Crazy About Gardening: Reflections on the Sweet Seductions of a Garden

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Anyone who can sympathize with a full-blown case of fusarium wilt or
blossom end rot will relate well to this book.

As the title implies, there exists in Canada a group of people who see
nothing unusual in talking to their zucchini, who think compost is a
thing of beauty, and who stay awake at night plotting ways to find a
good home for some surplus iris rhizomes.

For the horticulturally challenged, this obsession with gardening seems
excessive. With wit and a seductive manipulation of style, the author
helps us understand that the gardener possessed is helpless in the face
of the garden’s all-powerful allure. Think twice before you decide to
prune that old snowball bush or plant a few tomato seedlings: you, too,
could become a gardening addict, living a life ruled by a hardiness zone
map, at the mercy of the latest seed catalogue.

Kennedy’s light, whimsical touch makes this collection of essays and
musings a delightful read. His humor comes from both gentle exaggeration
and a master’s finesse in handling understatement. A little satire,
watered with empathy and tamped down with first-hand experience, means
readers can enjoy seeing their own gardening craziness held up to the
mirror without feeling laughed at.