This represents a sub-genre that I am inordinately fond of: the very personal memoir of a gardener. It's 180 degrees away from manuals about grafting and ph levels, and thank God for that. If you want practical information, there are better books--but if you want to emphasis with a gardener who will soon feel like a friend, this is one of the better ones. And no villains! (One such memoir, which will go unnamed, made me want to murder the gardener's husband. Not so here.) ( )