This inspiring, practical, science-based guide to creating beautiful, sustainable landscapes unpacks strategies for water conservation, soil health, biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and more. It empowers gardeners to design climate-resilient sanctuaries that will survive and thrive in a hotter, drier future.
Transform your Pacific Northwest landscape into a climate-resilient, ecologically rich, biodiverse sanctuary
This inspiring, practical, science-based guide is both a hopeful manifesto and a comprehensive roadmap to creating beautiful, sustainable, climate-resilient sanctuaries that will survive and thrive in a hotter, drier future.
Richly illustrated in full color, The Climate-Adapted Gardener features:
- Detailed strategies for water-wise gardening, building healthy soil, prioritizing native plants, and restoring habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife
- Specific techniques to reduce resource inputs through smart planting and maintenance, including species selection, seasonal timing, mulching, efficient irrigation, mycorrhizal partnerships, and more
- Firsthand insight into the response of vegetation to environmental stress, backed by field observations and data from documented extreme weather events
- Extensive profiles of selected conifers, broadleaf trees, shrubs, perennials, and other drought-resistant plant types that are ecologically suited to the Pacific Northwest and similar Mediterranean-type or seasonally dry regions.
Essential reading for home gardeners and professionals alike, this groundbreaking book reveals how the choices we make as land stewards in our own communities can ripple outward to address some of today's most pressing global challenges: biodiversity loss, water scarcity and pollution, food security, and a changing climate. It offers a clear, grounded vision of what's possible when we prioritize local knowledge, view landscapes as interconnected living systems, and design with long-term ecological resilience in mind.
Muu info
Co-op available Galleys available National advertising, print campaign, and excerpts:
Google, Facebook, Mother Earth News, Native Plant Society of British Columbia Journal, Garden Design, Pacific Horticulture Outreach to groups & organizations focused on climate, gardening, horticulture & landscape design in the Pacific Northwest Outreach to nurseries & native plant & horticultural societies Promotion on New Society Publishers' social media platforms Support the author during in-person and virtual events/workshops
promotion on author's website: https://vistagardens.org Audience: For home gardeners in the Pacific Northwest and other Mediterranean-climate regions, plus Master Gardeners, landscape designers, restoration specialists, native-plant advocates, environmental educators, municipal planners, sustainability professionals, garden clubs, and nursery staff
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Note to the Reader
Chapter 1: Water & Soil
Chapter 2: Plants
Chapter 3: Creating Climate-Resilient Gardens
Chapter 4: Impact of Heat and Drought on Plants
Chapter 5: Resilient Conifers
Chapter 6: Broadleaf Trees for Resilient Landscapes
Chapter 7: Evergreen and Deciduous Shrubs
Chapter 8: Perennials for a Changing Climate
Chapter 9: Adaptive Beauty
Epilogue
John J. Albers is an ecoPRO-certified Sustainable Landscape Professional, a former educator for the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association (WSNLA), and a Washington State University/Kitsap County Master Gardener. He founded and continues to steward Albers Vista Gardens, a 4-acre botanical garden which serves as a living laboratory for sustainable gardening practices, providing firsthand insight into plant resilience, soil health, and ecological function under climate stress. With a lifelong passion for horticulture, he integrates scientific knowledge with hands-on experience to guide gardeners toward resilient, ecologically responsible landscapes, sharing his expertise through writing, workshops, and public education. John is the author of Growing Conifers, The Northwest Garden Manifesto, and Gardening for Sustainability. He lives in Bremerton, Washington.
