From the Ground Up: The Story of A First Garden

Algonquin Books, 2001. Hardcover. A memoir about Stewart's first garden in Santa Cruz. It ends with her digging up her favorite plants, putting her worm bin (loaded with thousands of worms) into her car, and moving to Humboldt. Kirkus Reviews called it "a rich feast of a book that celebrates the extraordinarily satisfying joys of making and keeping a garden" Makes a great housewarming present or gift for beginning gardeners!

"A treasure trove of delightful stories, filled with wit, wisdom, and know-how for all gardens--a rare horticultural treat." --Carl H. Klaus, author of My Vegetable Love and Weathering Winter

Amy Stewart had a simple dream. She yearned for a garden filled with colorful jumbles of vegetables and flowers. After she and her husband finished graduate school, they pulled up their Texas roots and headed west to Santa Cruz, California. With little money in their pockets, they rented a modest seaside bungalow with a small backyard. It wasn't much--a twelve-hundred-square-foot patch of land with a couple of fruit trees, and a lot of dirt. A good place to start.

From the Ground Up is Stewart's quirky, humorous chronicle of the blossoms and weeds in her first garden and the lessons she's learned the hard way. From planting seeds her great-grandmother sends to battling snails, gophers, and aphids, Stewart takes us on a tour of four seasons in her coastal garden. Confessing her sins and delighting in small triumphs, she dishes the dirt for both the novice and the experienced gardener. Along the way, she brings her quintessential California beach town to life--complete with harbor seals, monarch butterfly migrations, and an old-fashioned seaside amusement park just down the street.

Each chapter includes helpful tips alongside the engaging story of a young woman's determination to create a garden in which the plants struggle to live up to the gardener's vision.