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Washington Post
"...perfect for spring."
Santa
Cruz Metro
Thursday, February 22, 2001
In
her first book, From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, author
Amy Stewart describes with humorous flair the creation, in a small Santa
Cruz backyard, of a garden that at times acts like both wise teacher
and unruly child. Stewart is eager to grow things in her new home--she
and her husband moved to California after completing graduate school
in their native Texas--and her book
is a witty, instructive memoir of her
encounters with the pleasures and pitfalls of starting a new garden from
scratch. It is also an insightful portrait of Santa Cruz.
Barnes & Noble—Discover
Writer Selection
Amy Stewart has
written a delightful, heartfelt gem of a memoir. [Read
the entire review]
San
Jose Mercury News
Friday, January 12, 2001
"In From
the Ground Up, [Amy] Stewart shares the highs and lows of making
things grow and also brings
her Santa Cruz community to life."
Garden
Design
(Dec-Jan Issue)
"An amusing tale..."
Carl
Klaus
(author of My Vegetable Love, Weathering Winter, and Taking
Retirement)
"A
treasure trove of
delightful stories, filled with wit, wisdom, and know-how for all gardeners—a
rare horticultural treat."
Barbara
Damrosch
(author of The Garden Primer and Theme Gardens)
"An
adventure story, charmingly
told, in which a young woman
is bitten by the gardening bug, tills her plot for the sheer joy of it,
and emerges with her own personal gardening style."
Book
List
"...a first book
filled with promise..."
San Diego Union Tribune
May 6, 2001
Every gardener has a first garden, and like
most beginners, they experience a heady mix of highs -- the roses bloom
-- and lows -- snails eat every single carrot seedling. Amy Stewart was
no exception, but unlike many novices, the native Texan kept a diary of
her efforts to make the land around her Santa Cruz cottage bloom. That
yearlong chronicle is now a
charming, humorous book..." |
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Idaho Statesman
Sunday, January 7, 2001
"...the
perfect book for the armchair winter gardener. Charmingly
told, this is the story of a first-time gardener and her journey through
all the mishaps and discoveries common to all who have ever been bitten
by the gardening bug."
Sacramento
Bee
Sunday, February 3, 2001
"An
immensely readable book about
learning, creating, and enjoying the garden—and life."
Library
Journal
"How-to
gardening books about; how-not-to gardening memoirs are rarer....Along
with witty descriptions of her mistakes, the author shares her solutions.
She gives beginning gardeners tips on making earthworm manure, improving
the soil by sheet composting, encouraging beneficial insects, and sharing
excess produce with neighbors. Written
in a humorous, conversational style, this book is recommended for public
libraries."
Nashville
Tennessean
Sunday, January 7, 2001
"From
the Ground Up, tells Amy Stewart's highs and lows of making things
grow in a quirky
and humorous way."
Pat
Stone
(Editor, GreenPrints)
"Every
gardener starts out blissfully innocent--and woefully ignorant. Amy Stewart
lets us share her journey through all the mishaps and discoveries of
gardeners and makes the trip informative, honest, enjoyable, totally
worthwhile, and, at times, outright
hilarious"
Bridgewater,
NJ Forecast
December 2000
"Describes
how a dream of creating her first garden was transformed by hard work,
determination, and difficult lessons into a beautiful plot of land and
how a year of planting seeds, battling pests, weeding, watering, and
composting changes her into an enthusiastic gardener."
AZCentral.com
"My Big Mouth" by Laurie Notaro
"...To
tell you the truth, I wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of reading
[From the Ground Up]. The story of a first garden didn't exactly get
my literary saliva glands pumping, and I was sure I was going to be
bored to death.
Boy was I wrong.
For anyone
who's ever watched a flower that they planted bloom, for anyone who's
ever harvested their first tomato, for anyone who's ever held onto a houseplant
for more than a month, not only will you find this book a
good read, it will almost enchant you."
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