One of our finest writers on one of her greatest loves. Jamaica Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, to the consternation of more experienced friends, she planted only seeds of the flowers she liked best. In My Garden (Book) she gathers all she loves about gardening and plants, and examines it generously, passionately, and with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination. Kincaid's affections are matched in intensity only by her dislikes. She loves spring and summer but cannot bring herself to love winter, for it hides the garden. She adores the rhododendron Jane Grant, and appreciates ordinary Blue Lake string beans, but abhors the Asiatic lily. The sources of her inspiration -- seed catalogues, the gardener Gertrude Jekyll, gardens like Monet's at Giverny -- are subjected to intense scrutiny. She also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up. My Garden (Book) is an intimate, playful, and penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, and the persons who tend them.

The girl in this book grows chocolate rabbits, tomatoes as big as beach balls, flowers that change color, and seashells in her garden. How does your garden grow?

Welcome the outdoors inside for story time with this classic tale of a garden changing through the seasons. A young girl and her older companion watch birds, fly a kite, plant flowers, and play in the snow, watching flowers bloom and leaves fall as the year passes. This quiet story celebrates the simple joys found close to home, and the importance of sharing those experiences with the ones you love. A perfect story time pick for any season, In My Garden explores the natural marvels of the world around us and encourages young readers to think about what they love best throughout the year. Written by picture book master Charlotte Zolotow and originally published in 1960, this elegant reimagining of In My Garden features all-new illustrations by accomplished author-illustrator Philip Stead. His delicate illustrations and gentle, colorful palette bring new life and meaning to this classic tale-- a beautiful tribute to the experience of childhood, and a thank you to a master storyteller.

Start with a single rose. Add hollyhocks and marigold, sunflowers and zinnias. VoilÀ! A quiet, tranquil, beautiful garden grows before your eyes. But who's that hiding in the corner? This cumulative story by the creators of On Market street, which won a Caldecott Honor Book Award, is sure to be a perennial favorite with youngsters -- and gardeners -- everywhere.

In Seasons in My Garden, award-winning writer Sr. Elizabeth Wagner reveals how tending to a garden in her Maine hermitage brought her to a deeper understanding of what it means to have faith, love others, and hope in the mercy of God. Her keen eye for the most intricate details of nature will help you find a path that brings you closer to God as well. Sr. Elizabeth Wagner believed God was calling her into deeper contemplation, so she built a hermitage in the Maine wilderness in order to ponder nature and become closer to God. Seasons in My Garden is a thought-provoking series of meditations, written as Sr. Wagner watched her own monastic garden progress through the seasons. Her reflections invite you to look over her shoulder as she tends to her beautiful garden and meditates on the mysteries of God’s creation and how it corresponds with her own life. In this captivating book, you will relate to Sr. Wagner as she struggles with feelings of a cold heart—just as her garden lay frozen under a foot of snow—and realizing that God was working to renew her spirit. As sudden storms threatened to destroy her hard work, Sr. Wagner will help you understand that careful preparation of the soul will help you resist the temptation to resent others. Seasons in My Garden intricately weaves insights from Sr. Wagner’s own growth through the seasons with spiritual guidance and an understanding that patient tending to your soul will help you grow into a beautiful garden that God can use to reflect his glory.

garden environment

Christopher Lloyd has been writing a weekly column in Country Life since 1963 and, until now, this wealth of gardern literature has been denied to a wider public. There are many garden writers, but few whose work can be considered to have the status of literature. There is only one who has achieved this at the same time as delivering horticultural information which enlightens even the most erudite of plantsmen, and that is Christopher Lloyd. His prose is exciting; his knowledge is vast; his ideas are provocative, and what is the true test of a writer who has transcended his medium, he makes you laugh out loud. In this selection from the storehouse of Christopher Lloyd's prose it will be apparent to what a high degree he has influenced gardening in our times. The book will capture the essence of Christopher Lloyd and of his garden at Great Dixter.

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”—a chrysalis—changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers.Fountas & Pinnell Level O This is my busy green garden. There’s a surprise In clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden. This is a ladybug dawdling so, Near the surprise, in clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden. This is a honeybee buzzing below The red spotted ladybug dawdling so, Near the surprise, in clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden.

Children can make their own beautiful pop-up book using this imaginative kit, a little glue, and following simple step-by-step instructions. The result is a series of magical gardens--French, Japanese, Arabian, tropical, and dreamlike--through which a mysterious tiger wanders.

The year round in a garden with a variety of animals.