Introduction: Gardening with resilience in mind -- Learning from the Ruth Bancroft Garden -- Laying out a design -- Plants for a lush resilient garden -- Lush dry gardening in containers and small spaces -- Laying the foundation for a resilient garden -- Taking risks for big rewards -- Drama and texture on the California Riviera -- Mid-century minimalism -- Densely layered horticultural oasis -- A beautiful adjustment -- Finding joy in experimentation -- Coastal and carefree -- The serial collector -- Dynamic and deer resistant -- Laboratory of love -- Mimicking nature -- Year-round rhythm and texture -- Mounding for interest -- Connecting to nature and beauty -- Hillside haven -- A glimpse of home -- The wilds of walnut creek

A must-have guide to dry garden design inspired by the legendary Ruth Bancroft Garden. The Ruth Bancroft Garden, known as one of the finest dry gardens in the world, is a pioneering example of resilient design with a focus on water conservation. Ruth Bancroft (1908-2017) was a self-taught gardener and designer whose eclectic methods encourage richly textured, bold, and colorful layers of regionally climate-appropriate flowers, shrubs, trees, and succulents. These include her favorite aloes, agaves, yuccas, and echeverias that she collected and experimented with for over 60 years, and which the garden has continued to steward. Designing the Lush Dry Garden is the first guide to lay out Ruth Bancroft's methods for the home gardener and designer. With gorgeous photographs by Caitlin Atkinson, and detailed portraits of 20 gardens inspired by the Garden, discover how to create a design that suits your vision, including: how to choose the right plants for your site, including Ruth's favorites, the appropriate methods for adapting your garden to climate change, advice on integrating paths and structures in a waterwise design, tips for low-water container gardens and designs