Beds I Have Known: Confessions of a Passionate Amateur Gardener - Hardcover

Smith, Martha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689120826 ISBN 13: 9780689120824

Publisher: Atheneum, 1990

Synopsis

Humorously depicts the triumphs and tribulations of an avid gardener, from planting her first seed to competing in her first flower show

About this title

Review:

Publishers Weekly calls Martha Smith "a sort of Erma Bombeck of the floral plot." Beds I Have Known reveals the hilarious side of gardening, including what it's like to be mistaken for Martha Stewart and what agricultural one-upsmanship is all about. The best chapters, though, are her funny, rather touching stories about gardening oddballs such as Antoinetta Goodwin, who planted marigolds in city traffic circles, and Martha's neighbor, John the Dahlia King. There's something self-revelatory about gardening, and Martha lets it all hang gloriously out.

Review:

"By mid-August of my first gardening year, when the entire office had been swamped by the floral deluge and I was reduced to putting bouquets on the desks of people I don't even particularly like, I began to feel like someone who had accessorized her clothing with a garlic necklace." This is how Martha Smith charms her readers for over 300 pages in her revised and expanded 1990 edition of Beds I Have Known. Dubbed the Erma Bombeck of gardening, her writing is refreshing, funny and natural. So much humorous prose is forced like hothouse poinsettias, but Smith's words spring effortlessly as January crocus. A seedy cast of characters blooms with each chapter. We delight in their fragrance. The chapter titles warn us of the garden pests. "Peonies Envy...Canna Lily Kill Ya?...Don't Bug Me!" This enchanting organically diverse garden of words is seeded with photos and drawings. Smith gives us a bouquet to lighten the rooms in our heart. -- From Independent Publisher

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0689120826
• ISBN 13: 9780689120824
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144