Rather than pruning plants into abstract forms, learn how the Japanese design with local plants to create some of the most natural-looking gardens in the world. The lecturer will pull from her memoir, Cutting Back—My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto, to illustrate how the Japanese use primarily a native plant palette, how the gardens of Japan evoke the wild landscape, and the tricks Japanese garden craftsmen use to design with native plants over time. She will show images of Kyoto gardens in historic buildings, monasteries, private homes and an emperor’s villa.

Leslie Buck is a garden designer and aesthetic pruner, who specializes in natural design in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has over two decades of gardening experience and a fine art degree from U.C. Berkeley and the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts in France. In 2000, Leslie studied with Uetoh Zoen, one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed landscape companies in Japan. Her book will be available for sale and signing that night.