all gardeners, then for coastal, high mountain and central valley areas. Additional sections highlight plants and subjects that are of importance that month. Once you get the hang of this book, it is an easy reminder of what to do and a wealth of useful, timely information.
A Month to Month Guide to Gardening in Napa County, written by local Master Gardeners (University of California Cooperative Extension, 2000, $10) is another checklist guide. A must-have book for our native climate and soils, it has basic information on gardening, mulching and composting, with monthly sections on garden chores, what can be planted or harvested that month, and what pests to watch for.
An excellent publication by Marin County Master Gardeners is Bay Area Gardening (Barbara Euser, ed., Writers Center of Marin, 2002, $18). This book contains a series of essays originally published in the Marin Independent Journal. Topics such as fire-safe landscaping, summer pruning of fruit trees, invasive plants, plants for clay soil, planting under oaks and controlling ants without chemicals provide answers to many of the questions we have in our area. It is an interesting and eclectic read.
Another essay book with few pictures is Gardening with a Wild Heart by Judith Larner Lowry (University of California Press, 1999) The subtitle, Restoring California's Native Landscapes at Home, spells out her theme: how to use our local fauna rather than non-native species in our landscaping. Her diatribe on the "oleanderization" of California is something I heartily agree with, and I also love her philosophy of gardening. She is a delightful writer.
A recently published and very practical book is Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region (East Bay Municipal Utility District, 2004, $34.95). This work covers nine counties and divides the area into microclimates based on plant groupings: oak woodlands, chaparral, coastal scrub, grassland and redwood/mixed evergreen forests. The book has a good section on garden design and an extensive plant catalogue with luscious photographs. The authors use the Sunset zones and plant classifications, but with fewer plants to cover, the descriptions are more extensive.
As gardening gets us more in touch with our local ecology, the use of water becomes of primary consideration. We get very little water for at least half of the year, and our growing population consumes huge amounts for irrigation, so it makes sense to minimize water use as much as possible. By looking to plants that have adapted to our dry summers, we can have still have gorgeous gardens without wasting a precious resource.
Two books written by Heidi Gildemeister address this subject well: Mediterranean Gardening, a Water-Wise Approach (University of California Press, 1995) and Gardening the Mediterranean Way: How to Create a Water-Wise, Drought-Tolerant Garden (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004, $35). The former is a practical guide, first explaining what is meant by a Mediterranean climate, its challenges and plant choices, then following with a section on garden planning and practices that reduce the need for watering. The third section gives information and advice on planting, propagating, mulching, and nutrition, followed by a plant list of drought-tolerant species. The second book repeats some of the information, but mostly gives examples and ideas for specific kinds of gardens: coastal, rocky, hillside. Both cover many parts of the world and are less specific to our locale, and Gildemeister seems more familiar with Southern California. I think the first book is a better resource for ways to cut down on water usage.
Many books focus on particular plants for our area, such as Tree and Shrub Gardening for Northern California by Bob Tanem and Don Williamson (Lone Pine Publishing, 2003, $18.95) and Wildly Successful Plants Northern California by Pam Pierce (Sasquatch Books, 2004, $24.95). California Garden Guide by Bruce and Sharon Asakawa (Cool Springs Press, $24.95) is another general guide for California, with excellent information about each plant and where in California it can grow. Trees of Napa Valley by Napa Master Gardener John Hoffman (University of California Cooperative Extension, 2002, $12) is is an excellent guide to some of our best local trees, with a bit of tree history, suggestions on where to plant each tree, and a map showing readers where they can view good mature specimens.
I just received another great new sourcebook: The Garden Resource Guide for Northern California's Mediterranean Climate by the Mediterranean Garden Society Northern California Branch (2004, $10). To order, send a check to P. O. Box 542, Lafayette, CA, 94549. This book explains the Mediterranean climate and how ours differs, then provides a sourcebook for gardens to visit, places to shop for garden supplies and books, plant societies and garden clubs, an extensive bibliography and a section on learning via the internet, schools and libraries.