Leslie will teach hands on aesthetic pruning, with the help of two volunteers, and show how easy it is to learn basics of natural pruning. Contact El Cerrito Garden Club for details about their fascinating monthly lecture series held in the spacious Albany Community Center: http://www.elcerritogardenclub.org/program.html .

This is a private event for the wonderful docents of the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and is listed for their reference. My talk will focus on Japanese garden design principles that influence California gardens, with peeks into Kyoto private home gardens, monastery landscapes, an an Emperor's estate.

Cutting Back allows readers to feel what its like to walk inside the gardens of Japan over the course of three seasons, working alongside traditional garden craftsmen, learning from them how to balance seriousness with humor, and technique with heart. Cutting Back has recently been translated into Chinese and is available on order from your local bookstore, or where ever books are sold. Please contact the https://www.sfbg.org/volunteer for information on how to volunteer or become a docent!

This is a private event for the Kusamura Bonsai Club of Palo Alto and friends. This slideshow will focus on the role of bonsai and bonsai artists in the memoir Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto. Included will be bonsai heroes/masters; Mas Imazumi, Dennis Makishima, Golden State Bonsai Garden, some of Imazumi’s private landscape accounts, and of course plenty of photos from the Japanese gardens of Kyoto featured in NYTimes reviewed, Cutting Back where I tell the story of my travels from California to Kyoto, eventually working in one of the most historic landscaping companies of Kyoto. Cutting back is sold on Amazon, in Chinese (ask) and if you order it from your local bookstore/library, others may also have a chance to discover it. Please visit https://www.kusamurabonsai.org for more information about this lecture.

Join me for a fun and easy virtual hands-on pruning workshop through the Chicago Botanic Garden. This Hands-On-Pruning class welcomes beginning and experienced pruners alike, and it has limited space so rsvp soon-( I also offering private virtual pruning classes!). You will learn basic natural pruning cuts, pruning design tricks and much more. Details on this talk can be found at: https://www.chicagobotanic.org/adult_education/horticulture/aesthetic_pruning_workshop_online . Please remember that this virtual Lecture is being held 1pm Chicago/11am California!

From your home, you will get to visit Kyoto gardens you’d rarely see even if visiting Japan. You will enter private landscapes, serene monasteries, and secret parts of an emperor’s estate. This visual talk is from my garden adventure in a Kyoto Landscape company, Uetoh Zoen, a journey I wrote about in my Kyoto garden memoir, “Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship In The Gardens Of Kyoto” that received New York Times and Kyoto Journal book reviews, in addition to being translated into Chinese. Details on this talk can be found at: https://www.chicagobotanic.org/adult_education/garden_design/secret_gardens_kyoto_online . For more information on how to purchase my garden memoir (fun to read before seeing the lecture so you recognize characters), hear podcast interviews or watch a Japanese garden design video visit my homepage. Please remember that this virtual Lecture is being held 6:30pm Chicago/4:30pm California!

Join me for a virtual walk into the gardens of Kyoto, meeting some of the highest skilled gardeners in the world personally as they study their craft. This Virtual lecture is hosted by the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as part of the 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden in Grand Rapids/Michigan. My talk will allow you to peek into the daily lives of the gardeners working in private homes, monasteries, and an Imperial Palace—the actual scenes that became my NYTimes reviewed garden adventure memoir, “Cutting Back.” Details on this talk can be found at: https://www.meijergardens.org/calendar/virtual-lecture-with-leslie-buck/ . Copies of “Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto,” can be purchased now at the Meijer Gardens Gift Shop. Please remember that this virtual Lecture is being held 6pm Michigan/3pm California!

I’m so excited to present my first ever virtual hands-on pruning workshop through the beautiful and educationally focused Helen Devos Japanese Garden in Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as part of their special 5th Anniversary Celebration. This fun Hands-On-Pruning class welcomes beginning and experienced pruners, and has limited space so rsvp soon-( I also offering private virtual pruning classes!). You will learn basic natural pruning cuts, pruning design tricks and much more. Details on this talk can be found at: https://www.meijergardens.org/calendar/virtual-class-pruning-workshop/ . Copies of “Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto,” can be purchased at the Meijer Gardens Gift Shop. Please remember that this virtual Workshop is being held 6pm Michigan/3pm California!

This is a presentation for the Happy Valley Garden Club of Lafayette where I will show photos from the gardens of Kyoto I write about in my memoir “Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto” from Spring all the way through Winter. Warm clothing not required but a love of natural gardens a plus. Autographed copies of “Cutting Back” will be sold at the event, in addition to hand-sketched bookplates/bookmarks for yourself/garden-loving friends. Please contact Happy Valley Garden Club of Lafayette for more information.

This is a private event for the East Bay Garden Club and is listed for the benefit of members. This slideshow will focus on natural garden design principles I learned while on my “Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto,” adventure and how to apply some of these ideas to our nature-inspired gardens. Autographed copies of “Cutting Back” will be sold at the event, in addition to hand-sketched bookplates/bookmarks for yourself/garden-loving friends. Please contact East Bay Garden Club for more information.

This slideshow hosted by Delta Informal Gardeners of Brentwood is open to the public, especially those curious about this active club, so join me in a visual tour of Kyoto gardens you’d rarely see in Japan. Through my slides and a few readings from “Cutting Back” you will enter private home landscapes of Kyoto, interact with monks in serene monastery gardens, and hear birds and frogs living in an emperor’s estate—all from the viewpoint of Japanese garden craftsmen who work inside the prestigious Kyoto Landscape company, Uetoh Zoen.

Signed copies of Cutting Back will be available after the tour!

Free and open to the public

To contact DIG: https://www.facebook.com/BrentwoodDIG

A special member’s only event for the Japanese Garden Society UK with hands-on pruning, a reading or two from Cutting Back, and of course, tea.

This event is open only to members of Japanese Garden Society UK

For more information on JGS: website: https://www.jgs.org.uk / inquiries: enquiries@jgs.org.uk

For this RESERVATION ONLY event, I will be demonstrating the basics of pruning maples and doing a reading or two of “Cutting Back.” Bring your shears and you may be the one volunteer hands-on student chosen! Maples are known for their rapid, reactive growth in the SF Bay Area, I like to call them “the teen-agers of the garden.” Come see how to discourage rebellion, and encourage beautiful development in your garden.

Berkeley Horticulture will be selling “Cutting Back” and plenty of Maples after this event, including the Acer “Yuki Nara”, named after my pruning friend who was one of the editors of my memoir, and a good friend! I will be signing copies of “Cutting Back” after 12:30, and will stick around for another hour to answer extra Maple questions (if you bring a lunch snack—long questions will be forthcoming).

Note: To RESERVE FOR THIS EVENT contact: https://berkeleyhort.com 

Did you know that the majority of Japanese gardens are native? That most are not sheared, but highly natural looking? Would you like your garden to have four-season beauty, rather than only Spring flowers? Join me for an delightful visual journey as I show photos from secret gardens of Kyoto. I will read from my best-selling garden memoir, Cutting Back—My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto, for a glimpse of Kyoto craftsmen who are often as obsessed about natives as we are! I’ll also to teach you natural landscaping tricks so your gardens can evoke scenes from wild California nature. 

This event is free and open to the public through the Monterey Chapter of California Native Plant Society!

For more information: https://chapters.cnps.org/montereybay/  

The Merritt College Pruning Club, a volunteer pruning organization (where beginning to advanced pruners can join to learn or teach pruning) is hosting this event at the Cal Sailing Club where we will be pruning two Pines, one small (4’) which is detailed and one larger (12’) which is styled like a waterfall! Join us if you are interested in learning Pine Pruning. We meet with pruning shears and small pruning saws in hand in front of Cal Sailing Club at 124 University Avenue at the Berkeley Marina. Bring lunch and sit on the club house bench at the end of this event and enjoy the view!

This event is free and open to the public. I may have one or two copies of “Cutting Back” on hand, but if you want a previously purchased copy of “Cutting Back” signed then drop by! (for sell at https://www.mrsdalloways.com or where ever books are sold)

For more information on the Merritt College Pruning Club: Merritt College Pruning Club

For more information on the Cal Sailing Club: https://www.cal-sailing.org 

My reading and slideshow for Hoe and Hope Garden Club is a private event. I am referencing here for benefit of members! Please see below for more public events!

Note: Members only event.

I will show images and tell new stories from my New York Time's reviewed memoir: Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto. You will see the garden where an earthquake shook handmade wooden shutters of a Japanese private home which open up to a tea room, meet my garden crew as we clean towering maples of a geishas’ garden, and finally witness the dangerous shearing of ancient shrubs with razor sharp scythes in one of Kyoto’s most famous imperial estates. Join me for this delightful evening of sights and stories from the gardens of Kyoto! Since this slideshow takes place in the En Gallery, come early and see the beautiful Chinese brush paintings of Suemae Lin Willhite—I may even show a few slides of China’s rural nature from my last trip down Yangtze River since Cutting Back has recently been translated into Chinese by Yuan-liou Publishing Co. with delightful illustrations by Shana Chi!

Signed copies of Cutting Back will be available after the tour!

For more information contact Storrier Sterns Japanese Garden: http://japanesegardenpasadena.com 

From your seat in Los Angeles, you will get to take a visual tour of Kyoto gardens you’d rarely see in Japan. You will enter private landscapes, serene monasteries, and parts of an emperor’s estate from the viewpoint of Japanese garden craftsmen who work inside the prestigious Kyoto Landscape company, Uetoh Zoen.

Signed copies of Cutting Back will be available after the tour!

For more information contact The Japan Foundation: https://www.jflalc.org 

Jan 20th (note date change on my appearance page from Feb 17th!)

You will get a peek into my three seasons working with traditional garden craftsmen from one of the oldest landscaping companies in Japan. There will be a slideshow presentation of my daily work routine with the talented and dedicated apprentices from Uetoh Zoen in the gardens of Kyoto (private homes, monasteries and an imperial garden), with some stories about Black Pines similar to the ones in the Friendship Garden of Shoseian.

A delicious bowl of matcha tea in included with this talk with a $20 per person donation.

Signed copies of Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto will be available after the show!

For more information contact Shoseian Tea House: https://shoseianteahouse.com and https://www.facebook.com/friendsofshoseian/ .

A photographic exploration of the gardens in Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto for the Garden Club of Palo Alto

For info: http://www.gardenclubofpaloalto.org

Note: members only event.

See how the Japanese design with local plants to create some of the most natural looking gardens in the world. I will pull from my memoir, Cutting Back—My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto, to illustrate how the Japanese use native plants to evoke the wild Japanese landscape, and also tricks Japanese garden craftsmen use to design with native plants over time. I will present images of Kyoto gardens in historic buildings, monasteries, private homes and an emperor’s villa. http://www.cruzcnps.org 

Free and open to the Public

Want to learn Calif. native plant pruning basics? I will be doing a hands-on pruning demonstration and a few readings from "Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship In The Gardens Of Kyoto" in SF Golden Gate Park! The California Native Plant Society-SF Yerba Buena Chapter will be hosting this class in the SF County Fair Building at their monthly meeting. I am passionate about Ca. Natives so this will be an exciting evening. I'll have "Cutting Back" garden memoir for sale, but you can also bring pre-purchased books (ordered from local bookstores/Amazon or where ever books are sold) for me to sign if you wish. For more info see: http://cnps-yerbabuena.org/calendar/meetings/.

Free and open to the public

As part of the huge annual Bring Back the Native Garden Tour, take a peek at Leslie's home gardens, designed almost exclusively with California native plants, one using traditional Japanese garden design philosophy. Leslie designed her front landscape with mostly drought-tolerant, "tropical looking natives" to accompany an existing century old Canary Island Date Palm and give the neighborhood year 'round flower power. Leslie created the private landscape behind her house using an exclusive native plant palate to allow viewers a feeling of stepping into a natural environment as seen in the gardens of Japan-in this case "a campground on the edge of the forest." Marshmallows for roasting on the campfire, sketching and poetry table for creative visitors and plenty of sitting areas available during this multi-garden tour. Leslie will be selling and signing copies of her New York Times reviewed Japanese garden memoir, Cutting Back. 

For reservations go to: www.bringingbackthenatives.net
Facebook: Visit the Garden Tour on Facebook

Want to learn Calif. native plant pruning basics? I will be doing a hands-on pruning demonstration and a few readings from "Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship In The Gardens Of Kyoto" for the California Native Plant Society-East Bay Chapter. I am passionate about Ca. Natives so this will be an exciting evening. For more info: ebcnps.org 

Free and open to public

 "Secret Gardens Of Kyoto" --a photographic presentation of Cutting Back, with some tips from the garden craftsmen of Kyoto, for the Montelindo Garden Club. For Info:  http://montelindogarden.com. Location is St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 66 St. Stephens Drive, Orinda, CA

(also link: "map")

CHANGE: THIS EVENT IS FREE and men and the general public is encouraged to attend!

Join me for a lecture at the Portland Japanese Garden on a late winter afternoon. I will show images of my Japanese garden journey from the New York Time's reviewed garden memoir: Cutting Back-My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto.  Exact time and title to be announced soon! The Portland Japanese garden in Winter will surely be exquisite with the lines and forms of the garden's deciduous plants exposed. 

A photographic exploration of the gardens in Cutting Back for the Hillside Gardeners of Montclair.

For info: http://hillsidegardeners.com/Hillside_Gardeners_of_Montclair/Home.html 

Note: members only event.

An aesthetic pruning demonstration for the Livermore Amadore Valley Garden Club.

For info:  http://www.lavgc.org. 

Note: member only event. 

Take a self-guided tour of some spectacular private home gardens in the East Bay Hills-a fundraiser for the Aesthetic Pruners Association. Featured will be one of Leslie's gardens, the Mitchell Japanese home and garden, in the Oakland hills landscaped by Shigiru Namba (builder/designer for Larry Ellison's garden in Woodside)and pruned/designed by Leslie over twenty years. This is a true, sukiya living environment, with both home and garden built by Japanese craftsmen and maintained with care. Leslie will be available in person for questions and to sign copies of her memoir. Pruning demos and opportunity to talk to the long-term designers of these gardens part of tour. Perhaps have a quick sandwhich at  https://www.fourneebakery.com or sit-down lunch at http://www.rickandanns.com and make a delicious day of it? Join this tour to see some beautifully pruned gardens-full of ideas. 

To purchase tickets and more information go to APA website: http://aestheticpruners.org/Aesthetic_Pruners_Association/2017_APA_Garden_Tour.html

Reserve soon, these tickets normally sell out 

“One of the most anticipated literary nights of the year, San Francisco's Lit Crawl attracts close to 10,000 people, and is the world’s largest such event.”

Leslie will be doing a reading at Lit Crawl (closing night of Lit Quake's 18th season) along with several other fascinating food and travel writers sponsored by Afar Travel Magazine. This event is first come first serve, so show up early.  https://litcrawlsanfrancisco2017.sched.com/event/BiN7/afar-magazine-presents   

“Tales of adventure, discovery, and other magical things that happen when we leave home.”—AFAR Magazine Lit Crawl

Other Lit Quake literary events October 6-14 at http://www.litquake.org or  #wordsmatter

Free and open to public.