By Thad Orr & Mike Lucas

Architectural Gardens: Inside the Landscapes of Lucas & Lucas is a portfolio of lushly illustrated landscapes in California wine country - each project a lesson in the alchemy of garden design. Digging deeper than the typical monograph, each of the ten projects by Lucas and Lucas in Architectural Gardens includes a design narrative, detailed captions, site plan, top ten plant list, and design lessons that readers can apply to their own gardens. It also includes a roundup of the firm's favourite plants best suited to different types of properties (woodland settings, traditional estates, and country retreats, for example) and employed for different purposes (such as screening, drought tolerance, punch of colour, fast growth).