CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments ix -- Introduction: The Zen of Gardening xi -- SECTION I HOW TO GROW A GARDENER in one short lifetime or less Symptoms of Garden FeverThumbs with a Tinge of Green 2 -- Lessons from America's Master Farmers When Gandhi Says "Go" 9 -- The Politics of Gardening Productive Gardens, Productive Lives 17 -- What Good Is a Garden? Decomposing Life's Struggles 21 -- Recipes for a Community Garden Neighborhoods, Skills, and Health 24 -- Botanical Archeology Gardening in the Present 31 -- SECTION II THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE reconnecting body and soil Building Soil in the Dead of Winter No Rest for a Weary Gardener 34 -- WHAT EXACTLY IS SOIL? 37 -- Cover It! Mulches and Cover Crops 39 -- A Menu of Organic Fertilizers Gourmet Treats to Build Your Soil 43 -- What Natives Know The Right Plants for the Right Places 45 -- Reading the Signs Gardening on Both Sides of the Brain 46 -- Sixteen Rules of Thumb for Zen Gardeners of the West Mindfulness in the Garden 47 -- THE SECRET LIVES OF PLANTS: SEX AND DEATH IN THE GARDEN 52 -- SECTION III STRATEGIC GARDENING how to grow pesto,salsa, and cherry pie Sandlots and Garden PlotsThe Best-Laid Plans 56 -- How to Become a Seed-Starting Maniac All It Takes Is Time and Care 57 -- In It for the Pie Fruit Trees and Fly-Fishing 63 -- Panning for Garlic A Western Gem 66 -- Don't Let Onions Make You Cry! Avoiding Harvest Heartbreak 69 -- Making Your Yard Look Good Enough to EatEdible Landscaping for High and Dry Yards 72 -- The Festival of Spears Asparagus-More than Just a Pretty Fern 75 -- How to Grow Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Planning a Meal Six Months Ahead 77 -- Plants that Like Each Other Companions in the Ground and on the Plate 80 -- Garden Pests I Have Known Brontosauruses in the Garden 83 -- How (and Why) to Grow Gourmet Salad Colorful Weeds and Other Delights 86.

Planting the Winter Garden Are We Crafty or Crazy? 89 -- Making Your Garden "International Soil" Nutrients from All over the World 92 -- The Snack Food Garden Guilt-free Indulgence 95 -- The Pea, an Early American TraditionIf Peas Could Talk 98 -- Learning the Language of Potatoes Sshhh-The Potatoes Are Sleeping 102 -- Fort Collins, Colorado: Artichoke Capital of the Rockies? And They Said It Couldn't Be Done 106 -- Winter Gardening with Cold Frames and Solar Pods Like Sailboats, They're Powered by Nature 109 -- Invite Herbs Indoors for the Winter But Don't Invite the Whiteflies 112 -- SECTION IV ORNAMENTALS FOR THE WEST flowers, trees, and shrubs that take a licking and keep on ticking Creating a Living Landscape at Harmony Village Community A Plant List f or High and Dry Places 118 -- Persistent Petals Perennial Flowers that Bloom More than a Month 121 -- Wintergreen Deciduous Green Shrubs for the Cold Months 124 -- Firecrackers in Your Flowerbed Petunias, a Celebration of Summer 127 -- Invasion of the Land Snatchers Public Enemies to Weed Out of Your Garden 131 -- Landscaping for Dollars and Sense Conserving Energy with Your Green Thumb 134 -- Notes from a Colorado Rain Forest Long-Lived House Plants for Your Living Room 138 -- Solving the Case of the Disappearing Dwarf Bulbs The Evidence May Point Back to Your Hose 141 -- Poinsettia Perfection A Second Year's Bloom, If You're Lucky 144 -- The Ancient Art of Flower Drying and Pressing Advice from Two Masters 147 -- And the Winners Are. . .Blue-Ribbon Choices from the Plant Select Program 150 -- Trees and Shrubs We Can Count On Champions of the High and Arid West 152 -- A Winter Tour of the Denver Botanic Gardens The Exotic (Inside) and the Hardy (Outside) 158.

SECTION V ZEN MASTERS OF THE WEST harvesting 500 years of Western gardening Experience Solar Greenhouses that Grow People Shane Smith's Cheyenne Botanic Garden 164 -- Images of an Heirloom Garden Bill Simpson's Golden Backyard 168 -- A Masterful Focus Mary Ellen Keskimaki's Precision Tips and Techniques 171 -- Farms the Size of Tennis Courts? John Jeavons' Vision of Biointensive Growing 176 -- 100 Short Years of Agricultural History Boulder's Basil King and Agricultural Geographer 180 -- Paradise by the Railroad Tracks Gardening as a Way of Life for Butcher Ray Oletski 182 -- Choose and Cut Keeping a Christmas Tradition Alive 185 -- Bringing the Farm to the Community, and the Community to the Farm Life at the Cresset Farm 188 -- A Dry Sense of Humor Jim Knopf's Waterwise Garden Tips 190 -- No Expectations, No Blame Pat Baker's High-Altitude Rock Garden 195 -- Wizards of Seed Ken Vetting, Third-Generation Seed Merchant 200 -- Gardens for People, Gardens for PeaceConverting Knives to Garden Trowels 203 -- Recommended Reading 208 -- Resources for Seeds and Supplies 210 -- Index 212 -- About the Author 220.