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The New York Times Style Magazine

The Louisville Courier-Journal

The Washington Post

New York Times Sunday Book Review

Entertainment Weekly

New York Times Home section

New York Observer

Charlotte Observer

The State (South Carolina)

Newsday (Long Island)

Life Magazine

Publishers Weekly

San Francisco Chronicle

St. Petersburg Times

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt

Bookpage

Library Journal

Katherine Whiteside, author of Classic Bulbs

National Garden

Booklist

Kirkus Reviews

Hudson Valley Magazine

The Rockland Review

The Rutland (Vt.) Herald

And more...

Booklist
It began innocently enough. Now that Alexander and his formerly city-dwelling family had a little bit of suburban property, why not plant some vegetables and put in a few fruit trees? After all, any costs involved would be more than offset by the joys of slicing fresh peaches on his morning cereal or drizzling virgin olive oil over juicy beefsteak tomatoes from his own plants, right? Not exactly. Recounting all of the things that could, and did, go wrong, from abandoned tractors to marauding groundhogs, and menacing handymen to ravaging beetles, Alexander wryly reveals how his well-intentioned experiment in backyard agriculture ended up being a lot more frustrating, not to mention expensive, than he envisioned. In this appealingly witty memoir of one man's battle with nature, Alexander weaves a cautionary tale for those who have ever tasted a grocery-store tomato and vowed to grow a better one in their own backyard — Carol Haggas