Michael Pollan

The author of The Botany of Desire draws on his gardening experiences to explore attitudes toward nature and wilderness, environmental questions, and what gardening teaches about the borders between nature and culture. Reprint.

A Gardener's Education

Second Nature

Chris Dailey

Less of a how to garden and more of series of vignettes or love letters to the many tasks and subjects faced by those attempting to grow flora in their yards. As much for the accomplished as it is for the amateur, the book covers roses, the lawn, trees, weeds, green thumbs and many more topics through the lens of history, sociology, anthropology and biology. At times thoroughly engaging, though it can drag on at others, the text holds your attention throughout and should be required reading for anyone interested in growing a garden.

Joy Bush

I love Michael Pollan so this was a fairly easy read. It just was not the type of gardening book I thought it was going to be. Most of it was philosophical and I have no use for that type of stuff.

The only important info I gleaned from this book personally is......

I hate typical suburban lawns
Lawns/grass in general is pretty useless
Hybrid flowers suck, old world antique roses over hybrids
Heirloom seeds, save your own seeds, seed trade with other ppl is the way to go
A long list of seed catalogs and what makes each one different in flavor and which ones align with myself and I cant wait for them to get here in 6-8 weeks!
I am redesigning my whole front yard to go against the grain, be unique, and a big thumbbing to the typical american yard.

Pierre

William Buller

“One of the distinguished gardening books of our time,” from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (USA Today). Chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the 75 greatest books ever written about gardening After Michael Pollan bought an old Connecticut dairy farm, he planted a garden and attempted to follow Thoreau’s example: do not impose your will upon the wilderness, the woodchucks, or the weeds. That ethic did not, of course, work. But neither did pesticides or firebombing the woodchuck burrow. So Michael Pollan began to think about the troubled borders between nature and contemporary life. The result is a funny, profound, and beautifully written book in the finest tradition of American nature writing. It inspires thoughts on the war of the roses; sex and class conflict in the garden; virtuous composting; the American lawn; seed catalogs, and the politics of planting a tree. A blend of meditation, autobiography, and social history, Second Nature, from the renowned author of The Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food, and other bestsellers, is “as delicious a meditation on one man’s relationship with the Earth as any you are likely to come upon” (The New York Times Book Review). “Usually when Americans have wanted to explore their relationship to nature they’ve gone to the wilderness, or the woods. Michael Pollan went to the garden instead . . . and he’s returned with a quirky and pleasing book.” —Annie Dillard “A joy to read.” —Los Angeles Times

Second Nature A Gardener's Education

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