Garden literature, like gardening itself, can be a great source of comedy and semi-tragedy, furnishing scope for the full range of human emotions. This is a collection of wit, wisdom and whimsical humour including literary contributions from Victor Hugo, Dylan Thomas, P.G. Wodehouse and others.

While researching in Nantes, a port city enriched by the slave trade, celebrated French novelist Fabienne Kanor came across a chilling report written in 1774 by the commander of a slave ship, Le Soleil. Captain Louis Mosnier recounted the loss of valuable "cargo" when fourteen African women escaped from the ship’s hold to leap overboard rather than face enslavement. Half of them drowned or were eaten by sharks. From this tragic incident, Kanor has composed a powerful, polyphonic novel in which each woman tells her own vivid story. Their disparate lives from differing cultures, conditions, and perspectives intersect through their violent mistreatment, profound sense of disorientation, and collective act of resistance. These intertwined narratives reveal the brutalizing effects of slavery, not only on the victim but also on the oppressor: the master can no more escape its dehumanizing effects than can the slave.

Includes information on composting's history; tips on equipment; tips for difficult climes; composting indoors; making humus in small spaces; and using compost in the garden.

“Those who lament that the novel has lost its prophecy should pay heed and cover-price: Muck is the future, both of Jerusalem and of literature. God is showing some rare good taste, by choosing to speak to us through Dror Burstein.” —Joshua Cohen, author of Moving Kings and Book of Numbers In a Jerusalem both ancient and modern, where the First Temple squats over the populace like a Trump casino, where the streets are literally crawling with prophets and heathen helicopters buzz over Old Testament sovereigns, two young poets are about to have their lives turned upside down. Struggling Jeremiah is worried that he might be wasting his time trying to be a writer; the great critic Broch just beat him over the head with his own computer keyboard. Mattaniah, on the other hand, is a real up-and-comer—but he has a secret he wouldn’t want anyone in the literary world to know: his late father was king of Judah. Jeremiah begins to despair, and in that despair has a vision: that Jerusalem is doomed, and that Mattaniah will not only be forced to ascend to the throne but will thereafter witness his people slaughtered and exiled. But what does it mean to tell a friend and rival that his future is bleak? What sort of grudges and biases turn true vision into false prophecy? Can the very act of speaking a prediction aloud make it come true? And, if so, does that make you a seer, or just a schmuck? Dramatizing the eternal dispute between poetry and power, between faith and practicality, between haves and have-nots, Dror Burstein’s Muck is a brilliant and subversive modern-dress retelling of the book of Jeremiah: a comedy with apocalyptic stakes by a star of Israeli fiction.

"In this breakthrough work--now available in English for the first time--the independent German-Norwegian explorer of soil life, graduate permaculture designer and graduate engineer Herwig Pommeresche shares his lifetime of research into humus. His entire career has focused on the theory and practice of humus management in gardening and farming. Digging deep into a myriad of little-known research papers, he compares their findings with the usual conventional methods. He found we have an inadequate understanding of the mechanisms by which plants absorb and process their nutrients. Our conventional model is that plants only get nutrients in the form of water-soluble salts, hence common conventional fertilizers. Fertilization methods in agriculture and horticulture have been based on this model, which the author calls "mineral model," since the mid-nineteenth century. They largely have not been questioned since then despite the problems they cause. But there are also works by scientists--decades deep research--which have found a completely different form of plant nutrition. Plants can, in simple terms, by "eversion" of their fine root cells take larger food particles and transport it inside the cell. They can also take up larger molecules and even entire cells--and this is what's interesting--even in living form, a process known as endocytosis, a phenomenon long known in zoology and microbiology. Too little is known that this is also practiced by higher plants. Understanding plants nutrient uptake and the role of humus in the process will put modern agricultural practice to the test."--Back cover.

Recounts the author's experiences founding a faith-based community garden in rural North Carolina, and emphasizes how growing one's own food can help readers reconnect with the land and divine faith.