The California Garden TourThe California Garden Tour

The 50 California gardens Olson profiles in this guide fall into four basic types: estate gardens that were once private and are now public, botanical gardens, parks, and art gardens. To set the context, he presents a brief history of gardening in California discussing native peoples; the mission era; Beaux-Arts, Spanish colonial revival, and the country place era; the Depression and the Works Progress Administration (WA); and postwar and midcentury modern gardens. He arranges the gardens geographically, first into north and south, then into smaller regions. --Publisher's descripton.