Planting the Seed: A Guide to Gardening

A book for readers willing to invest time and effort in planting outdoors. Winckler describes the relationship between climate and plants and explains why a gardener should think twice about trying to adapt a plant to one's backyard: "Forcing a plant to grow where it does not belong is like making penguins live in a tropical rain forest." An advocate for organic gardening, she explains the science of composting and sheds light on insects and reptiles that help or hurt gardens. Tangential topics such as heirloom plants selected to preserve particular traits and food banks that are sometimes beneficiaries of community gardens raise this title above the more prosaic ones. Color photos and drawings depict plants, tools, and insects. There is a mail-order list for seeds and supplies and a further reading list that's slanted toward mature gardeners.