The Modern California Garden

El Novillero, Sonoma County, 1947–8. This garden, usually illustrated with the famous free-form pool and sculpture by Adeline Kent is one of the most significant of the twentieth century. The native trees, retained and emphasized, provide shade for sitting near the house. Photograph by George Waters
The San Francisco landscape Garden Show, April 21 to 25, has as its theme this year California’s garden heritage. Michael Laurie here surveys the history of garden design in the state and the contribution to it of some prominent practitioners.
The modern California garden has been described as an informal outdoor living room filled with deck chairs, tables, and swings, social rather than horticultural. Similarities are often seen in the close relationship of the Islamic house to its garden and in the austere restraint and occult balance of the Japanese garden. But, as with all historical garden styles, the modern California garden was a response to its place, time, and people — that is, to climate and natural environment, to the state of the arts and sciences, to social structure, and to the lifestyles and prefere...