The Herb Gardener
A Guide for All Seasons

Susan McClure

Softbound

Regular Price: $21.95

Introductory Price: $19.95

When we lived in the Sierra Foothills, gardening at all was a huge challenge. Either you built 12ft high cages around your garden (very pricey, to say the least), or you nurtured your plants right up to just before harvest time when the deer would make a feast of them. After doing without a garden for some years, there came a time when I could bear it no longer, but still didn't have the money for the fencing needed for vegetable gardening.

Somewhere in there I realized that medicinal herbs were almost without exception plants that deer didn't like to eat. And so, my adventures with growing herbs began. I learned so much! Now, I t I always say the deer planted it for me. It was nice being able to watch the deer and enjoy their quiet ways without worrying about my garden, too.

Since that time, I have always had herbs in the garden, though now I tend more toward the tastier culinary herbs since deer are no longer our constant companions. I've been looking for as many years for at least one book to share with you that would convey some of the joy I have found among the "useful plants" - my beloved herbs. It is only now that I can say I have found it.

Susan McClure's beautiful book, The Herb Gardener, is a joyous journey through herb gardens in different parts of North America. She takes you through all four seasons, introduces you to hundreds of herbs and helps you get to know them as friends. Pretty much any sort of herb garden you could want, whether you live in a cold wet place or a dry hot one can be yours by following Susan's expert advice. She gives you recipes and craft ideas galore, too!! The photos will inspire you and guide you gently and I promise you will go to bed at night with visions of lavender and rosemary dancing in your head. Fragrently sweet dreams shall be yours!

May you discover the joy I have found among the herbs.

A Child's Garden
60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children

Molly Dannenmaier

Softbound

$19.95

It's clear that Molly Dannenmaier loves children and gardening with all her heart -- and has shared those loves with us in A Child's Garden, a heart-stoppingly beautiful, wonderful book.

I should be clear that this is not a book about gardening with children, but rather a banquet of ideas for creating gardens that invite children into the wonder and beauty of nature. Between its covers, she presents us with ideas for gardens large enough to encompass areas of parks and schools all the way down to postage stamp gardens and wee corners made to delight a child.

Among the hundreds of photos beckoning you into the realm of garden design are articles that invite us adults into the world as seen from the eyes of a child. In fact, her essays on the history of children's gardens and the nature of play could easily grace books on Waldorf education, so to-the-heart-of-the-matter are they.

Whether you are considering your window box, your back yard, or the landscape design for a school or community play area, A Child's Garden will breathe life, inspiration and lots and lots of warmth into your gardening and into children's lives. Simply wonderful!

Gardening with Young Children

Beatrys Lockie

Softbound

$27.00

I have personally been waiting for over 20 years for someone to write this beautiful book. It is a joy to see it and to recognize in it everything I've ever wanted to see on this topic placed between two covers.

Beatrys Lockie is a passionate organic gardener who taught in a Waldorf kindergarten for many years and found a seemingly unlimited number of ways to pass along to young children her enthusiasm for gardening. Anyone wanting to do the same will love this book as much as I do.

In fact, anyone wanting to learn to garden from a master will love this book, for she includes all the basics of gardening along with her ways of sharing it with our little ones.

And, if you already know how to garden, but want to learn how to work with young children, she shows you that, too. The first part of the book is like walking into her kindergarten where she quietly shows us the rhythms and ways of what is to me a sacred space wherein children can blossom.

Gardening with Young Children answers so many needs with so much love that it simply brings tears to my eyes to read it. I hope that it becomes the seed to many, many gardens that invite children into the world of nature.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots
Gardening Together with Children

Sharon Lovejoy

$13.95

In this high-spirited, biggest of all third book, Sharon Lovejoy presents 12 enthusiastic, easy-to-implement ideas for theme gardens that will have parents and children discovering more and more reasons to stay in the garden! Lovejoy's ideas, as always, are so alive with possibility that we bet you don't finish the book before you start a new garden. If you have access to land, check out the Zuni Waffle Garden, the Flowering Maze Garden. If you live in an apartment, the Buckets, Boxes and Boots Garden will make your heart sing. May every seed you plant, flourish; may every garden you dream spring to life!

Sunflower Houses
Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages

Sharon Lovejoy

$13.95

"Once you care about gardens, birds, bugs, and flowers," says author Sharon Lovejoy, "you will never have a boring day. Even the tiniest experience can seem like a miracle." As if this weren't reason enough to introduce children to the burgeoning life of a garden, Lovejoy has given us a book (actually, two books - you'll want to see her Hollyhock Days also) packed with all manner of simple pleasures and treats. Make clover chains, maple seed spectles, firefly lanterns. Have you ever checked your watch when the Four O'Clocks bloomed? Made a teepee from runner beans, morning glories or sunflowers? Hundreds more delights and diversions are gathered together in this book which will make gardening a joyous adventure for the young and the young-at-heart.

Results from the Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar

Maria Thun

Filled with beautiful full-color and black-and-white photos

Softbound

$30.00

When Bob owned and operated a Biodynamic truck farm, he made constant reference to this landmark work by Maria Thun (then only in German). He shared what he could of its contents with his friends who could not read German, and always hoped that someday there would be a translation into English, so that Thun's painstaking research could become better known.

This translation exceeds his hopes, for it is beautifully presented with many, many photographs that speak incontestably of the results that are possible when the guidelines in Thun's astronomically-based planting calendars are followed (and the perils that await those who ignore her experience-based advice!).

For those of you who are not yet familiar with Maria Thun's work, you are in for a wonderful surprise. For over forty years, she has been researching optimum days for sowing, pruning, and harvesting various plant crops. In this book are the results from this work, showing the influence of the rhythms of the Sun, Moon, and planets on plant growth.

The unavoidable conclusion from this research is that if farmers and gardeners link their work with these cosmic rhythms, the quality of their produce is markedly increased. Avoiding unsuitable days helps prevent crop damage caused by disease and pests. There are methods of fertilizing and spraying that Thun has developed using the principles of homeopathy. These will further enhance produce, allowing a sustainable and ecologically balanced agriculture.

Included are sections on the stars, the soil, composting, and manuring, weeds and pests, as well as growing cereals, vegetables, herbs, fruit and wine grapes.

The Biodynamic Year
Increasing yield, quality and flavour

100 helpful tips for the gardener or smallholder

Maria Thun

Compiled and edited by Angelika Throll-Keller

Hardbound

$32.00

In The Biodynamic Year, Maria Thun invites us all into her garden and takes us on a planter's journey through the year. At each point, she shows us how she thinks about her garden, and what she does to make it the verdent paradise that it is.

The book is organized in a one-tip-at-a-time fashion (thank you, Angelika Throll-Keller!), and in so doing, it is amazing the clarity that has been achieved. Between the hundreds of photos and clear drawings and Maria's text, I found that questions I'd been carrying for years about how or when exactly to do a variety of things were answered fully and completely.

A single reading of The Biodynamic Year has taught me more about gardening than any one book since my first reading of How to Grow More Vegetables way back in the 1970s. Needless to say, I will be going back again and again - it is one of those resources that, now that I have it, I never again want to be without. For that reason, I am also very grateful that the publisher chose to produce the book in a hard binding - I think it might well wear out if softbound.

Clearly, I can't recommend The Biodynamic Year highly enough. Combine it with Maria Thun's planting calendar (below), and your garden will grow as never before.

The Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2008

Maria & Matthias Thun

Softbound booklet - includes new pullout wall chart!

$13.95

This is the planting calendar Bob and I use and we just love it. Tucked into its modest pages is more pithy gardening informtion than you can shake a trowell at - including results of past years' experiements, times for various kitchen undertakings (bread, sauerkraut, etc.), field trial results, and color photo glimpses of the Thun's farm (very inspiring!). There's also star lore and an introduction to Maria's method of calculating dates. The new pull-out chart is a real help, as you can see six months planting guidelines at a glance (six months are on each side). Do keep your notes in the book, though - the chart is not really set up for notes.

If gardening is your passion, this is our pick for your calendar.

The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening

PLUS Foraging for Wild Plants in Spring, Planting by the Stars in Summer, Putting Food By in Fall, and Gardening with Children All Year Round

Ron Krupp
A Vermont Organic Gardener

Softbound

$16.95

The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening is a terrific introduction both to the art of gardening and to the wonder of the natural world. Ron Krupp is not only a master gardener, he is also a great storyteller - as a result, this really engaging book is not only packed with every technique or tip you may need to know to succeed in your own garden, it is also overflowing with historical lore, stories about different plants and anecdotal asides into the author's life. In other words, it's a great read as well as an outstanding guide.

Woodchuck's Guide is divided into the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter plus a special section on children and gardening. There are four appendices that augment the book with technical information and commentaries. And a glossary of common gardening terms shores up the back pages.

You'll love this book - I predict it will become one of the most worn-out books on your shelf, it's pages sporting the tell-tale garden-soil fingerprints of the enthusiastic tiller of the soil.

Bio-Dynamic Gardening
A How-To Guide

Joe Tooker

Lightfilled Productions - DVD Video

$19.95

This is a most welcome addition to the newly-expanding "how-to" literature on biodynamic gardening. This hour-long video features Joe Tooker, a master biodynamic gardener with over 25 years experience, explaining in at an easy and enjoyable pace how you can transform even the most unpromising setting into a beautiful, living and productive gardening. The biodynmic method rejuvenates the soil as it restores health to our Earth - and results in some of the best-tasting fruits and vegetables that will ever grace your table. This video offers an inspiring introduction to these methods and their results - so inspiring, you'll be inclined to get started the minute the tape comes to an end!

Companion Plants
and How to Use them

Helen Philbrick and Richard Gregg

Softbound

$18.95

Companion Plants was my first introduction many years ago (early 1970s) to what to me was "garden magic." When I came upon Philbrick and Gregg's little classic, I had never heard of companion planting and could find no one among my acquaintences who knew about it, either. And thus, my world in the garden opened up to include the relationships between various plants, and I came to stand back, amazed, at how very much differenct it really did make whether I planted Marigolds (Tagetes) among the tomatoes or onions around the borders of my vegetable beds.

I think this book went out of print sometime in the early 1980s and hadn't been heard from since save on the shelves of used book stores (if you were lucky). Happily, it is once again in print, to guide and astonish a whole new generation of gardeners. In it, you'll discover such a wealth of information that it really seems inexhaustible.

I should add that Companion Plants was the ground-breaking work that inspired Louise Riotte to make her own discoveries and record them for us in her books Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic - if books can be seen as seeds, then Companion Plants has one of the highest germination rates possible. But, I'll leave you to discover that for yourself.

Carrots Love Tomatoes
Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening

Louise Riotte

Softbound

$14.95

Louise Riotte first published Carrots Love Tomatoes in 1979 - and thus taught generations of gardeners how to see their gardens and the plants in them in a new way. Since then, Carrots Love Tomatoes has been revised, expanded, updated and has become even more widely known and beloved than ever.

Riotte's understanding of companion planting, and her practical experience with it exceeds anything else we have seen - including Philbrick and Gregg's Companion Plants and How to Use Them (which is prominently featured in her Biblography). Her familiarity with Biodynamics and Philbrick and Gregg's book simply leaps off the page just as her independent, deepened work with companion planting carries this work forward and has made it available and useful to many who have never heard of either of her predecessors.

I should add that we have used companion planting for years with great success and that Louise Riotte's book is both a rigorous resource and a delightful "read": she's warm, funny, and interesting in all kinds of ways. In fact, you may want to read it before you use it - once you put it in your garden shed (where, if you're like us, you'll go back to it time and again as you plant) it's likely that it will take on a patina of soil that will make it less than welcomed in your home.

Roses Love Garlic
Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers

Louise Riotte

Softbound

Regular Price: $14.95

Introductory Price: $13.95

Having covered the realm of companion planting with vegetables better than anyone else in Carrots Love Tomatoes (immediately above), Louise Riotte turns her attention to flowers - and all their friends and enemies, too. Her knowledge is deep and broad, her humor evident everywhere, and her experience and practicality are unequaled. Another gardener's treasure.

The Organic Lawn Care Manual
A Natural, Low-Maintenance System for a Beautiful, Safe Lawn

Paul Tukey

Hardbound

$29.95

Make your lawn a place where you're happy to see your children play! I am so impressed with Paul Tukey's beautiful book - it really does give simple and effective guidance for creating a child-friendly, pet-friendly, bird- and planet-friendly lawn. Many of the methods he mentions are one's we've used in different places and at different times - we can vouch for their effectiveness. Many others are new to us, but are so logically straightforward that we don't doubt for a minute they will work.

A real plus for those whose lives have them moving from place to place is that Tukey offers instructions, ideas and suggestions for different locales - everything from grass type to weeding strategies is related to basic climate and soil types found throughout North America. This is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of organic methods.

The Earth Moved
On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms

Amy Stewart

Softbound

$12.95

The most important lesson that gardening has taught both Bob and myself (separately and at different times and places) is that the only way to create vibrant, healthy soil is to make a good environment for earthworms. Everything else is theory - some of it good, even brilliant theory, but theory nonetheless. Earthworms are fact, and an ever-increasing population of earthworms in your garden is the only sure sign that fertility and vitality are increasing. Amy Stewart's book tells us why this is so as she sings the praises of those simple creatures who are perhaps the most helpful beings on our dear planet.

In witty, offbeat style, Amy Stewart takes us on a subterranean adventure and introduces us to our planet’s most important gatekeeper: the humble earthworm. It’s true that the earthworm is small, spineless, and blind, but its effect on the ecosystem is profound, moving Charles Darwin to devote his last years to studying its remarkable attributes and achievements.

With the august scientist as her inspiration, Stewart investigates the earthworm’s astonishing realm, talks to oligochaetologists who have devoted their lives to unearthing the complex web of life beneath our feet, and observes the thousands of worms in her own garden.

If you don't already love earthworms, after reading The Earth Moved, you'll not only discover a new-found warmth in your heart for these little creatures, but find that every time you see one, a desire to help it along its way will arise. And, as you'll by then know, there's no better way to help the Earth than by helping earthworms get on with their lives.

Planting the Future
Saving Our Medicinal Herbs

Edited by Rosemary Gladstar and Pamela Hirsch

$22.95

Planting the Future is the result of the collaboration of over 40 of the most respected herbalists practicing in the US. These members of United Plant Savers, an organization dedicated to preserving America's native medicinal plants, have focused their attention on endangered medicinal plants - resulting in this book which is as much an in-depth herbal as it is a cultivation guide. Actually, I am so overwhelmed with the deep level of research and experience, the clear writing and presentation, and the fact that the cultivation instructions may well enable both the survival of endangered wild species and the continued use of these effective gifts of nature that it is hard to find words to express the true greatness you will find in Planting the Future. If you like to garden, if you use herbs, if you love the world of plants, if you care about our planet - you will find an abundance of knowledge and insight to interest and inspire you in Planting the Future. Includes color photographs of all the medicinal herbs that are discussed.

Weeds and What They Tell

Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer

Softbound

$9.95

One of the most useful books for gardeners, one that has taught me again and again not only what my garden needs, but also how very wise nature herself is.

Pfeiffer's approach begins with the premise that nature really does know what she is doing, and that weeds grow where they are needed. By learning what each weed is offering to the soil, the discerning gardener or farmer can use organic matter and minerals to effect that same balance. The weed, no longer needed, will soon disappear from the cultivated area.

The added bonus of this little book is what you can learn about the nature of plantlife and the wonders of the world.

How to Grow More Vegetables*
*Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

6th Edition, Revised

John Jeavons

$19.95

About 20 years ago, the first edition of How to Grow More Vegetables became my guide to gardening. John Jeavons' approach, a combination of biodynamic, organic and French intensive techniques, led me to a lifelong love of plants and soil and building compost and harvesting. If you are new to gardening, How to Grow More Vegetables (5th edition) can do the same for you. If you are an old hand at the art, you can learn techniques that can double and triple your harvest while healing the Earth and leaving you with time enough to plan next year's garden as well!

The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields

John Jeavons and Carol Cox

Softbound

$11.95

From the author of the widely beloved How to Grow More Vegetables comes this concise and more focused introduction to biointensive gardening that shows it is not only possible but easy to grow astonishing crops of healthful organic vegetables and fruits, while conserving resources and actually helping the soil.

The Sustainable Vegetable Garden presents the basic principles of this gardening classic in concise, easy-to-understand terms accessible to even a beginning backyard gardener. You'll learn to view your garden as its own mini-ecosystem and to foster the soil's life-giving cycles of nourishment and replenishment. By using these Biointensive techniques and working in concert with the cycles of nature, you'll soon produce yields up to four times greater than are possible with conventional methods, and in a fraction of the space! More importantly, you'll be preserving and enriching for future generations one of our most precious resources: the soil itself. With this book at your side, you'll be part of the ecological solution, for sure!

Earth, Plant and Compost

William F. Brinton

Softbound

$13.95

A great little book! Everything you've ever wanted to know about composting - including HOW to do it! Well illustrated, too!

Topics include:

• General principles of composting
• Source ingredients for composting
• Composting methods
• Sheer or surface composting
• Evaluting compost quality
• Compost uses
• Compost mulching
• Composting for kitchens and family gardens
• Special composts
• Glossary of technical terms for compost and soil
• Compost and related bibliography
• Useful addresses - technical assistance

Compost
What it is - How it is made - What it does

H. H. Koepf

Softbound Booklet

$6.00

An early classic of biodynamic gardening and farming literature, Koepf's booklet is the most concise, jam-packed description of the art of creating soil fertility from refuse. All the information you need to successfully build your own compost piles is included in the 18 pages of Compost. Can't be beat for usefulness and economy!

Note: for those of you who are visual learners, please be aware that there are no pictures in Compost. If illustrations are important to you, you will be much happier with Earth, Plant and Compost, sold above.

What Is Biodynamics?
A Way to Heal and Revitalize the Earth

Rudolf Steiner

Seven Lectures and an introduction by Hugh J. Courtney

Softbound

$18.00

In 1924—in response to questions about the depletion of soils and a general deterioration of crops and livestock—Rudolf Steiner gave eight lectures on “the spiritual foundations for a renewal of agriculture.” Based on his suggestions and spiritual science, generations of farmers, gardeners, viticulturist, and researchers developed biodynamics as a healing, nurturing, holistic, ecological, organic, and spiritual approach to a sustainable care of the Earth.

Biodynamic methods consider the farm or garden to be a self-contained organism, embedded in the living landscape of the Earth, which is in turn part of a living, dynamic cosmos of vital, spiritual energies. The aim is to increase the health and vitality of the whole, including the farmer or gardener. The biodynamic practitioner follows an alchemical, transformative path of working with the Earth through the nine “homeopathic” preparations created by Steiner.

What Is Biodynamics? collects seven seminal lectures—four on developing a spiritual perception of nature and three from his Agriculture Course, dealing with the preparations. Hugh Courtney of the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics contributes an informative, passionate, and visionary introduction.

Whether you are concerned with the quality of agriculture and gardening in particular or have a broader interest in the ecological crises facing us today, this book offers a transformative approach that can truly change the way we live together on Earth.

Betwixt Heaven and Earth
A compendium of essays pertaining to the Earth as part of a Living Cosmos

Includes a supplement to Keats' Biodynamic Planting Calendars

Brian Keats

Softbound

$19.95

How does life on Earth relate to the starry heavens above us? And, what is biodynamics, anyway?

These are questions that Brian Keats answers throughout at every turn in Betwixt Heaven and Earth. In reading his observations, whether they were about planting cycles and the movements of the moon and stars, or whether his discussion of human nutrition surprisingly arrives at a discussion of cosmic nutrition, I found myself falling in love with our planet, our life and the magnificence of the Cosmos.

Further, although this is a pretty "far out" book by most standards, Keats never leaves the practical behind -- there are suggestions and practical suggestions for how we humans can learn to go with the flow of the cosmos, and wake up to a more vibrant, healthy life as we do it.

A really outstanding book! Highly recommended.

Agriculture

Rudolf Steiner

$17.50

This course is the founding impulse of biodynamic agriculture and gardening. In it, Steiner gave instructions and explanations for tending to the needs of the Earth in a way that weaves together the forces of our Living Earth, human beings, and the spiritual world. What can arise from working with these methods is a restored Earth and a bountiful harvest.
Steiner mentions the origins of this course, and to me they speak so eloquently of the role of the individual that I am including his account here:
"I must confess, however, that it was not easy for Count and Countess Keyserlingk to get this course off the ground. It had been promised for a long time, but I did not manage to get there until Count Keyserlingk's nephew came to the Christmas Conference in Dornach with strict instructions not to return home without a firm commitment from me to conduct the course within the next six months. So when this nephew, who has a knack for making the most unlikely things happen, showed up here under those auspices, he was so persuasive that I told him the course would take place at the first possible moment. This turned out to be a Whitsun. And so it was a lovely Whitsun celebration, a truly anthroposophical Whitsun festival."
Sometimes, simple determination can change the world.

Developing Biodynamic Agriculture
Reflections on Early Research

Adalbert Count Keyserlingk

Softbound

$16.00

There is a growing public concern over the safety of the food on our tables. As a result, there is a growing interest in organic farming and gardening. Biodynamic agriculture is an extension of hte organic approach that uses homepathic agricultural preparations to enrich the soil by working in harmony with cosmic and earthly forces.

Biodynamic agriculture was launched by Rudolf Steiner at a conference on the Koberwitz estate in Germany. Adalbert Count Keyserlingk, the son of the hosts, was present, and this book reflects his life-long absorption in biodynamic methods. It presents a wide range ofmaterial, including the count's personal experiences of Steiner at work, his reflections on practical research and experimentaiton, and descriptions of biodynamic preparations. More than anything else, this book conveys the enthusiasm and the power of initiative that arose from Rudolf Steiner's work to develop a method of farming that provides nutritious, safe food for the future.

Biodynamic Agriculture

Willy Schilthuis

$9.95

Biodynamic Agriculture is another outstanding introduction in the excellent "Rudolf Steiner's Ideas in Practice" series. It offers a concise and fully illustrated introduction to the principles and practice of biodynamic agriculture. Biodynamics is an internationally recognized approach to organic agriculture in which the farmer or gardener respects and works with the spiritual dimension of hte earth's environment, enabling the life processes and ecological interconnections of plants and animals to function at their best.

In a world where conventional agricultural methods severely threaten the environment, biodynamic farms and gardens are designed to have a sound ecological balance. Research reveals increasing evidence that biodynamic crops put down deeper roots, show strong resistance to disease and have better keeping qualities than conventionally produced crops.

Outstanding and highly recommended!

Secrets of the Soil
New Solutions for Restoring Our Planet

Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird

$19.95

Secrets of the Soil tells the fascinating story of the innovative, nontraditional, often surprising things that certain scientists, farmers, and mystics are doing to save our planet from self-destruction -- such as using the techniques of Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic agriculture with its reliance on ethereal forces from the planets, Dan Carlson's growth stimulating Sonic Bloom, and rock dust fertilizer to revitalize depleted soils. Secrets of the Soil devotes the bulk of its more than 400 pages to describing the techniques and results of biodynamic agriculture - complete with dozens of photographs. This is a wonderful resource and an ideal place to begin your own hands-on work toward restoring our planet.

70 Years A-Growing

Jean Westlake

Softbound

$26.00

70 Years A-Growing is the story of a magical life committed to organic and biodynamic gardening - it has truly been 70 years in the making!

Packed with practical gardening information, it is also an enticing autobiography. It follows the twists and turns of the Westlake family from developing the famous New Forest holiday center at Sandy Balls, Fordingbridge, England, to the accolade of having their produce recognised by both The Soil Associaiton and the Biodynamic Agricultural Association.

Full of delicious humor, intriguing stories, and written in the wider context of a fascinating life, it will leave you feeling like a member of the family - desperate to return home and catch up with old friends.

I found 70 Years A-Growing to be a great good read as well as a treasure chest of gardening tips - You'll have fun with this one!

Culture and Horticulture
A Philosophy of Gardening

Wolf D. Storl

Softbound

$17.50

This extensive book - over 400 pages long - was written as an introduction to gardening in its wider aspects, linking it to historical, philosophical and cosmological contexts, taking horticulture from the microscope to the wider cosmos. Surely such vistas are involved when one takes a shovel to hand to turn the soil: eons have formed it; life permeates it in manifold forms; cosmic cycles of sun and moon warm it, circulate water through it, lure out of it the season's vegetation; and human beings shape it according to their thinking, feeling and willing. We plant and husband it according to our cultural traditions, and find mental and physical sustenance through it. All this is gardening - and this book is a delicious, engaging way to discover these depths!