The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden

I did not know this world of dry gardens existed. I did not know a dry garden could be so beautiful and diverse. I absolutely love this book. It's just so inspiring...and by the end of your first read (because you will page through this again and again, page by page trying to absorb the layouts, textures and colours of the garden) you develop such deep respect for the founder of the garden. Lovely and inspiring story of how the garden came about, great big beautiful photos and an interesting and easy read. As a newbie to gardening in general it is a great reference book and inspires me to continue my journey.

Fabulous book on Ruth Bancroft amazing history with her gardens.

This will help with my garden in Apple Valley ca

We love this book! As California residents, it provides wonderful plant suggestions, as well as the inspiration to visit the Bancroft gardens sometime soon. For the armchair gardener, it is a wonderful trip through an unusual garden started by a fascinating woman. I plan to order additional copies for gifts.

The book was good, but the cover was damaged in shipping. I returned it for a refund.

This book has so many beautiful photos of an awesome garden. I loved it so much that I planned a trip to the garden just to see it up close. I was not disappointed.

Muy lindo libro con tapas duras. Muy inspiradora la historia y obra de Ruth Bancroft.

Love this book! I live in Idaho, but temperatures, lack of large sources of water, and access to drought-resistant plants are similar. Most important lesson I took from this read - a great yard takes time, patience, and a plan. Knowing Ruth started her garden in the 1970s and new plants are still being added has given me motivation to slow down, plan and plant carefully, and step back to enjoy each step of progress. The pictures are large, colorful, and well placed to give the viewer a good idea of the direction she took in initially starting her garden to where it stands now. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in xeriscaping or needing motivation to start their gardening journey.

The Bold Dry Garden is very well written and the photographs are excellent. The book describes how Ruth Bancroft used cacti and succulents for planting in her California garden. I have been growing cacti and succulents for 50 years in the UK and have recently planted my garden in Portugal in a similar manner to that described in the book. I hope that I will be fortunate enough to enjoy seeing the plants grow over the next 30 years, as Ruth has done. The book is thoroughly recommended.

Sehr gut

Ruth Bancroft was a fascinating woman whose longevity and curiosity is inspiring. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Succulents and related plants in their natural state. I now have visiting her garden on my bucket list.

The story of one woman's plant collection and her development of a dry garden long before such things were considered interesting or sensible. This is a very timely book with hotter and drier being the new normal. Ruth's garden is in California but she included Australian, South American and South African plants so her ideas are widely adaptable. There's plenty of useful information about individual species though I don't think I'm any further forward in trying to learn how to identify many of them! I'll still be relying on nursery labels... An inspiring read that shows what's possible if you're prepared to experiment and lose a few mIstakes here and there. I only gave four stars because in many of the photos it's hard to see what's what, but maybe that's just the kindle version...

Would have been 5 stars but arrived with damaged cover. Definitely a coffee table book with stunning pictures & great planting ideas