steve harbour landscapes
Landscape Designer Steve Harbour Offers the best in affordable residential landscapes to San Diego County homeowners.
Books and Press
Steve Harbour confides he enjoys writing and photography nearly as much as landscape design. Here is a sampling of publications featuring his thoughts on gardening and garden design in San Diego and California.
Drought Tolerant Landscaping in the Golden State
The New California Landscapes: The Design Guidebook to the New Cutting-Edge, Water Wise Gardens in the Golden State. The book, released in 2016 and written specifically for California, provides a how-to, crash course in the design and development of drought-tolerant outdoor spaces. Creating these landscapes can be challenging, whether you’re a professional or amateur. We have all seen examples of xeric gardens that don’t work – barren moonscapes or uninviting thickets of shrubbery.
The New California Landscapes helps amateurs and professionals alike in designing and developing inviting landscapes that protect our natural resources while remaining artistically appealing. These aesthetic gardens are as practical as they are beautiful.
Steve began writing The New California Landscapes in 2006 when water-wise gardening was still relatively unknown , sensing that increasing droughts along with California’s growing population would soon drain our water reserves. It didn’t take a prophet with a divining rod to determine dramatic changes in water usage had to occur. Our landscapes have traditionally sucked up more than fifty percent of our residential water supply. For decades common sense has dictated that the change to conserving water had to begin outdoors.
The New California Landscapes helps amateurs and professionals alike in designing and developing inviting landscapes that protect our natural resources while remaining artistically appealing. These aesthetic gardens are as practical as they are beautiful.
Steve began writing The New California Landscapes in 2006 when water-wise gardening was still relatively unknown , sensing that increasing droughts along with California’s growing population would soon drain our water reserves. It didn’t take a prophet with a divining rod to determine dramatic changes in water usage had to occur. Our landscapes have traditionally sucked up more than fifty percent of our residential water supply. For decades common sense has dictated that the change to conserving water had to begin outdoors.
- To preview and purchase The New California Landscapes, go to: http://www.blurb.com/b/6583018-the-new-california-landscapes
Water-smart Gardening Features Fifteen of Steve Harbour's Waterwise Landscapes
Released in 2016, Water Smart Gardening by Diana Maranhao, also released in 2016 (Cool Springs Press), also embraced drought tolerant garden design and installation, not focusing just on California but throughout the United States. Fifteen of Steve's landscape gardens were captured in thirty photos in the book.
As Diana writes at the beginning of the book, "I want to acknowledge...for your tireless efforts in supplying images of your work of beautiful lanscapes that bring xeric garden design to new levels, Steve Harbour of Steve Harbour Landscapes.
Here is a little bit more about the reasoning behind the book, taken from a snippet of an article appearing on Diana after its release:
Does a switch to gardening water-smart require radical changes in our practices and in our landscape?
Diana: For some the changes may seem radical and daunting if they are new to conserving water in the landscape. Maybe they live and garden in a typically precipitation-rich environment, but find themselves in a short-term drought or facing rising water costs. The plants in high-rain/snowfall areas will have to adapt to less water and the homeowner faces the challenges in creating a new environment to help the plants do that. Some gardeners have made a design choice and cannot see how their tropical or formal garden can work as a water-efficient landscape without beginning anew and compromising their style. Homeowners may have inherited water guzzling landscapes that were planted long ago when water shortages were not a threat. In today’s world, they are facing serious water deficits issues, higher water prices and struggling landscapes.
As Diana writes at the beginning of the book, "I want to acknowledge...for your tireless efforts in supplying images of your work of beautiful lanscapes that bring xeric garden design to new levels, Steve Harbour of Steve Harbour Landscapes.
Here is a little bit more about the reasoning behind the book, taken from a snippet of an article appearing on Diana after its release:
Does a switch to gardening water-smart require radical changes in our practices and in our landscape?
Diana: For some the changes may seem radical and daunting if they are new to conserving water in the landscape. Maybe they live and garden in a typically precipitation-rich environment, but find themselves in a short-term drought or facing rising water costs. The plants in high-rain/snowfall areas will have to adapt to less water and the homeowner faces the challenges in creating a new environment to help the plants do that. Some gardeners have made a design choice and cannot see how their tropical or formal garden can work as a water-efficient landscape without beginning anew and compromising their style. Homeowners may have inherited water guzzling landscapes that were planted long ago when water shortages were not a threat. In today’s world, they are facing serious water deficits issues, higher water prices and struggling landscapes.
Plantsman: Recollections of a Year in the Life of the Garden Designer
Published in 2006, Steve writes a narrative about a year of landscaping and gardening, taking a mostly light-hearted look at the travails of a professional landscape designer at work in designing landscapes and at play in his own garden.
Plantsman reads like a good travel narrative while offering pages of expert gardening advice.
As one reviewer wrote after reading the book: "Gardening guru Steve Harbour's account of a year in the life of a garden designer springs from fertile ground as the seasons unfold. With an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and an artist's eye for design and detail, Harbour escorts the reader on a grand tour of landscape masterpieces in the making as the year buds and then blooms. Harbour's humor and humanity color his perspective as he moves through an impressive array of garden projects. the author recounts his adventures in a wry, insightful and moving style.
"For the green-thumbed aficionado or the aspiring beginner, Harbour's gentle and well-conceived guide traces the impulse to create and coax order and beauty from the world around us. Along the way we witness the wonder and beauty of a life lived among a landscape of the author's own making. It is a journey too important to miss. A deep-rooted and flourishing floral find."
Check back for new and upcoming publications and photo work to soon be released by Steve Harbour.
Plantsman reads like a good travel narrative while offering pages of expert gardening advice.
As one reviewer wrote after reading the book: "Gardening guru Steve Harbour's account of a year in the life of a garden designer springs from fertile ground as the seasons unfold. With an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and an artist's eye for design and detail, Harbour escorts the reader on a grand tour of landscape masterpieces in the making as the year buds and then blooms. Harbour's humor and humanity color his perspective as he moves through an impressive array of garden projects. the author recounts his adventures in a wry, insightful and moving style.
"For the green-thumbed aficionado or the aspiring beginner, Harbour's gentle and well-conceived guide traces the impulse to create and coax order and beauty from the world around us. Along the way we witness the wonder and beauty of a life lived among a landscape of the author's own making. It is a journey too important to miss. A deep-rooted and flourishing floral find."
Check back for new and upcoming publications and photo work to soon be released by Steve Harbour.