Sunset Magazine Contributions to Western Gardening

In 2008, I had the opportunity to interview a former Sunset writer who worked at the magazine in the 1960s. Charles (Chuck) Konigsberg has had a long career in landscape horticulture—as a writer, teacher, and landscaper. Chuck studied landscape horticulture at Cal Poly, then was hired by Sunset editor, Joe Williamson, to update the Sunset Pruning book in the early 1960s. Chuck worked at Sunset in Menlo Park for several years as a writer, and then moved into teaching. He taught landscape horticulture at Foothill College for over 30 years, and taught similar classes at Merritt College.

Chuck Konigsberg worked at Sunset magazine in the 1960s.

Based on our interview, we came up with a list of some of Sunset Magazine’s contributions to Western gardening:

• Modernized gardening – moved out of the realm of popular wisdom to scientific accuracy.
• Accurate plant names – insisted on accurate naming of plants (Joe Williamson, editor, hired a botanist).
• Sticklers for accuracy – writers sent articles to experts for review; cross checked facts.
• Promoted ecology – from 1970s to the present, have moved from old-style gardening (pesticides, lots of lawn, high water usage) to a more earth-friendly style.
• Promoted networking – encouraged networking between writers, landscapers, horticulturist, designers and experts in various fields.
• Regional publications – adapted information to regional climates where necessary.
• Promoted climate zones – moved to climate zones that reflected microclimates in the West, in addition to the USDA’s hardiness zones .