Book excerpt: From Smith & Hawken, and now with a striking new cover, here is a book that offers a distinctly American approach to the art, craft, and pastime of gardening. Embracing British perennial beds, French intensive techniques, antique roses, heirloom vegetables, alternative lawns, and a bedrock philosophy of working with-not against-the ecosystem, this illustrated organic gardener's bible includes a 350-entry color plant guide and is written for all North American regions and hardiness zones. Readers will learn how to feed the dirt, achieve good tilth, create and use compost. How to plant in contours, manage water, plant outdoors. How to work with plants that not only come back every year, but bloom early and long, smell great, and even provide a pleasing silhouette in winter. There are sections on tools and gear, grooming and deadheading, winterizing and ornamenting the garden; digging and planting; propagating garden plants from seed; the secrets of maintenance. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's Country Homes & Gardens Club, the Newbridge Garden Book Club, and the Rodale Book Club. Over 140,000 copies in print.