From Booklist For Vanderbilt， paradise exists in a well-placed perennial bed and rapture explodes on the garden center's opening day. In this lyrical， lovely paean to the delights and disappointments of a lifetime spent tending his garden， an Eden he has created in a suburban New Jersey backyard， Vanderbilt waxes nostalgic for bygone days of epic snowfalls and visits to green-thumbed grandparents， all the while anxiously anticipating next year's garden projects and zealously contemplating new plant purchases. Winsomely， wistfully， with acerbic wit and accumulated wisdom， Vanderbilt shares a jump-the-gun garden enthusiasm that eagerly spurs him to plant flats of annuals in defiance of May's last frost date， taking readers season by season through his garden reveries and activities until the day when he must stoically rip out the sodden foliage the year's first frost has inflicted on those very same plants. Gardeners have an almost preternatural sensitivity to the natural world around them， and Vanderbilt charmingly imparts his with a rhapsodic exuberance and poetic reverence for things keenly seen and deeply felt. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review Susie Coelho author of Susie Coelho's Everyday Styling and host of HGTV's Surprise Gardener Gardening in Eden is a must-read for any gardener， especially those just starting out， as it provides wonderful， poetic inspiration， as well as practical advice. This is a "curl up in a chair" read， and then you'll want to get out into the garden and get your hands dirty! See all Editorial Reviews