Before he became the tribune of a renewed psychedelic era, before he promulgated a perspective on the food system we live in that changed everything, Michael Pollan brought his cerebral and affably discursive style to bear on the subject of gardening. As I try to go from a novice gardener to the caretaking of a small plot of land, I enjoyed this account of his own journey. Pollan's writing is lucid and his thoughts informed by wide reading and reflection on the subject. It was his recounting of a battle with a woodchuck, read as an excerpt on a podcast, that led me to pick this up. I'm glad I did.