The Gardener's Gripe Book: Musings, Advice and Comfort for Anyone Who Has Ever Suffered the Loss of a Petunia

by Abby Adams

Perennials that behave like annuals, gone within a year or two. Lettuce that bolts right when you're in the mood for a salad. Deer, hedgehogs, slugs, and bugs. And then, all the know-it-alls who tell you how easy it is. Gardening may be America's most popular leisure activity, but it is also the most frustrating, aggravating, and time-consuming-by no means the simple idyll-with-dirt sold by gardening gurus. As lifelong gardener Abby Adams points out in her tongue-in-cheek book, you can't trust the experts, nothing looks like it does in magazines and catalogs, trends change more often than hemlines, and Mother Nature always wins. Literate, funny, studded with quotes and ironic observations, here is a series of honest takes on dozens of subjects that all gardeners will relate to.

Genres: Gardening, Reference

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 1995

Reviews

[Jake B-Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 — a genuinely funny book that sometimes tried too hard to be witty. I will say this for Abby Adams: she has written a book that is unlike the 20+ garden books I have read. She unflinchingly describes the process of trial and error that gets airbrushed by other gardening books. Gardening is failure punctuated by delight and startling successes.

This book also an interesting portal into the 1990s. I’m glad that acid rain is no longer a problem!

[Helen-Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing and interesting book. A birthday present from my sister, to read on a plane trip. Highly amusing, though don't read it expecting it to teach much about gardening! Copyright 1995, but am sure it is just as much fun now as it was then.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a light-hearted look at gardening!!!

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If gardening is a passion and you've been successful at killing the most hardy of those in the plant world, you will enjoy this well written guide for the amateur horticulturist.

[Connie Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and oh so true.

[Deidra . · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny :)