"What is gardening, after all, but stories?" asks Mike McGrath, former editor-in-chief of Organic Gardening Magazine and host of radio show "You Bet Your Garden."

In the writings collected in this book, the stories of gardening unfold in the full palette of color and character, of wild imagination and bone-wearying hard work, of fabulous growth and humbling failure. Filled with wit and warmth and a companionable engagement with the land in all its moods and seasons, this wonderful book will see any start-up gardener or seasoned veteran through the most riotous summer of growth or the coldest winter months of waiting and dreaming about what to plant next. Contributors include contemporary essayists Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature and Botany of Desire, Anna Pavord, author of The Tulip, Jamaica Kincaid, author of My Garden (Book), and Diane Ackerman, author of Cultivating Delight. In addition, renowned gardeners and designers—from Vita Sackville-West and Beverley Nichols to Ann Lovejoy and Tovah Martin—eloquently share their experiences “in the dirt” with humor and passion.

Botanical drawings, beautifully illustrated vintage seed catalogs, postcards, and photography by world-renowned gardening photographers Jerry Harpur, Jane Booth, and Richard Brown accompany the text.