October - Hot Colors, Dry Garden

We welcome Nan Sterman, garden designer, author, botanist, and host, co-writer and co-producer of the award winning TV show, A Growing Passion. She is dedicated to the transformation of planted landscapes from overly thirsty and resource intensive to climate appropriate and sustainable.

We love garden colors. Red, purple, orange, green, blue... most of us want them all!  So as we weed out the too thirsty plants from our gardens, many gardeners worry about losing the color. Can a drought tolerant garden be colorful and beautiful? Nan Sterman says, “Absolutely!” Her presentation gives us sneak peak of her upcoming book, Hot Colors, Dry Garden, to be published by Timber Press in 2017, which is about how to create beautiful and colorful gardens that need little if any water, along with the best plants for the job. Nan will focus on a selection of the many dry growing plants that offer great color.  She will also give us a sneak peek at some of the gardens she is featuring in her book.

Nan holds a botany degree from Duke University, a Masters in biology from UC Santa Barbara, and a Masters in instructional design from San Diego State. She is author of California Gardener’s Guide Volume II, the only book about low water, Mediterranean climate gardens written specifically for California home gardeners. Her articles appear in Sunset, Better Homes and Gardens, Los Angeles Times, Organic Gardening and other major publications. She has a monthly water-wise garden column in the San Diego Union Tribune and is the gardening expert for San Diego public radio’s Midday Edition talk show.