Just a thoroughly fascinating book that looks at Southern California’s historical reputation as a gardener’s paradise, the immigrants it has attracted—from inside and outside the U.S.—and how those migrants have shaped and been shaped by the act of tending plants there. Generations of first Japanese and then Latinos have staked their claim on the American dream by maintaining the fantasy yards of wealthier white home-owners, growing landscaping businesses and incidentally being blamed for the water-guzzling and gas-guzzling lawns seemingly necessary to make these homes the showpieces that maintain property values. On their own time, immigrants also take advantage of community gardens as places to reconnect with cultural food and medicinal traditions and their compadres. Community gardens can nurture their souls and renew neighborly ties. Finally, the authors looks at the Huntington’s Suzhou garden and how even immigrants can use elite landscapes to announce their arrival on the scene as philanthropic forces to be reckoned with. I won’t look at gardens the same way after reading this book.