Book excerpt: In A Brief History of Gardening, Harvard graduate and gardener Neil Fairbairn chronicles more than 8,500 years of gardening with wit and irreverence. Fairbairn's gift for story-telling is evident throughout this engaging glimpse at the history of seed-sowing throughout the world, beginning in 6500 B.C. to the year 2000 and beyond. The book's nine chapters are arranged chronologically and are comprised of short, informative entries covering a particular person, event, or movement important to gardening. Readers will learn: -- The first evidence of conservation dates from 2700 B.C. China, where an agricultural document taught that "mountains exhausted of forests are washed bare by torrents" -- The Kama Sutra directed virtuous women in A.D. 350 to keep a garden, perhaps to work up an appetite for the other activities detailed in the text -- England in 1597 did not take kindly to the American tomato, believing it to be not only poisonous but also "of ranke and stinking savor" More than 250 full-color photographs and illustrations grace the entries, and each chapter contains a two-page timeline that gives readers a sense of movement through history. Pairing an elegant, clean design with a lively tone, A Brief History of Gardening is a beautiful and entertaining guide sure to be picked up again and again.