Southern California Garden Expert
Award-winning author, Emmy Award-winning TV host, and celebrated San Diego garden designer
Garden Design in San Diego
Let’s bring your dream garden to life! As your San Diego garden designer, I carefully craft your garden to suit your needs, dreams, and desires. Each garden is designed to complement your property’s architecture, using plants that thrive in our region. While every garden is unique, all feature California native plants along with other Mediterranean-climate, drought tolerant plants that support pollinators and are absolutely beautiful.
A Growing Passion
Wherever you go, something grows. My Emmy Award-winning TV show takes you where things grow, from backyard gardens to urban farms and cut flower markets, algae ponds to food banks — even behind-the-scenes at the famous Rose Parade. Along the way, we meet the gardeners, growers, and experts that support our communities and protect our most precious resources.
Garden Talks & Presentations
Need a garden expert for your upcoming event? From home gardeners to professionals, I have talks, presentations, and workshops made for everyone. Choose from my in-depth catalog, or ask me to create a custom presentation that perfectly suits your groups or company’s needs.
Online Gardening Classes
I’ve spent years teaching Southern Californians how to be better gardeners. Now, I bring those lessons directly to you via online gardening courses at Nan Sterman’s Garden School. Stop guessing, start growing.
Garden Design at Balboa Park
See the garden I designed come to life inside Balboa Park’s famous Botanical Building. I designed this iconic garden as part of a three year-long renovation on the 13,000 sq ft building, originally built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. The building reopened in December 2024.
Garden Design
“I had a vision and Nan made it come true. Now it is a joy to return home! Nan continues to stay in contact, finding new plants as needed, patiently answering my questions about the garden, and even making visits!”
Gail Theilacker
Talks & Presentations
“Nan has been one of my go-to garden experts for many aspects of horticulture for years. It’s also why I asked Nan to host one of my masterclass presentations on Waterwise gardening in my Online Gardening Academy. Nan came through with flying colors, along with high praise from my discerning students.”
Joe Lamp’l, host of PBS’s “Growing a Greener World”
Online Gardening Classes
“I’ve enjoyed my best garden ever thanks to Nan Sterman’s great classes.”
Paul S.
