Some Gardening References for the curious Rockridge gardener:

by James K. Sayre

This is a short list with some notes:

The Rockridge district of Oakland is classed by the USDA as being in Zone 10 (with minimum temperatures ranging between 30 F and 40 F). The Sunset Western Garden Book puts the Rockridge district in their Zone 17.

References:

The Sunset Western Garden Book - this is a comprehensive gardening guide for the west coast of North America, also now including Hawai'i. [Brenzel, Kathleen Norris, Editor, Sunset Western Garden Book, 2001. Menlo Park, California: Sunset Publishing Corporation.] Available in the Rockridge branch library.

The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is another comprehensive gardening guide for the United States. [Brickell, Christopher; Zuk, Judith D.; Editors-in-Chief, The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, 1996. New York: DK Publishing, Inc.]. It is available as a reference book in the Rockridge library.

The Manual of Cultivated Plants by L. H. Bailey is probably my favorite gardening reference. It is exhaustive in detail and was first published back in the 1930s, I believe. [Bailey, L. H., Manual of Cultivated Plants, 1949. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.]. It is available as a reference book in the Oakland main library.

The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch is another useful gardening guide. Although, it was written by a gardener who lives back East, it has much useful information for the Rockridge gardener. Barbara Damrosch was one of my former girlfriend's classmates at the Brearley School in New York City, so well, I just had to borrow the book from the library. [Damrosch, Barbara, The Garden Primer, 1988. New York: Workman Publishing]. Available in the Rockridge branch library.

The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California, although it is not directly aimed at gardeners, is also quite a valuable resource for the curious gardener. Thousands of species of plants from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere have become naturalized in coastal California. Many of them are what are commonly referred to as "weeds," while others are common garden plants. A very interesting reference. [Hickman, James C., Editor, The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. 1993. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.]. Available in the main Oakland library.

Golden Gate Gardening by Pam Pierce. This is an excellent guide to gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area. Available in the Rockridge branch library.

The How to Grow More Vegetables* (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains and other crops) book was written by John Jeavons, the founder of the Common Ground Ecology Action Center in Palo Alto some thirty years ago. Now he is based on a farm outside of Willets, California. His book is highly useful for the Rockridge home gardener. Available in the Rockridge branch library.

And of course, there is my book, Ancient Herbs and Modern Herbs: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to Medicinal Herbs, Human Ailments and Possible Herbal Remedies. It has thumbnail sketches of culinary herbs and medicinal herbs, many of which can be grown in Rockridge. [Sayre, James Kedzie, Ancient Herbs and Modern Herbs: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to Medicinal Herbs, Human Ailments and Possible Herbal Remedies, 2001. Foster City, CA: Bottlebrush Press].

End.

Bottlebrush Press has maintained its presence on the Internet since 1996.

Return to the home page of Bottlebrush Press: The homepage of Bottlebrush Press

This web page was recently created by James Sayre.

Author's Email: sayresayre@yahoo.com

Copyright 2005 by Bottlebrush Press. All Rights Reserved.

Web page last updated on 8 March 2005.