Irrigation and water conservation are not new to La Jolla resident Richard Restuccia. But writing a book about them is.
Restuccia’s debut book, “Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need to Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard,” will be available nationwide starting Tuesday, March 11, including from Rizzoli’s online bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The 240-page work offers guidance on how much to water plants and when, as well as methods that work best.
As water becomes increasingly scarce and costly, Restuccia says he aims to help readers keep their plants looking beautiful while conserving critical resources.
One of his goals, he says, is to help people reduce the costs of plant replacements and water bills.
Restuccia is senior vice president of Husqvarna Group, a Swedish company that says it specializes in “innovative solutions for managing forests, parks and gardens,” including a solar-powered robotic lawnmower, as well as equipment and tools for the light construction and stone industries.
Restuccia’s experience in the “green” industry — irrigation, landscaping, water conservation and sustainability — spans decades. He earned a master’s degree in agricultural business operations from Arizona State University in 1985 and became a master gardener after completing classes through the University of California system in 2018.
Even when he is away from work, gardening plays a key role in his life.
“I work all day with landscapers or gardeners and I spend my weekend gardening; it’s pretty much a ion,” Restuccia said. “I’m spending all my days, pretty much, on the same thing.”
Though writing a book is a first for Restuccia, he has extensive writing and public speaking experience.
As director of water management solutions at ValleyCrest Cos. — now combined with The Brickman Group Ltd. to form BrightView — Restuccia launched a weekly blog regarding topics such as water conservation and sustainability. Beyond ValleyCrest, he took his blog writing and editing skills to several other companies.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began hosting webinars about irrigation, sustainability and conservation. Starting at two sessions a week, the meetings eventually scaled back to once a week and now are twice per month. Some 150,000 people have attended his webinars, which are recorded and later ed as a podcast.
Restuccia also provides training at community gardens, including The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon.
“We’ll talk about anything from something really practical — what it means when you get a valve short alert and how to fix that, vs. how to get your trees ready for spring, especially when you’re coming into a drought,” Restuccia said. “So you cover a lot of different topics.”
Restuccia said there is a strong need for education in the gardening community. Providing it, he added, is a rewarding experience.
Though much of his book came from his experience across several green industries, the final product spans multiple states and geographies, pushing him to dig deeper and conduct extensive research.
The idea to write a book came at the annual Garden Communicators International, or GardenComm, conference in 2023. Knowing there would be three or four editors in attendance, Restuccia went with a pitch to write about more effective and efficient gardening.
Two editors “really liked the idea” and set him on the two-year path of creating the book — one year for writing and another for editing.
“It took every bit of that amount to get it in the shape it is,” Restuccia said.
The weeks counting down to the book’s release have been a time of both anticipation and reflection, he said.
“People are going to critique it,” Restuccia said. “There will be people that say ‘This was a great book,’ others will say ‘I’m not too sure he knows what he’s talking about.’
“But at the same time, I’ve got a lot of years of experience and I think people will benefit from it.”
Paperback copies of “Waterwise Gardening” cost $29.95. To learn more or buy a copy, visit rizzoliusa.com/buy-online/9780847846894. ♦
