I own tons of books about “plants” and a decent selection of books about “landscaping” but I’ve never dug as deep as I would like into the literature of “gardening.” When Carol started her book club for Garden Bloggers, I hoped that I might remedy this. Unfortunately I’ve mostly been disappointed by what I’ve read.

I thought Michael Pollan’s book Second Nature might be an exception. I read and was delighted by The Botany of Desire several years ago, and have also enjoyed his occasional articles in the New York Times and elsewhere. I put this book on my “desired” list at the online book exchange I use, and by a happy coincidence it showed up in my mail box just as it was announced as the month’s selection for Garden Bloggers.

Pollan is certainly a very witty and clever wordsmith. His accounts of early gardening experiences via his father and grandfather never failed to entertain, as did his channeling of Elmer Fudd in the chapter wherein he fights off garden pests with a firebomb. You could think of it as an updated version of “Green Acres” in which a naive city boy moves…