This passionate gardener's daily record of a growing season adds up to one of the best pieces of garden writing in years. But this book is about much more than planting, tending, and harvesting a vegetable garden. It's about all the things that influence this gardener: the weather, the neighborhood, his wife's possibly recurring cancer, the changing nature of the academic community; it's about the last months of his twenty-year-old cat, about his dog, and about all the other humans and animals in his gardening world. And about his family: the aunts and uncles who cared for and fed a six-year-old orphan and instilled in him the understanding that good food was a way of knowing that someone cared. In all the gardens he has tended, the dills he has pickled, and the dinners he has cooked, Klaus has tried to carry on that tradition and pass it on to his own children. No reader will come away from My Vegetable Love untouched by the humor, the lyrical quality of the writing, and above all the
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Home gardeners, cooks and nature lovers will savor this delightful account of the 1995 growing season in Iowa. Klaus, director of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa, kept a daily record, March through November, of his large vegetable garden. Spring in Iowa City was unusually cold and wet; Klaus depended heavily on row covers to protect his young plants. Summer brought heat, drought and "critters"?squirrels, woodchucks, opossums and deer. Then, a bountiful harvest that extends to Thanksgiving. The book goes beyond tending a garden; Klaus interweaves personal details and concerns of his daily life: he writes about neighbors, his wife's probable recurring cancer, the last weeks leading to the death of his 20-year-old cat, generational conflicts in his department at the university and the meals he concocts from his vegetable bounty. Delectable.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Klaus, an experienced gardener and director of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa, took a research leave in 1994 to write about his vegetable gardening activities in Iowa City from March through November. Explaining why he gardens, Klaus records daily not only the planting, tending, and harvesting of his garden but also the everyday human influences (family, colleagues, friends, pets) that often affect a gardener. For Klaus, vegetable gardening is part of a daily routine that links many experiences in the life of a writer, husband, and father. This thoughtful book is recommended for popular gardening collections.?Dale Luchsinger, Athens Area Technical Inst., Ga.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable Read,
By JacksonsMom "knarlee1" (New England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season (Bur Oak Book) (Paperback)
In this book, Carl Klaus keeps a daily journal during one growing season in his home garden in Iowa. In addition to gardening, he also touches upon his marriage, his wife's cancer, his impending retirement and his neighbors/community.
As a reader who can't get enough information on gardening, I really appreciated this longtime gardener's bits of wisdom. I find it fascinating to read not only about what and how he plants, but the mouthwatering meals he and his wife cook from those plants. I think his passages on retirement would resonate much more with someone facing that issue. I had a hard time relating to that part of the book. Overall, I have really enjoyed this book and have made so many gardening notes all over it you can barely see the pages.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Used Book from Amazon,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season (Hardcover)
Quick shipping. Book arrived just as it was described. This was a great read especially for my wife and I as we are gardeners.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and full of the author's experiences, good and bad,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season (Hardcover)
This is a fun read by a dedicated gardener. It's a fun way to learn growing dos and dont's by someone who really knows.
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