Regional Landscape Architecture: Southern California

What makes a garden regionally appropriate? Fifteen private gardens designed by leading landscape architects answer that question for arid Southern California by directly addressing the climate, landscape, and culture they inhabit. Whether small or large, urban or rural, luxurious or low budget, these resilient outdoor spaces are finely attuned to the Mediterranean climate and the indoor-outdoor lifestyle for which Southern California is known. They make use of local building materials and craftspeople and offer their owners a unique emotional connection to nature. Firmly planted in time and place, the projects, complete with plans, define not so much a style as an experience and thrive with little effort from their owners.
Jeffrey Head is the author of Paul Evans: Designer & Sculptor and No Nails, No Lumber and was a contributing writer for Modern Americana, Hand in Hand: California Mid-century Designs of Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman, Lustron Stories, and Craig Ellwood: Self-Made Modern.